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FATIGUE    AND 
EFFICIENCY 

A  STUDY  IN  INDUSTRY 

By 
JOSEPHINE   GOLDMARK 

PUBLICATION    SECRETARY    NATIONAL    CONSUMERS*    LEAGUE 


INTRODUCTION 

5y  Frederic  S.  Lee,  Ph.D. 


CONTAINING  ALSO  THE  SUBSTANCE 
OF  FOUR  BRIEFS  IN  DEFENSE  OF 
WOMEN'S  LABOR  LAWS  BY  LOUIS  D. 
BRANDEIS  AND  JOSEPHINE  GOLDMARK 


NEW      YORK 
CHARITIES       PUBLICATION 
COMMITTEE       .       .       MCMXII 


Copyright,  1912,  by 
The  Russell  Sage  Foundation 


PRESS    OF    WM.    F.    FELL    CO. 
PHILADELPHIA 


INTRODUCTION 

AS  1  turn  from  m_\' laborator_\' to  consider  in  what  words 
Z-\  I  ma\-  fitting!}-  introduce  Miss  Goldmark's  admirable 
^  ^  book,  two  thoughts  that  have  often  been  with  me 
come  to  me  again.  The  first  is,  that  among  the  man\'  condi- 
tions of  human  hfe  which  ma\-  be  classed  as  causes  of  miser}', 
there  is  none  more  potent  than  the  failure  of  men  to  live  in 
accordance  with  physiological  laws.  Many  men  fail  so  to 
live  because  of  ignorance;  mian}'  for  the  reason  that  even 
though  knowledge  be  present,  desire  is  defeated  by  the  fact 
that  within  their  chosen  sphere  of  labor  the}'  are  not  free 
agents.  If  this  cause  of  misery  is  to  be  removed,  there  is 
needed  first  of  all  a  knowledge  of  what  is  physiological. 

Like  other  men  of  science,  the  physiologist  is  too  often 
content  to  spend  his  timie  in  seeking,  to  which  is  added  the 
occasional  greater  pleasure  of  finding.  He  tells  his  dis- 
coveries to  his  colleagues  in  the  language  common  to  both, 
but  too  often  he  does  not  interpret  them  to  the  people;  and 
thus  he  lets  the  world  at  large  remain  in  its  ignorance  and 
miser}'.  Even  more  rarely  does  he  venture  to  instruct  those 
who  shape  the  conditions  under  which  multitudes  of  the  people 
live.  But  he  gladl}'  welcomes  the  services  of  those  individuals 
who  understand  physiological  laws  and  their  bearing  upon 
human  life,  and  are  capable  of  bringing  this  knowledge  con- 
vincingly home  to  those  who  are  most  in  need  of  it. 

The  second  thought  that  comes  back  to  me  is  this: 
Industriahsm  has  been  quick  to  accept  the  achievements  of 
science  in  inanimate  things,  but  slow  to  recognize  the  teach- 
ings of  ph}'siology  with  regard  to  the  man  himself.  Methods 
and  machines  have  been  revolutionized,  but  the  human  ele- 
ment has  not  }'et  been  eliminated.  The  man  or  wom.an  or 
child  is  still  essential  to  the  method  and  the  machine,  and 
while  the  inanimate  agent  demands  more  and  more  of  him, 
his  fundamental  physiological  powers  are  probably  not  so 
very  different  from  what  they  were  when  he  built  the  p}'ra- 
mids  and  made  pap}'rus.     He  may  sharpen  his  attention, 


VI  INTRODUCTION 

shorten  his  reaction  time,  and  develop  manual  skill;  scientific 
management  may  step  in  and  direct  his  powers  more  intelli- 
gently; but  sooner  or  later  his  physiological  limit  is  again 
reached  on  the  new  plane.  Try  as  we  will  we  cannot  get 
away  from  the  fact  that  so  long  as  machines  need  men, 
physiological  laws  must  be  reckoned  with  as  a  factor  in  in- 
dustrialism. 

These  general  principles  are  well  illustrated  by  a  con- 
sideration of  fatigue.  Fatigue  is  a  potent  physiological 
state  which  enters  into  all  human  activities.  In  its  normal 
manifestation  it  is  a  warning.  If  the  warning  is  not  heeded, 
the  condition  may  become  pathological,  and  that  is  a  sign  of 
something  serious.  This  remarkable  mechanism  of  ours, 
the  human  body,  is  capable  of  meeting  enormous  demands 
upon  itself — it  is  long  resistant  to  abuse.  But  if  work  is 
done,  rest  is  ultimately  imperative.  Work  and  rest  indeed 
are  as  close  coordinates  as  are  light  and  darkness.  Without 
the  one  the  other  is  destruction.  Much  remains  to  be  dis- 
covered of  fatigue  and  rest,  and  especially  as  to  their  rela- 
tions in  industrialism,  but  enough  is  already  known  to  make 
clear  that  such  knowledge  ought  to  be  recognized  in  and 
applied  to  the  rational  industrial  procedure  of  the  future. 
There  is  nothing  more  pathetic  than  to  see  an  employer  dis- 
regard the  laws  of  physiology,  use  his  helper  to  the  break- 
ing point,  and  then  cast  him  aside. 

Miss  Goldmark  has  performed  a  helpful  task  well. 
She  is  fortunate  in  possessing  a  knowledge  both  of  physio- 
logical laws  and  of  the  conditions  of  industrial  labor.  Her 
keen  vision,  her  intelligent  sympathy,  her  capacity  for  critical 
analysis,  and  her  apt  power  of  expression  are  effectively 
united  in  this  book.  She  has  made  a  powerful  plea  for  the 
alleviation  on  rational,  scientific  grounds  of  human  misery 
in  one  sphere  of  its  manifestation,  and  she  deserves  the  appre- 
ciation and  gratitude  of  all  who  are  interested  in  the  promo- 
tion of  human  efficiency. 

Frederic  S.  Lee 

Columbia  University 
April  2,  1912 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

ALMOST  five  years  have  elapsed  since  I  first  undertook, 
as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  the  Legal  Defense 
Lof  Labor  Laws  of  the  National  Consumers'  League, 
to  prepare  the  first  of  the  briefs  contained  in  Part  II  of 
this  volume. 

I  have  related  in  Part  I,  from  the  lay  point  of  view,  a 
variety  of  technical  matters,  physiological,  economic,  and 
legal.  In  the  desire  to  cite  concrete  particulars  in  support 
of  all  general  or  abstract  statements,  much  space  has  been 
given  to  illustrations  from  contemporary  industrial  life. 
And  since  these  matters  are  for  the  most  part  still  contro- 
versial, effort  has  been  made  to  give,  in  the  footnotes,  the 
confirming  documentary  authorities.  Wherever  it  has  been 
necessary  to  choose  between  public  or  private  research  in 
describing  facts,  preference  has  been  shown  to  the  reports  of 
government  investigation,  since  they  are  usually  held  to  be 
the  more  impersonal  records. 

I  have  endeavored  throughout  to  steer  a  middle  course 
between  the  technical  and  the  popular,  aiming  to  pursue 
the  technical  arguments  only  so  far  as  they  are  essential  for 
serious  discussion,  without  involving  the  reader  in  technical 
intricacies  needed  only  by  the  specialist. 

This  was  the  principle  followed  also  in  preparing  the 
material  for  Part  1 1  which  was  originally  contained  in  various 
briefs.  The  initial  suggestion  so  to  present  the  world's  ex- 
perience regarding  women's  hours  of  labor,  in  defense  of  the 
first  woman's  labor  law  before  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  came  from  Mr.  Louis  D.  Brandeis.  I  have  described 
in  Chapter  IX  his  connection  with  these  briefs.  They  were 
prepared  under  his  personal  direction,  and  have  been  used  by 
him  in  the  successful  defense  of  various  state  laws  limiting 
women's  hours  of  labor.     A  special  fund  was  raised  by  the 


viii  author's  preface 

National  Consumers'  League  to  meet  the  heavy  expense  of 
printing  briefs  of  such  large  compass.  They  are  reprinted 
here  to  meet  a  steady  demand  for  documents  in  a  sense 
historical,  from  colleges  and  libraries,  as  well  as  from  persons 
engaged  in  the  more  practical  business  of  securing  labor 
legislation.  The  briefs  are  reprinted  substantially  intact,  as 
they  were  submitted  to  the  courts;  for  while,  taken  sepa- 
rately, they  contain  evidence  and  opinions  of  unequal  worth, 
yet  their  main  value  consists  in  precisely  the  cumulative  testi- 
mony and  the  unconscious  unanimities  of  experience  revealed. 

Thanks  are  due  to  many  persons  for  their  assistance  in 
collecting  the  widely  scattered  material  contained  in  the 
briefs.  The  Russell  Sage  Foundation  cooperated  with  the 
National  Consumers'  League,  supplying  the  funds  for  a 
small  staff  of  readers,  who  under  my  direction  covered  a 
literature  of  wide  but  uncharted  range.  I  am  glad  to  ac- 
knowledge here  the  valuable  assistance  of  Miss  L.  L.  Dock, 
R.  N.,  whose  technical  knowledge  enabled  her  to  supply 
most  of  the  translations  from  French  and  German  authorities 
quoted  in  the  briefs.  Dr.  Ira  P.  Wile  of  New  York  kindly 
read  all  of  the  scientific  authorities  quoted  in  the  briefs,  and 
gave  the  benefit  of  his  advice  in  the  choice  of  such  material. 
For  access  to  the  scattered  files  of  European  reports,  and  for 
other  courtesies,  1  am  indebted  to  several  libraries,  chief 
among  them  the  Library  of  Columbia  University,  the  Library 
of  Congress  at  Washington,  and  the  Library  of  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor.  To  Dr.  Zacher,  of  the  German 
Imperial  Insurance  Office,  1  am  indebted  for  material  not 
otherwise  easily  accessible. 

In  writing  the  text  of  Part  1 — a  task  which  has  been 
necessarily  interrupted  by  the  various  cases  and  legislative 
work  arising  within  the  past  four  years — 1  have  been  con- 
stantly aided,  in  untold  ways,  by  Mr.  Brandeis'  generous 
and  stimulating  counsel,  v/ithout  which  this  book  would 
not  have  been  undertaken,  and  for  which  1  am  more  in  his 
debt  than  these  poor  words  can  express. 

I  am  under  great  obligations  to  Dr.  Frederic  S.  Lee, 
Dalton  Professor  of  Physiology  at  Columbia  University,  for 


AUTHOR  S    PREFACE  IX 

taking  time,  in  the  midst  of  his  scientific  activities,  to  read 
all  the  proof  sheets  of  my  text  and  to  give  the  benefit  of 
his  criticisms  in  the  field  of  which  he  is  a  master. 

The  manuscript  was  read  also  by  two  other  persons — 
my  sister,  Pauline  Goldmark,  and  Mrs.  Florence  Kelley. 
To  both  1  am  indebted  for  valuable  criticism.  To  Mrs. 
Kelley  I  owe  gratitude  also  for  years  of  the  most  generous 
association  in  the  work  of  the  National  Consumers'  League, 
and  for  the  stimulus  of  that  pure  spirit  of  justice  towards  all 
mankind  of  which  she  is,  as  it  were,  a  voice  and  an  embodi- 
ment. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 
PART   I 

PAGE 

Introduction.     By  Frederic  S.  Lee,  Ph. D v 

Author's  Preface vii 

I.  Introductory 3 

II.  The  Nature  of  Fatigue 9 

1.  One  Factor  in  Fatigue:   Accumulation  of  Waste  Products   .  11 

2.  The  Measurement  of  Muscular  Fatigue 14 

(a)  In  animals 14 

(b)  In  man 18 

3.  Another  Factor  in  Fatigue:   Consumption  of  Energy-Yield- 

ing Substance 20 

(a)  The    Chemistry    of    Muscular  Contraction:     How 

Glycogen  is  Supplied  and  Consumed        ...  21 

(b)  How  Oxygen  is  Supplied  for  Muscular  Contraction     .  23 

4.  The  Nature  of  the  Fatigue  Products 25 

5.  The  Nature  of  Nervous  Fatigue 27 

(a)  The  Nervous  System,  Central  and  Peripheral     .        .  28 

(b)  The  Location  of  Nervous  Fatigue 29 

6.  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  Working  Capacity 33 

(a)  Work  Continued  Under  Fatigue  Costs  More  Effort  .  33 

(b)  The  Nature  of  Training 35 

7.  The  Greater  Morbidity  of  Women   .        .        ...        .        .39 

III.  The  New  Strain  IN  Industry 43 

1.  Speed  and  Complexity .  43 

(a)  The  Telephone  Service 43 

(b)  Speed  in  the  Needle  Trades 53 

(c)  The  Textile  Industry 56 

2.  Monotony 58 

(a)  The  Canneries 59 

xi 


XII 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 


[V. 


V. 


(b)  Shoe  Making    . 

3.  Physiology  of  Monotony    . 

4.  Noise 

5.  Fatigue  and  Industrial  Accidents 

6.  Rhythm 

7.  Piece-Work 

8.  Overtime 


Some    Specific     Studies     of     Physical     Overstrain     in 
Industry       

1.  Infant  Mortality 

2.  Low  Birth  Rate 

3.  Race  Degeneration 

4.  Lack  of  Information  in  the  United  States 

5.  Medical  Study  of  Working  People  in  Fore 

Societies 

6.  The  Increase  of  Nervous  Disorders  . 

7.  General  Predisposition  to  Disease     . 

8.  A  New  Medical  Scrutiny  of  Overwork 

9.  Opportunities  for  Such  Study  in  the  United  States 


gn 


Insurance 


64 
67 
68 
71 
79 
82 
84 


90 
91 
95 
97 
100 

101 
103 
111 
112 
115 


Aspect    of    Regulation:     Fatigue    and    Out- 


Economic 

PUT 121 

1.  General  Experience  in  England 123 

2.  General  Experience  in  the  United  States        ....  131 

3.  An  Experimental  Study  of  Output 133 

4.  The  Experience  of  the  Salford  Iron  Works  at  Manchester, 

England 138 

5.  The  Experience  of  the  Engis  Chemical  Works  near  Liege, 

Belgium 144 

6.  The  Experience  of  the  Zeiss  Optical  Works  at  Jena, Germany  155 

7.  The  Trend  Toward  Shorter  Hours  in  the  United  States      .  166 


VI.  Regularity    of    Employment:      Fatigue    and    Overtime 
Work 

1.  Overtime  as  a  Separate  Issue 

2.  Overtime  and  Regularity   . 

3.  Efforts  to  Equalize  Seasons 

4.  The  Adaptation  of  Customers  . 

5.  The  Policy  of  Persuasion  by  Consumers 

6.  The  Legal  Prohibition  of  Overtime  . 


174 
174 
176 
177 
179 
181 
183 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS  XUl 

PAGE 

VII.  The   New   Science   of    Management:     its    Relation    to 

Human  Energies 191 

1.  Differences  Between   Ordinary  Speeding-up  and  the  New 

System 192 

2.  Benefits  of  the  New  System 200 

3.  Dangers  of  the  New  System 202 

4.  Scientific  Management  and  Collective  Bargaining  .        .        .  207 

VIII.  The  Enforcement  OF  Labor  Laws 210 

1.  The  Rigid  Law:  Historical  Development  in  Massachusetts.   211 

2.  The  Rigid  Law:  Historical  Development  in  Great   Britain    215 

3.  The  Elastic  Law:  Historical  Development  in  Great  Britain  217 

4.  Elastic  Laws  in  the  United  States 222 

5.  Two  Tests  of  Efficiency 227 

(a)  The  Annual  Report 227 

(b)  The  Observation  of  Health  in   Industrial  Establish- 

ments       232 

6.  Some  Technical  Requirements  in  Factory  Inspection   .        .   235 

IX.  Labor  Laws  and  the  Courts      .        . 241 

1.  The  Police  Power 241 

2.  The  "Freedom  of  Contract"  Theory       .  .        .   242 

The  First  Ritchie  Case 243 

The  Case  of  Holden  v.  Hardy 244 

The  Lochner  Case 245 

The  Williams  Case  and  its  Challenge 246 

The  Oregon  Case  and  a  New  Line  of  Defense.  .        .        .  250 

The  Second  Ritchie  Case 252 

3.  The  Distinctions  of  Sex 252 

4.  The  Question  of  Discrimination 256 

X.  Prohibition    of   Women's    Night   Work:    a    Prime    Ne- 
cessity   258 

1.  The  International  Convention  on  Night  Work  .   258 

2.  The  Case  Against  Night  Work  Abroad 264 

3.  Night  Work  in  the  United  States     .  .        .        .        .268 

XI.  Conclusion 277 

Index 288 


XIV 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


PART  II 

The  World's  Experience  upon  which  Legislation  Limiting 
THE  Hours  of  Labor  for  Women  is  Based 


I.  The  Dangers  of  Long  Hours 

A.  Causes 

(1)  Physical  DilTerences  Between  Men  and  Women. 

(2)  The  Greater  Morbidity  among  Women 

(a)  General  Morbidity 

(b)  Duration  of  Illness  Greater  Among  Women 

(c)  Continuance  at  Work  during  Illness 

(d)  Mortality      .... 

(3)  The  New  Strain  in  Manufacture. 

(a)  Speed 

(b)  Monotony     .... 

(c)  Piece-work    .... 

B.  The  Nature  and  Effects  of  Fatigue 

(1)  General  Medical  Views  of  Fatigue 

(2)  The  Toxin  of  Fatigue    . 

(3)  Nervous  Fatigue     .... 

(4)  Muscular  Fatigue  .... 

(5)  The  Greater  Strain  on  Fatigued  Muscles 

(6)  The  Physiological  Function  of  Rest    . 

(a)  Rest  Needed  to  Repair  Expenditure  of  Energy 

(b)  Rest  Needed  to  Repair  the  Deficit  of  Oxygen 

(c)  Adequacy  of  Resting  Time  Allowed  between 

Working  Hours 

L   In  Ordinary  Work 

2.   In  Work    Involving  Absorption   of   In- 
jurious Substances. 

C.  Bad  Effects  of  Long  Hours  on  Health  .... 

(1)  General  Injuries  to  Health 

(2)  Injuries  to  the  Female  Functions  and  Childbirth 

(3)  Injuries  to  the  Feet  and  Legs  from  Long  Standing 

(4)  Injuries  to  Eyesight       .... 

(5)  Injuries  to  Other  Organs 

(6)  Relation  between  Fatigue  and  Diseases 

(a)  General  Predisposition 

(b)  Fatigue  and  Infectious  Diseases 


PAGE 
1 
1 
1 

10 
10 
15 
20 
23 
26 
26 
42 
48 
52 
52 
64 
69 
80 
88 
93 
93 
103 

111 
111 

114 
116 
116 

135 
142 
148 
151 
155 
155 
161 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS  XV 

PAGE 

(c)  Liability  of  Working  People  to  Nervous  Dis- 

eases   163 

(d)  Nervous  Diseases  and  Statistics  of   Foreign 

Sickness  Insurance  Societies  ....  169 

(e)  Ages  of  Incidence 181 

(f)  Nervous  Disease  and  Heredity .        .        .        .  183 

(g)  Nervous  Diseases  and  Overstimulation   .        .  185 
(h)  Fatigue  and  Nervous  Diseases  ....  188 

D.  Bad  Effect  of  Long  Hours  on  Safety 192 

(1)  Incidence  of  Accidents 192 

(2)  Fatigue  of  Attention 213 

E.  Bad  Effect  of  Fatigue  upon  Morals 220 

(1)  General  Loss  of  Moral  Restraints        .        .        .        .221 

(2)  Growth  of  Intemperance 227- 

F.  Bad  Effect  of  Long  Hours  on  General  Welfare    .        .        .   236 

(1)  State's  Need  of  Preserving  Health      ....  236 

(2)  State's  Need  of  Preserving  Health  of  Women  .        .  246 

(3)  The  Double  Burden  of  Working  Women   .        .        .  252 

(4)  Effect  of  Woman's  Overwork  on  Future  Generations  260 

(5)  Infant  Mortality 269 

(6)  Race  Degeneration 276 

11,  Benefits  of  Short  Hours 286 

A.  Good  Effect  on  Morals:  Growth  of  Temperance   .        .        .  286 

B.  Good  Effect  on  General  Welfare 290 

(1)  General  Benefit  to  Society 290 

(2)  Benefit  of  Leisure  and  Recreation       ....   302 

(3)  Special  Benefit  of  Evening  Leisure  for  Family  Life, 

Education,  etc 310 

III.  Shorter  Hours  the  only  Possible  Protection        .        .        .  317 

A.  Overlong  Hours  make  Lightest  Work  Injurious.        .        .  317 

B.  The  Remedy:  Shorter  Hours 323 

C.  The  Method:  Legislation 328 

IV.  Economic  Aspect  of  Regulation 339 

A.  General  Benefit  to  Commercial  Prosperity   ....  339 

B.  Effect  on  Output 345 

(1)  Shorter  Hours  Increase  Efficiency  and  thus  Result 

in  Superior  Output 346 

(2)  Long  Hours  Reduce  Efficiency  and  thus  Result  in 

Inferior  Output 375 

C.  Incentive  to  Improvements  in  Manufacture         .        .        .  384 

D.  Effect  on  Scope  of  Women's  Work 387 


XVI 


V. 


VI. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 

PAGE 

E.  Effect  on  Women's  Wages 395 

F.  Adaptation  of  Customers  to  Shorter  Hours  ....  407 
Uniformity  of  Restriction 411 

A.  Allowance  of  Overtime  Dangerous  to  Health  .        .  411 

(1)  The  Excessive  Length  of  Hours 411 

(2)  Evening  Work  in  Addition  to  Day  Work  .  .  417 

(3)  Injury  from  Gas  and  Bad  Air 194 

(4)  Lack  of  Sleep 422 

(5)  Irreparable  Overstrain 423 

B.  Allowance  of  Overtime  Dangerous  to  Morals  .  426 

(1)  Loss  of  Family  Life 426 

(2)  Danger  of  the  Streets  at  Night 430 

C.  Allowance  of  Overtime  Injurious  to  Output.        .  .  433 

(1)  Evening  Work  Results  in  Inferior  Output.  .   433 

(2)  Output  Impaired  on  Day  Succeeding  Evening  Work  440 

D.  Uniformity  of  Restriction  for  Regular  Distribution  of  Em- 

ployment      444 

(1)  Prohibition  of  Overtime  Promotes  Better  Organiza- 

tion of  Industry 444 

(2)  Prohibition  of  Overtime  Promotes  Regularity  of  Em- 

ployment        450 

(3)  Effect  on  Wages 456 

(4)  Effect  of  Requiring  Extra  Pay  for  Overtime     .        .  461 

E.  Uniformity  Essential  for  Purposes  of  Enforcement  .  464 

F.  Uniformity  Essential  for  Justice  to  Employers    .  .  472 

(1)  To  Encourage  the  Best  Employers      ....  472 

(2)  To  Check  the  Backward  Employers    .  .474 

G.  Allowance  of  Overtime  an  Unnecessary  Evil:  Opinions  of 

Officials 480 


The  Reasonableness  of  the  Classifications  in  the  Acts 

A.  Laundries 

(1)  Present  Character  of  the  Business 

(2)  Bad  Effect  on  Health     . 

(3)  Bad  Effect  on  Safety 

(4)  Bad  Effect  on  Morals    . 

B.  Mercantile  Establishments 

(1)  Hours  of  Labor  in  Illinois  Mercantile  Establishments  499 

(2)  Nature  of  the  Work:    Comparison   with   Factory 

Work 505 

(3)  Bad  Effect  on  Health 512 


448 
489 
489 
493 
498 
498 
499 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS  XVll 

PAGE 

(a)  General  Injuries  to  Health         ....   512 

(b)  Injuries  to  the  Female  Functions  and  Child- 

birth   520 

(4)  The  Necessity  for  Legislation:    Voluntary  Action 

Insufficient  525 

(5)  Adaptation  of  Customers  to  Shorter  Hours.        .        .   528 

C.  Millinery  and  Dressmaking  Establishments.        .        .        .   531 

(1)  Seasonal  Characteristics 531 

(2)  Bad  Effect  on  Health 536 

(3)  Legal  Limitation  of  Working  Hours  Promotes  Better 

Organization  in  the  Season  Trades  ....   541 

D.  The  Telephone  Service 544 

(1)  Character  of  the  Business 544 

(2)  Bad  Effect  on  Health 546 

(3)  Overtime  Work 547 

E.  The  Telegraph  Service 549 

F.  Work  in  Hotels  and  Restaurants 549 

G.  Employment  by  a  Common  Carrier 556 

Opinion  of  United  States  Supreme  Court  in   Muller  v.  State 

of  Oregon 558 

Index 565 


PART  I 

FATIGUE  AND  EFFICIENCY 


INTRODUCTORY 

THE  aim  of  this  book  is  to  present,  as  a  new  basis  for 
labor  legislation,  the  results  of  the  modern  study  of 
fatigue.  It  seeks  to  show  what  fatigue  is,  its  nature 
and  effects,  and  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  overwork  in 
working  people.  It  draws  upon  the  scientific  study  of  fatigue 
— one  of  the  most  modern  inquiries  of  physiological,  chemical, 
and  psychological  science — for  aid  in  the  practical  problem 
of  reducing  the  long  working  day  in  industry. 

Such  a  scientific  basis  of  legislation  has  been  almost 
wholly  absent  during  the  century  which  has  elapsed  since  the 
first  factory  laws  were  enacted.  First  for  lack  of  the  neces- 
sary scientific  equipment,  and  in  recent  times,  for  lack  of  that 
coordination  of  knowledge  which  should  apply  the  teaching 
of  science  to  the  problems  of  a  new  industrial  order,  labor 
legislation  has  been  deprived  of  the  authoritative  sanction 
which  it  might  have.  In  this  country,  at  least,  the  laws  of 
fatigue,  verified  by  years  of  experiment  in  the  seclusion  of 
the  laboratory,  have  been  practically  unknown  to  those  who 
have  been  most  active  in  preserving  for  working  people  a 
minimum  of  human  leisure. 

Yet  such  scientific  authority  is  precisely  what  is  most 
needed  today  for  a  more  rational  progress  in  the  future 
than  in  the  past;  something  more  exact  and  demonstrable 
than  the  appeal  to  pity,  less  subject  to  temporary  varia- 
tions than  what  the  Italian  physiologist  Treves  calls  the 
"illusory  profits  of  long  hours."  Just  because  the  more 
cruel,  dramatic  exploitation  of  workers  is  in  the  main  a  thing 
of  the  past,  exact  scientific  proof  is  needed  of  the  more  subtle 
injuries  of  modern  industry,  its  practically  illimitable  speed 
and  strain.     After  a  hundred  years  of  human  experience 

3 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

throughout  the  world,  it  remains  true  in  our  own  country 
that  the  most  helpless  workers  are  still,  in  respect  to  the 
length  of  their  working  hours,  the  least  protected. 

The  most  recent  government  investigation  of  the  iron 
and  steel  industry  in  the  United  States  shows*  that  of  the 
172,671  employes  whose  hours  of  labor  were  reported  in  May, 
1910,  nearly  one-half  (42.58  per  cent)  were  kept  at  work 
seventy-two  hours  a  week  or  over;  that  is,  at  least  twelve 
hours  daily  on  six  days  of  the  week.  Nearly  a  quarter  of  all 
the  workers  (20.59  per  cent)  were  kept  employed  eighty-four 
or  more  hours  in  the  week;  that  is,  at  least  twelve  hours  each 
day,  including  Sundays.  In  the  largest  single  department 
in  the  industry,  the  blast  furnaces,  88  per  cent  of  the  31,321 
employes,  engaged  in  both  productive  and  general  occupa- 
tions, were  regularly  kept  at  work  seven  days  in  the  week. 

These  prodigious  and  terrible  figures  concern  the  work 
of  men.  It  might  reasonably  be  supposed  that  the  century- 
long  effort  to  gain  legal  protection  for  women  and  children  in 
industry  would  have  safeguarded  them  from  the  bare  possi- 
bility of  such  inhuman  usage. 

But,  to  mention  only  random  examples,  young  boys  of 
fourteen  years  may  still  be  employed  all  night  long  in  Penn- 
sylvania, West  Virginia,  and  other  great  glass  producing 
states;  girls  upon  reaching  their  sixteenth  birthday  in  New 
York  state  may  be  employed  twelve  hours  a  day  during  five 
days  of  the  week  in  factories,!  ^nd  unlimited  hours  in  stores 
during  the  season  of  "rush"  before  Christmas.  The  decision 
of  the  Illinois  Supreme  Court  in  1910,  upholding  the  constitu- 
tionality of  the  ten-hour  law  for  women  employed  in  fac- 
tories and  laundries,  is  estimated  to  have  freed  from  over- 
strain in  Illinois  alone  more  than  30,000  working  women  who 
were  employed  over  ten  hours  a  day.     Some  great  manu- 

*  Report  on  Conditions  of  Employment  in  the  Iron  and  Steel  Indus- 
try in  the  United  States.  Summary  of  the  Wages  and  Hours  of  Labor,  pp. 
36  and  57.     Senate  Document  No.  301,  62nd  Congress,  2nd  Session,  1912. 

t  The  New  York  factory  law  was  amended  in  1912  so  as  to  prohibit 
the  employment  of  women  more  than  ten  hours  in  one  day  or  fifty-four 
hours  in  one  week. 


INTRODUCTORY 

facturing  states,  such  as  Alabama  and  Mississippi  in  the 
south,  and  New  Jersey  in  the  north,*  set  no  legal  limitation 
whatsoever  upon  the  hours  of  women's  employment.  This  is 
true  also  of  other  states,  such  as  Delaware,  Kansas,  and 
Iowa,  where  manufacture  is  not  yet  foremost  but  where 
thousands  of  women  are  working  overlong  hours  in  laun- 
dries, restaurants,  and  department  stores.  Indeed,  only  15 
states  t  have  enacted  laws  to  check  the  overwork  of  women 
in  the  exhausting  service  of  the  modern  department  store; 
and  conspicuous  by  their  absence  from  among  these,  are 
states  with  large  commercial  centers,  such  as  Maryland,* 
New  York,  Ohio,  and  Rhode  Island. 

Like  most  human  institutions,  factory  legislation  has 
been  founded  on  no  a  priori  logic.  It  has  been,  rather,  es- 
sentially illogical,  the  result  of  half-way  measures  and  op- 
posing forces.  During  the  nineteenth  century,  while  agri- 
cultural Europe  and  America  were  gradually  becoming  in- 
dustrial and  the  whole  face  of  nature  reflected  the  new  order, 
the  history  of  factory  legislation — the  state's  defense  of  its 
workers — has  been  devious  advance  and  compromise.  Self- 
interest  on  the  one  side,  self-defense  and  philanthropy  on  the 
other,  hampered  by  prejudices  of  every  sort, — these  for  the 
most  part  have  brought  about  such  protection  as  exists  today. 
Not  man's  foresight,  but  the  inexorable  results  of  labor  long 
carried  on  counter  to  nature's  laws,  have  been  on  the  whole 
responsible  for  the  meager  protection  which  industrial  com- 
munities have  granted  their  workers. 

In  the  main,  opposition  to  laws  protecting  working  women 
and  children  has  come  from  the  unenlightened  employer,  who 
has  been  blind  to  his  own  larger  interests  and  who  has  always 
seen  in  every  attempt  to  protect  the  workers  an  interference 
with  business  and  dividends.   To  this  day,  it  is  the  shortsighted 

*  New  Jersey,  Maryland  and  Kentucky  have  enacted  ten-hour  laws 
for  women  as  this  book  goes  to  press  (April,  1912). 

t  California,  Connecticut,  Illinois,  Louisiana,  Massachusetts,  Michi- 
gan, Minnesota,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  South  Caro- 
lina, Utah,  Washington,  and  Wisconsin.  The  New  York  law  applies  only 
to  girls  up  to  21  years. 

5 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

and  narrow-minded  spirit  of  money-making  that  is  the  most 
persistent  enemy  of  measures  designed  to  save  the  workers 
from  exhaustion  and  to  conserve  their  working  capacities. 
Work  itself  is  of  the  essence  of  Hfe;  without  it,  man's  physi- 
cal as  well  as  his  moral  nature  decays.  Regular  continuous 
labor  and  exertion  is  as  necessary  for  the  worker's  health 
as  it  is  for  subsistence,  and  if  legislation  regulating  the 
workday  had  sought  to  invade  legitimate  work,  it  would 
long  ago  have  defeated  its  own  end.  What  it  does  seek  is  to 
check  and  control  overwork,  to  conserve  the  workers  from 
labor  which  leaves  them  spent  and  worn  at  thirty-five  and 
forty  years,  when  they  should  be  in  their  prime. 

In  most  European  countries,  and  in  some  of  our  states, 
legislation  has  usually  been  preceded  by  parliamentary  com- 
missions and  investigations.  The  testimony  of  physicians 
who  have  practiced  among  factory  populations,  and  factory 
inspectors  who  have  been  in  daily  contact  with  the  workers, 
furnishes  an  impressive  array  of  opinions  and  evidence  on  the 
practical  effects  of  the  long  working  day. 

Thus,  for  example,  when  in  the  first  days  of  factory  leg- 
islation, almost  a  century  ago,  Sadler's  Committee  sat  and 
learned  what  the  working  children  of  England  were  suffering, 
the  most  impressive  testimony  was  that  of  the  physicians. 
Many  medical  men  in  turn  testified  to  the  hideous  overwork 
menacing  the  health  of  England.  By  1844  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury could  maintain  in  Parliament  that,  since  1816,  80  sur- 
geons and  physicians  and  three  medical  commissioners  speak- 
ing for  the  medical  men  of  Lancashire,  had  asserted  "the 
prodigious  evil  of  the  system."  *  Buried  in  musty  volumes 
on  remote  library  shelves,  describing  cruelties  to  children  now 
happily  long  past,  these  terrible  pages  of  testimony  strike 
at  the  outset  the  keynote  of  factory  legislation:  the  benefit 
to  health  and  output,  to  physical  and  economic  life. 

Just  seventy-five  years  later,  in  another  continent, 
another  memorable  group  of  physicians  presented  what  is, 
perhaps,  the  most  impressive  medical  testimony  of  the  last 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  3rd  Series,  March  15,  1844. 


INTRODUCTORY 

quarter  century  on  the  subject  of  overwork.  This  was  in  the 
controversy  between  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  of  To- 
ronto, Canada,  and  their  girl  employes,  concerning  a  species 
of  industrial  strain  unknown  to  the  early  nineteenth  century, 
typical  of  almost  incredible  changes  wrought  in  less  than 
three  generations.  Twenty-six  prominent  Toronto  physi- 
cians and  neurologists  described  the  injuries  accruing  to 
young  women  in  the  exhausting  telephone  service,  and  laid 
down  what  seemed  to  them  minimum  requirements  for  health 
and  efficiency.* 

The  testimony  of  physicians,  of  which  these  are  the 
earliest  and  latest  examples,  and  the  long  files  of  factory 
inspectors'  reports,  repeat  in  country  after  country,  in  his- 
torical sequence,  similar  experiences:  the  same  enthusiasm 
for  industrial  expansion  with  indiscriminate  employment  of 
old  and  young;  the  same  exploitation,  the  same  suffering, 
and  the  same  need  of  protection.  Conditions  and  industrial 
processes  differ,  different  trades  are  described,  different  people 
discussed,  but,  unknown  to  one  another,  and  terrible  in  their 
unconscious  unanimity,  these  observers  ring  the  changes  upon 
the  common  human  facts  at  issue — exhaustion  and  deteri- 
oration following  in  the  wake  of  the  long  working  day  and 
working  night.  Workers  of  many  nations  pass  before  one 
as  one  reads;  men,  women,  and  young  children  drawn  into 
the  industrial  whirlpool,  as  the  wave  of  invention  and  de- 
velopment strikes  their  respective  countries, — and  protec- 
tion follows  slowly  after. 

Thus,  England  stood  first  in  industry  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  By  the  time  one  generation  had  grown 
up  under  the  new  regime,  the  evils  of  exploitation  called  ir- 
resistibly for  some  check,  and  the  first  general  act  in  protec- 
tion of  working  children — feeble  precursor  of  a  long  sequence 
— was  passed  in  1833.  France,  the  next  to  enter  the  in- 
dustrial race,  began  to  legislate  for  the  workers  in  the  late 

*  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  a  Dispute  Respecting  Hours  of 
Employment,  between  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  of  Canada,  Ltd.,  and 
Operators  at  Toronto,  Ontario.     Ottawa,  1907. 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

forties,  Switzerland  following  in  the  seventies,  Austria,  Hol- 
land, and  Germany  in  the  next  two  decades,  Italy  at  the 
close  of  the  century.  Similarly  in  our  own  country,  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  other  New  England  states  where  the  first 
cotton  mills  were  operated,  were  the  first  to  find  that  legis- 
lative protection  must  shield  the  workers  to  conserve  them. 

First  the  new  industry,  then  exploitation,  then  the  de- 
mand for  some  measure  of  protection — such  is  the  universal 
story.  Nor  is  this  a  chance  sequence.  It  is  the  relentless 
record  of  history,  the  more  impressive  for  its  unconscious 
testimony  to  a  waste  of  human  effort  and  experience,  in 
retrospect  scarcely  credible  among  a  thinking  people,  yet  in 
our  very  midst  persisting  steadily  to  this  day. 


II 

THE  NATURE  OF  FATIGUE 

STRIKING  as  is  the  unanimity  of  the  world's  indus- 
trial experience  and  the  testimony  of  observers  in  each 
country  as  to  the  need  of  more  complete  protection  for 
the  workers,  such  empirical  data  furnish,  after  all,  no  scien- 
tific basis  for  labor  legislation.  They  are  arguments,  legiti- 
mate presumptions  in  its  favor,  not  scientific  proof. 

Yet  a  scientific  ground  for  such  legislation  does  exist 
and  is  available  today.  The  fundamental  basis  for  laws 
regulating  the  working  hours  of  men,  women,  or  children  in 
industrial  occupations — at  the  spindle  or  loom,  in  machine 
shops  or  laundries,  behind  the  counter  or  in  the  glass-houses 
— is  the  common  physiological  phenomenon,  fatigue,  the 
normal  result  of  all  human  action.  For  fatigue  is  nature's 
warning  signal  that  the  limit  of  activity  is  approaching.  Ex- 
haustion, or  overfatigue,  follows  when  the  warning  is  dis- 
regarded and  the  organism  is  pushed  beyond  its  limits  by 
further  forced  exertions. 

In  this  inexorable  sequence,  subject  to  countless  varia- 
tions but  never  failing,  we  have  a  broad  fundamental  basis 
for  the  short  working  day  in  industry:  a  physiological  neces- 
sity inherent  in  man's  structure  for  allowing  an  adequate 
margin  of  rest.  The  regulation  of  working  hours  is  the  neces- 
sary mechanism  to  prevent  overfatigue  or  exhaustion,  fore- 
runner of  countless  miseries  to  individuals  and  whole  nations. 

It  is  precisely  in  explaining  the  normal  and  abnormal 
aspects  of  fatigue,  its  nature,  effects,  and  relation  to  all  human 
life,  that  science  can  give  its  authoritative  sanction  to  labor 
legislation.  For,  during  the  last  century,  unknown  to  those 
who  saw  the  practical  results  of  overwork  in  industry  and 

9 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

sought  a  legal  remedy  year  after  year,  so  often  in  vain,  men 
of  various  sciences  were  studying  the  same  phenomena  in  the 
laboratory.  The  physiologist,  chemist,  bacteriologist,  and 
psychologist  have  contributed  to  the  study.  The  scientific 
investigations  of  fatigue  in  its  varied  aspects  make  up  a  wide 
and  growing  literature.  In  spite  of  still  unverified  details, 
the  underlying  principles  and  laws  have  been  agreed  upon. 

The  study  of  fatigue,  as  applied  to  industry,  is  not  an 
academic  nor  a  remote  speculation.  It  shows  why  the  system 
of  long  hours  must,  physiologically,  result  in  human  deteriora- 
tion and  inferior  output.  It  should  help,  also,  to  determine 
what  protection  is  needed  in  the  future  for  workers  under 
modern  conditions  of  labor,  viewing  the  new  conditions  and 
their  demand  on  human  energies  from  the  physiological 
standpoint. 

Such  a  change  of  front,  indeed,  from  the  purely  economic 
to  the  broadly  physiological,  is  what  this  study  chiefly  advo- 
cates. Heretofore,  the  scientifically  wellknown  principles 
of  fatigue  have  not  been  utilized  in  the  protection  of  the 
workers,  just  because  they  have  been  unknown  to  those 
persons  who  could  have  benefited  most  directly:  the  legis- 
lators who  frame  the  laws,  the  enlightened  employers  who 
need  legislation  to  restrain  unscrupulous  competitors,  the 
trade  unions  and  philanthropic  agencies  which  have  pro- 
moted legislation,  and  the  judges  whose  official  sanction  of 
the  laws  must  precede  enforcement.  To  all  these,  in  the 
main,  the  contributions  of  science  on  the  subject  have  been 
unknown.  To  the  scientist,  on  the  other  hand,  the  industrial 
world  has  been  an  undiscovered  country.  Even  physicians 
and  students  of  hygiene  are  to  a  large  extent  unacquainted 
with  the  vast  speed  and  complexity  of  processes  to  which 
industrial  workers  are  subjected.  They  hardly  know,  for 
instance,  how  machinery  is  additionally  speeded  each  year; 
how,  to  cite  a  single  example  from  the  needle  trades,  the 
newest  power  sewing  machines  run  by  girl  operators  carry 
12  needles  instead  of  one,  or  set  almost  4000  stitches  a  minute, 
each  thread  and  needle  to  be  intently  watched  for  breaking  as 

lO 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 


the  material  is  guided  on  its  rapid  passage.  Changes  of 
which  this  is  typical  have  added  to  the  strain  of  industry  in  a 
progressive  ratio,  and,  obviously,  add  also  to  all  the  elements 
which  make  up  the  worker's  fatigue. 


1.     ONE    FACTOR    IN    FATIGUE:    ACCUMULATION   OF    WASTE 

PRODUCTS 

A  brief  account  of  the  scientific  views  of  fatigue  must  be 
given,  before  considering  their  practical  application  to  the 
problem  of  overstrain  in  industry.  We  must  familiarize 
ourselves  with  enough  of  the  technical  vocabulary  and  history 
to  understand  the  scientific  conception  of  fatigue  in  general, 
and  that  of  industrial  workers  in  particular. 

Physiology  teaches  that  life  is  a  continual  change  of 
structure.  The  structural  basis  of  all  tissue,  muscular, 
nervous,  connective,  etc.,  is  the  cell.  The  life  of  the  tissue 
consists  in  chemical  combination  of  the  protoplasm  or  sub- 
stance of  the  tissue  cells  with  the  nutritive  materials  derived 
from  food  stuffs  and  the  oxygen  of  the  air.  The  distinctive 
property  of  the  cell — that  indeed  which  makes  it  living — is 
its  power  of  taking  to  itself  and  converting  to  its  own  sub- 
stance materials  that  are  not  living.  This  is  a  double  process; 
for,  just  as  the  potential  stuff  is  seized  and  wrought  into 
live  tissue,  so  the  outworn,  dead  matter  which  is  no  longer 
of  use  is  cast  off  and  ultimately  expelled  from  the  body. 

This  never-ending,  never-ceasing  business  of  life  was 
depicted  by  Sir  Michael  Foster,  the  foremost  British  physi- 
ologist, with  all  the  delicacy  of  fancy.* 

"Did  we  possess  some  optic  aid,"  he  writes,  "which 
should  overcome  the  grossness  of  our  vision,  so  that  we 
might  watch  the  dance  of  atoms  in  this  double  process  of 
making  and  unmaking  in  the  living  body,  we  should  see  the 
commonplace  lifeless  things  which  are  brought  by  the  blood, 
and  which  we  call  the  food,  caught  up  into  and  made  part  of 

*  Foster,  Sir  Michael:  Weariness.  (Being  the  Rede  Lecture  delivered 
before  the  members  of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  June  14,  1893.)  The 
Nineteenth  Century.  Vol.  34,  No.  199,  p.  339.     (Sept.,  1893.) 

I  I 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  molecular  whorls  of  the  living  muscle,  linked  together  for 
a  while  in  the  intricate  figures  of  the  dance  of  life,  giving  and 
taking  energy  as  they  dance;  and  then  we  should  see  how, 
loosing  hands,  they  slipped  back  into  the  blood  as  dead,  inert, 
used-up  matter.  In  every  tiny  block  of  muscle  there  is  a 
part  which  is  really  alive,  there  are  parts  which  are  becoming 
alive,  there  are  parts  which  have  been  alive  but  are  now 
dying  or  dead;  there  is  an  upward  rush  from  the  lifeless  to 
the  living,  a  downward  rush  from  the  living  to  the  dead. 
This  is  always  going  on,  whether  the  muscle  be  quiet  and  at 
rest,  or  whether  it  be  active  and  moving.  Some  of  the 
capital  of  living  material  is  always  being  spent,  changed  into 
dead  waste,  some  of  the  new  food  is  always  being  raised  into 
living  capital." 

Two  processes  of  cellular  life  are  thus  continually  carried 
on  in  the  living  body:  assimilation,  or  building  up,  known  as 
anabolism;  disassimilation,  or  breaking  down  material  into 
simpler  chemical  forms  (ultimately  expelled  as  waste  prod- 
ucts), known  as  catabolism.  Upon  these  two  processes 
together,  or  metabolism,  life  itself  depends,  and  to  this 
fundamental  basis  of  life  we  must  turn  for  an  explanation  of 
what  fatigue  is. 

The  blood  is  the  medium  through  which  nutritive  ma- 
terials are  carried  to  the  tissues,  and  through  which  also 
the  chemical  products  of  tissue  destruction  are  carried  off. 
These  chemical  wastes  are  poisonous  impurities,  created  by 
the  vital  activities  of  the  organism,  and  it  is  precisely  to  their 
accumulation  in  the  blood  that  fatigue  is  largely  due. 

In  Sir  Michael  Foster's  words:* 

"As  the  breath  of  man  is  poison  to  his  fellow  men,  so  the 
outcome  of  the  life  of  each  part  of  the  body,  each  tissue,  be  it 
muscle,  brain,  or  what  not,  is  a  poison  to  that  part  and  its 
fellows,  and  may  be  a  poison  to  yet  other  parts.  Of  each 
member,  while  it  may  be  said  that  the  blood  is  the  life  thereof, 
it  may  with  equal  truth  be  said,  the  blood  is  the  death  thereof; 
the  blood  is  the  channel  for  food,  but  it  is  also  a  pathway  for 
poison." 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  350. 
12 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

During  activity,  as  will  be  shown  later,  the  products  of 
chemical  change  increase.  A  tired  person  is  literally  and 
actually  a  poisoned  person — poisoned  by  his  own  waste 
products.  But  so  marvelously  is  the  body  constructed  that, 
like  a  running  stream,  it  purifies  itself,  and  during  repose 
these  toxic  impurities  are  normally  burned  up  by  the  oxygen 
brought  by  the  blood,  excreted  by  the  kidneys,  destroyed 
in  the  liver,  or  eliminated  from  the  body  through  the  lungs. 
So  rest  repairs  fatigue. 

This  balance  is  kept  true  and  fatigue  is  repaired  just  as 
long  as  it  remains  within  physiological  limits;  that  is,  as 
long  as  activity  is  balanced  by  repose,  when  the  noxious 
products  of  activity  are  more  quickly  eliminated  and  tissue 
is  rebuilt.  Just  as  soon  as  the  metabolic  equilibrium  is  de- 
stroyed the  organism  becomes  clogged  by  its  own  poisons, 
exhaustion  results,  and  health  is  impaired.  The  physiological 
normal  phenomenon  of  fatigue  becomes  pathological,  or  ab- 
normal exhaustion. 

Health,  even  life  itself,  hangs  upon  the  metabolic  bal- 
ance. In  extreme  instances  of  overexertion,  as  when  hunted 
animals  drop  dead  in  the  chase,  they  die,  not  from  overstrain 
of  any  particular  organ,  such  as  the  heart,  but  from  sheer 
chemical  poisoning  due  to  the  unexpelled  toxins  of  fatigue. 

"The  poisons  are  more  and  more  heaped  up,  poisoning 
the  muscles,  poisoning  the  brain,  poisoning  the  heart,  poison- 
ing at  last  the  blood  itself,  starting  in  the  intricate  machinery 
of  the  body  new  poisons  in  addition  to  themselves.  The 
hunted  hare,  run  to  death,  dies  not  because  he  is  choked  for 
want  of  breath,  not  because  his  heart  stands  still,  its  store  of 
energy  having  given  out,  but  because  a  poisoned  blood  poisons 
his  brain,  poisons  his  whole  body."* 

In  animals  which  have  so  died  of  exhaustion,  the  blood 
is  found  loaded  with  the  products  of  chemical  action.  Ab- 
normally rapid  putrefaction  and  rigidity  of  the  muscles  fol- 
lows after  death.     In  man,  the  occurrence  of  actual  death 

*  Foster,  op.  cit.,  p.  351. 
13 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

from  overexertion  is  rare.  A  historic  instance  often  quoted 
is  the  case  of  Eukles,  the  immortal  runner  from  Marathon, 
who  fell  dead  as  he  announced  to  Athens  victory  over  the 
Persians.  An  Italian  pathologist,  Professor  Pieraccini  of 
Florence,  quotes  two  interesting  modern  examples  in  Algeria.* 
Two  native  runners  fell  dead  on  arrival,  one  after  covering 
192  kilometers  in  45  hours,  the  other  252  kilometers  in  62 
hours.  Abnormally  rapid  rigidity  and  putrefaction  of  the 
bodies  followed,  and  after  an  autopsy  death  was  ascribed  to 
the  "excess  of  fatigue." 

Such  then  are  the  extremest  results  of  the  self-generated 
poisons  of  fatigue.  Physiological  processes  turn  pathological ; 
the  normal  instruments  of  life  become  agents  of  death. 
Obviously,  on  this  side  of  death,  there  is  a  wide  range  of 
injuries  which  metabolic  products  can  inflict  upon  the  human 
frame.  But  before  addressing  ourselves  to  such  specific  ills 
we  must  examine  more  closely  the  proofs  that  fatigue  results 
from  the  chemical  wastes  of  activity.  We  must  acquaint 
ourselves  with  the  complex  processes  by  which  fatigue  ex- 
hausts and  rest  repairs  the  muscular  and  nervous  functions. 
And  since  this  study  of  fatigue  which  we  are  to  review,  has 
scarcely  yet  concerned  itself  with  the  appearance  of  fatigue 
in  industrial  workers,  we  must  turn  our  attention  tempo- 
rarily from  labor  and  industry  to  the  apparatus  of  the  labor- 
atory and  to  animal  experimentation. 


2.     THE  MEASUREMENT  OF  MUSCULAR  FATIGUE 

(a)  In  Animals 
More  than  forty-five  years  ago,  in  1865,  the  German 
physiologist  Ranke  first  investigated  the  depressant  action 
of  certain  products  of  protoplasmic  activity  upon  muscular 
contraction.!  He  demonstrated  that  if  an  extract  of  fatigued 
frog  muscle  was  injected  into  a  second  frog,  the  muscles  of 

*  Pieraccini,  G.:    Patologia  del  Lavoro,  p.  18.     Milan,  1906. 
t  Ranke,  J.:  Tetanus.     Englemann,   Leipzig,  1865;  Centraiblatt  fiir 
die  medicinischen  Wissenschaften,  1868,  Vol.  IV,  p.  769. 

14 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

the  second  animal  showed  evidences  of  fatigue.  Their 
power  of  contraction  on  stimulation  was  diminished.  A 
similar  experiment  with  an  extract  made  from  resting  muscle 
had  no  such  effect. 

About  twenty-five  years  later,  the  Italian  scientist  Mosso 
showed  that  the  depressant  action  of  fatigue  substances  is 
not  confined  to  the  tissues  in  which  they  arise.*  He  dem- 
onstrated that  the  blood  becomes  charged  with  these  chem- 
ical wastes  produced  in  the  muscles,  and  carries  them  to  all 
parts  of  the  body.  He  proved  this  by  injecting  the  blood  of 
a  dog  fatigued  by  long  continued  running  into  the  vessels  of 
a  second  dog  from  which  an  equivalent  amount  of  blood  had 
been  drawn.  Upon  this,  the  second  dog  showed  the  usual 
signs  of  fatigue. 

Products  of  muscular  activity  are  thus  shown  to  cause 
symptoms  of  fatigue  when  injected  into  resting  tissue.  In 
the  study  of  muscular  fatigue  we  may  learn  how  these  waste 
products  are  created  and  how  they  affect  the  organism. 
Muscular  fatigue  has  been  longest  studied  since  fatigue  of 
the  muscles  can  be  most  easily  observed  and  registered  by 
certain  instruments  of  precision  or  measurement.  The 
observation  of  fatigue  or  diminished  power  of  reaction  in  frog 
muscles  preceded  Mosso's  famous  studies  of  human  fatigue. 

The  myograph,  designed  by  H.  von  Helmholz,  shows 
how  the  loss  of  energy  in  wearied  frog  muscles  results  from 
noxious  substances  in  the  muscles,  produced  during  work. 
The  leg  muscle  of  a  frog  is  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  body 
and  hung  by  one  end  upon  a  support.  To  the  other  end  of 
the  muscle  a  lever  is  attached  which  comes  in  contact  with  a 
revolving  cylinder  covered  with  sooty  paper.  If  the  leg  is 
at  rest,  a  straight  line  is  traced  upon  the  revolving  cylinder. 
If  the  muscle  is  electrically  stimulated  to  contract,  the  lever 
records  the  contractions  by  upward  and  downward  marks 
upon  the  sooty  surface  of  the  revolving  cylinder,  the  height 
of  the  curves  being  determined  by  the  force  of  the  contrac- 

*  Mosso,  Angelo:  Arch,  fiir  Anatomie  u.  Physiologic.  Physiologische 
Abtheilung,  1890,  p.  89. 

15 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


Fig.  1 
Series  of  550  contractions  of  a  frog's  gastrocnemius  muscle,  excised 
and  stimulated  at  intervals  of  two  seconds.  Every  contraction  is  recorded, 
except  at  the  places  indicated  by  the  black  bands,  at  each  of  which  the  rec- 
ords of  fourteen  contractions  are  omitted.  The  record  of  the  first  contrac- 
tion is  at  the  bottom  of  the  figure:  that  of  the  last  one  at  the  top.  Fatigue 
is  shown  in  the  progressive  decrease  in  height  and  the  increase  in  length  of 
the  curves. 


tion.    As  the  muscle  tires,  the  contractions  grow  smaller  and 
smaller  until  finally  the  lever  cannot  be  raised  at  all.* 

It  can  be  shown  that  this  fatigue  of  the  muscles  is  due 
to  the  paralyzing  action  of  the  accumulated  fatigue  products 

*  See  Figures  1,  2,  and  3.  The  illustrations  are  from  The  Nature  of 
Fatigue,  by  Professor  Frederic  S.  Lee.  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Feb., 
1910.     (Reproduced  by  permission.) 

i6 


THE   NATURE   OF   FATIGUE 


Fig.  2 
Series  of  contractions  of  a  rat's  gastrocnemius  muscle,  excised  and 
stimulated  at  intervals  of  two  and  one-half  seconds.     Fatigue  is  shown  in 
the  progressive  decrease  in  height  of  the  curves. 


in  the  blood.  For  if  at  any  time  after  fatigue  has  set  in,  the 
muscle,  while  suspended,  is  washed  out  through  its  blood- 
vessels with  a  normal  salt  solution,  its  power  to  contract 
returns.  As  soon  as  the  fatigue  products  are  washed  away, 
the  muscle  is  rested.* 


•  See  Figure  4. 
17 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


Fig.  3 
Series  of  contractions  of  the  frog's  gastrocnemius  muscle,  excised  and 
stimulated  at  intervals  of  two  seconds.     Every  fiftieth  contraction  is  re- 
corded.    Fatigue  is  shown  in  the  progressive  lengthening  of  the  descend- 
ing limb  of  the  curves. 


Fig.  4 
Series  of  contractions  of  a  frog's  gastrocnemius  muscle  in  situ  and 
stimulated  at  intervals  of  two  seconds.  The  flow  of  blood  through  the  muscle 
was  stopped  by  ligating  the  artery,  and  the  record  of  fatigue  was  made.  At 
the  break  in  the  series,  the  muscle  rested  five  minutes,  during  which  time  the 
ligature  was  removed  and  the  blood  was  allowed  to  circulate  through  the 
muscle.  The  record  of  contractions  at  the  right  of  the  break  was  made 
immediately  after  the  resting  period,  and  while  the  blood  was  still  circulating. 

(b)    In  Man 
Using  the  same  principle  described  above,  Mosso  devised 
an  apparatus  called  the  ergograph,  to  study  muscular  con- 
traction in  man. 

i8 


THE   NATURE   OF    FATIGUE 

"  By  its  means,"  writes  Professor  Frederic  S.  Lee,  him- 
self one  of  the  foremost  American  investigators  in  this  field, 
"  (Mosso)  began  the  long  series  of  studies  of  voluntary  contrac- 
tions in  man,  which  has  made  the  Turin  School  famous  and 
has  immeasurably  extended  our  knowledge  of  fatigue  in  living 
human  beings."* 

The  ergograph  is  an  instrument  constructed  so  as  to 
record  the  contractions  of  a  single  muscle  or  group  of  muscles. 
Thus,  for  instance,  the  arm  and  hand,  except  the  middle  finger, 
may  be  supported  and  held  fast.  The  person  experimented 
upon  contracts  his  middle  finger  at  regular  intervals,  thereby 
lifting  a  known  weight  to  a  definite  height  or  stretching  a 
spring  of  known  tension.  As  in  the  myograph,  contractions 
are  recorded  by  curves  upon  a  revolving  cylinder,  and  show 
a  steady  diminution  of  the  lifting  power  of  the  muscles,  the 
rate  and  regularity  of  the  diminution  differing  with  individ- 
uals. If  the  highest  points  of  the  curves  recorded  on  the 
cylinder  are  joined  together,  the  result  is  a  curve  of  charac- 
teristic form  for  each  individual,  known  as  the  curve  of 
fatigue.  This  curve  remains  practically  the  same  for  each 
person  whether  his  contractions  are  voluntary  or  due  to  elec- 
tric stimulation.  Some  persons  obviously  tire  less  quickly 
than  others;  some  work  at  high  pressure  for  a  short  time, 
giving  out  suddenly,  while  others  work  more  slowly  and  regu- 
larly. All  this  is  borne  out  by  the  record  of  the  ergograph, 
which  shows  graphically  on  paper  how  great  are  the  varieties 
of  individual  working  capacities.     (See  Figure  5.) 

In  industrial  occupations,  obviously,  the  working  time 
cannot  be  measured  off  for  each  individual  according  to  his 
special  capacity.  But  the  testimony  of  the  ergograph  to 
the  infinite  varieties  of  endowment  in  strength  and  staying 
capacity  emphasizes  the  need  of  setting  a  fair  maximum 
working  period  which  shall  not  over-reach  the  natural  limits 
of  the  majority  of  individual  workers. 

By  the  use  of  the  ergograph  we  learn  more  of  the  funda- 

*  Lee,  Frederic  S.,  Ph.  D.  (Professor  of  Physiology,  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, New  York):  Fatigue.  Harvey  Lectures,  1905-06,  p.  172.  Phila- 
delphia and  London,  Lippincott,  1906. 

19 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

mental  factors  in  fatigue.  It  is  shown  that  if  sufficient  rests 
are  allowed  between  contractions,  no  fatigue  results.  With  a 
load  of  six  kilograms,  for  instance,  the  flexor  muscle  of  the 
finger  showed  no  fatigue  when  a  rest  of  ten  seconds  was  given 
between  contractions.     But  after  complete  fatigue,  once  the 


Fig.  5 
Series  of  contractions  of  the  flexor  muscles  of  a  human  fmger.  The 
muscle  was  stimulated  electrically  every  two  seconds,  and  the  resulting 
contractions  were  therefore  involuntary.  Record  1  was  made  when  the 
muscle  was  fresh;  record  2  immediately  after  three  and  one-half  hours  had 
been  spent  in  the  oral  examination  of  students;  record  3  two  hours  after 
the  completion  of  the  examination.     (From  Mosso's  "  Fatigue.") 

muscles  are  exhausted,  the  utmost  expenditure  of  will  power 
does  not  enable  them  to  contract  further.  A  very  long  inter- 
val— two  hours — is  needed  for  the  muscle  to  make  a  complete 
recovery. 


3.    ANOTHER    FACTOR    IN    FATIGUE:    CONSUMPTION   OF 
ENERGY-YIELDING  SUBSTANCE 

So  long  an  interval  of  rest  would  evidently  not  be 
necessary  for  the  removal  of  the  poisonous  metabolic  prod- 
ucts, if  fatigue  were  due  to  the  depressant  action  of  these 

20 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

products  alone.  The  ergographic  record,  therefore,  throws 
Hght  upon  another  fundamental  factor  in  fatigue  besides  the 
accumulation  of  fatigue  products:  the  actual  consumption 
of  the  material  from  which  energy  for  contraction  is  obtained. 
At  the  termination  of  hard  muscular  work  the  muscle  con- 
tains a  lessened  supply  of  energy-yielding  material,  because 
during  contraction  the  processes  of  disassimilation  or  catab- 
olism  are  in  excess  of  those  of  assimilation  or  anabolism. 
This  fundamental  change  in  the  muscle  substance  can  be 
made  plainer  by  a  brief  consideration  of  the  chemical  proc- 
esses in  contraction. 

(a)  The  Chemistry  of  Muscular  Contraction:  How  Glycogen 
IS  Supplied  and  Consumed 

Every  voluntary  muscular  contraction  is  due  to  the 
stimulus  received  from  the  central  nervous  system  through 
the  nerves.  Of  the  nature  of  this  stimulus  little  is  krown, 
and  the  nerve  elements  in  activity  and  fatigue  will  be  con- 
sidered later.  We  know  that  each  muscular  act  has  as  its 
basis  chemical  processes.  It  is  a  form  of  combustion,  as  we 
readily  recognize  by  the  greater  heat  generated  within  us  by 
any  muscular  effort.  For  combustion  there  must  be  union 
of  some  substance  with  oxygen.  The  union  may  be  slow,  as 
when  iron  rusts  or  is  slowly  oxidized,  or  fast,  as  when  wood 
or  coal  burns  with  a  flame.  In  muscular  combustion  the 
oxygen  is  supplied  by  the  blood,  the  substance  with  which  it 
combines  being  the  so-called  animal  starch  of  the  muscles, 
called  glycogen. 

Let  us,  then,  first  consider  how  the  organism  is  supplied 
with  these  two  essential  factors  for  muscular  action,  glycogen 
and  oxygen. 

Glycogen  is  one  of  the  stored  materials  of  the  muscle, 
a  compound  of  carbon,  hydrogen,  and  oxygen ;  and  muscular 
tissue  has  the  power  of  forming  this  glycogen  from  the  sugar 
or  dextrose  brought  to  it  by  the  blood.  Dextrose  is  the  form 
of  sugar  in  which  our  carbohydrate  foods  (starches,  sugars, 
etc.,  the  bulk  of  our  usual  diet)  are  eventually  absorbed  into 

21 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  blood  and  carried  by  the  blood  to  the  muscular  tissues, 
there  to  be  transformed  into  glycogen.  The  stored  glycogen 
of  the  muscles  keeps  uniting  chemically  with  the  oxygen  of  the 
blood.  The  glycogen  is  broken  down  into  a  simpler  chemical 
form,  giving  off  the  gas  carbon  dioxide  and  other  acid  wastes, 
and  releasing  heat  and  mechanical  energy  in  the  process. 

With  the  released  energy,  contraction  of  the  muscle 
takes  place  and  hence  ultimately  the  industrial  labor  which 
is  our  special  theme.  The  heat  contributes  to  our  body 
temperature.  The  chemical  wastes,  as  we  have  seen,  poison 
the  whole  organism  unless  prevented  from  accumulating 
unduly,  and  go  to  constitute  what  we  know  as  fatigue. 

But,  as  we  saw  above  in  considering  the  ergograph, 
there  is  another  fundamental  factor  in  fatigue  which  must  be 
taken  into  account  here:  a  consumption  of  energy-yielding 
material  of  the  muscle  itself.  This  takes  place  in  the  follow- 
ing manner: 

Glycogen  is,  as  it  were,  stored  for  use.  It  is  always 
being  replenished,  always  being  depleted.  The  metabolic 
wastes,  produced  when  glycogen  is  broken  down  into  simpler 
chemical  form,  are  constantly  thrown  off;  the  potential  stuff 
brought  by  the  blood  is  constantly  being  seized  and  built  up 
again  into  living  tissue.  But  when  the  muscle  is  active  and 
contracts  energetically,  there  is  a  run  upon  our  glycogen.  It 
is  used  up  faster  than  it  is  built  in  muscle.  The  glycogen  is 
spent  so  rapidly  that  there  is  not  time  for  the  bloodstream  to 
bring  back  to  the  tissue  the  potential  material  for  its  repair. 
Glycogen  may  even  be  entirely  consumed  and  disappear  from 
the  muscle. 

But  there  is  another  organ  of  the  body  which  acts  further 
as  a  storehouse  for  glycogen.  This  is  the  liver,  whose  cells 
are  so  constructed  that  they  too  convert  the  dextrose  or  sugar 
in  the  blood  into  glycogen  and  retain  it,  until  the  store  in  the 
muscles  is  so  far  depleted  that  it  must  be  replenished.  If  it 
were  not  for  the  stored  glycogen  of  the  liver  which  is  sup- 
plied to  the  muscles  at  their  need,  starvation  would  more 
quickly  end  in  death. 

22 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

Even  this  provision  of  stored  glycogen,  however,  does 
not  suffice  after  prolonged  and  severe  work  to  supply  oxi- 
dizable  material  for  muscular  activity.  After  excessive  labor 
the  entire  store  of  glycogen  in  the  liver  as  well  as  in  the 
muscle  may  be  practically  used  up.  Thus  we  have  reached 
the  other  fundamental  factor  in  fatigue, — the  consumption 
of  the  energy-yielding  substance  itself.  Not  only  does  tissue 
manufacture  poison  for  itself  in  its  very  act  of  living,  casting 
off  chemical  wastes  into  the  circling  bloodstream;  not  only 
are  these  wastes  poured  into  the  blood  faster  with  increased 
exertion,  clogging  the  muscle  more  and  more  with  its  own 
noxious  products;  but  finally,  there  is  a  depletion  of  the  very 
material  from  which  energy  is  obtained.  The  catabolic  proc- 
ess is  in  excess  of  the  anabolic.  In  exhaustion,  the  organ- 
ism is  forced  literally  to  "use  itself  up." 

We  shall  see  later  how  destructive  to  health  this  phenom- 
enon of  exhaustion  is,  to  which  nervous  as  well  as  muscular 
tissue  is  subject;  how  long  it  takes  to  make  good  such  losses; 
how  exhaustion,  indeed,  taps  the  very  source  of  our  energies. 

(b)  How  Oxygen  is  Supplied  for  Muscular  Contraction 
Hitherto  in  this  discussion  we  have  referred  constantly 
to  the  chemical  reaction  between  glycogen  and  oxygen,  and 
the  results  obtained  when  glycogen  is  thus  broken  down  by 
oxygen.  It  remains  now  to  trace  how  at  every  breath  we 
draw,  oxygen  is  supplied  for  our  internal  combustion  of 
glycogen;  how  at  every  exhalation  we  breathe  out  the  gas 
carbon  dioxide — product  of  muscular  action.  The  pathway 
for  these  gases  is  the  blood. 

When  oxygen  is  breathed  into  the  air  sacs  of  the  lungs, 
it  comes  into  contact  with  the  smallest  blood  vessels  of  the 
body,  the  capillaries.  The  blood  in  these  thin-walled  capil- 
laries is  separated  from  the  oxygen  in  the  air  sacs  only  by 
moist  and  permeable  membranes.  By  diffusion,  the  oxygen 
passes  through  these  moist  membranes  and  combines  chem- 
ically with  the  haemoglobin  or  red  coloring  matter  of  the  red 
corpuscles  in  the  capillaries.     These  tiny  blood  vessels,  now 

23 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

oxygen  bearers,  penetrate  in  a  fine  network  to  every  tissue 
and  organ  in  the  body.  As  soon  as  tiie  blood  reaches  the 
muscles,  the  loose  chemical  union  of  the  haemoglobin  and 
oxygen  is  again  broken  down,  the  oxygen  combining  with 
the  glycogen  of  the  muscle  tissue,  setting  free  energy,  as  we 
have  seen,  and  evolving  waste  products.  For,  as  the  oxygen 
streams  out  to  combine  with  the  glycogen,  there  streams  back 
in  the  opposite  direction  the  gas  carbon  dioxide,  thrown  off 
in  the  chemical  process. 

"There  is  an  upward  rush  from   the  lifeless  to  the 
living;  a  downward  rush  from  the  living  to  the  dead." 

The  lifeless  carbon  dioxide  in  its  turn  combines  with  the 
blood,  which  has  given  its  oxygen  to  the  tissue;  and  in  the 
intricate  flow  of  our  vascular  system,  carbon  dioxide  is  carried 
back  by  the  blood  to  the  lungs  and  thence  expired.  We  may 
get  some  notion  of  the  combustion  or  chemical  process  carried 
on  within  our  muscles  by  the  fact  that  at  every  breath  air 
loses  about  5  per  cent  of  its  oxygen  and  increases  in  carbon 

dioxide  a  hundred  fold.* 

O  N  CO2 

Inspired  air  contains 20.96  79.00  0.04 

Expired  air  contains 16.40  79.19  4.41 

Loss 4.56  .19        4.37  Gain 

Moreover,  it  has  been  proved  that  after  heavy  muscular 
work,  an  animal  gives  off  even  larger  proportions  of  carbon 
dioxide  in  its  expired  air.  The  physiologists  Voit  and  Petten- 
kofer  showed  as  early  as  1866,  that  during  a  day  in  which 
much  muscular  work  was  done,  a  man  expired  almost  twice 
as  much  carbon  dioxide  as  during  a  resting  day.  During 
activity  the  internal  combustion  is  more  active,  glycogen  is 
being  broken  down  more  rapidly,  more  wastes  are  being 
thrown  into  the  blood,  more  carbon  dioxide  is  evolved.  The 
wastes  indeed  accumulate  more  rapidly  than  they  can  be 
carried  off,  and  hence,  as  we  have  seen,  after  excessive  exer- 

*  Notter,  J.  Lane,  and  Firth,  R.  H.:  The  Theory  and  Practice  of 
Hygiene,  p.  151.     Third  Edition.     London,  J.  V.  A.  Churchill,  1908. 

24 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

tion,  the  metabolic  equilibrium  is  destroyed.  But  during 
rest  at  night  the  processes  of  repair  are  again  in  the  ascen- 
dant. If  sufficient  rest  is  not  allowed  between  working  days, 
obviously  a  physiological  deficit  must  result. 

This  is  the  essential  injury  of  consecutive  days,  weeks, 
and  months  of  overtime  work,  which  we  shall  find  common 
to  many  branches  of  industry, — that  the  normal  season  of 
tissue  repair,  between  working  days,  is  cut  down  at  the  very 
time  when  the  severest  demands  are  being  made  upon  the 
human  organism. 

4.   THE  NATURE  OF  THE  FATIGUE  PRODUCTS 

The  production  of  carbon  dioxide  has  been  called  the 
most  significant  change  in  the  muscle  during  contraction. 
The  nature  of  other  toxic  products  of  muscular  action  is 
shown  by  laboratory  examination.  Fatigued  muscle  is 
shown  by  litmus  paper  to  be  acid  in  reaction.  A  wellknown 
experiment  illustrates  the  acidity  of  fatigued  muscle  by  the 
use  of  acid  fuchsin.  This  stain  is  injected  under  the  skin  of  a 
frog.  It  is  absorbed  and  distributed  in  the  body  without 
injuring  the  tissues.  As  long  as  the  body  remains  at  rest, 
the  solution  is  colorless;  but  if  one  of  the  legs  is  electrically 
stimulated  the  muscles  take  on  a  red  color,  showing  that  an 
acid  is  produced  locally. 

"  It  is  now  customary,"  writes  Professor  Lee,  "to  recog- 
nize three  distinct  metabolic  products  as  fatiguing,  namely — 
sarcolactic  acid,  monopotassium  phosphate  and  carbon  di- 
oxide, all  of  which  are  acid  in  reaction."* 

Within  the  last  few  years  the  German  scientist,  W. 
Weichardt,  has  published  special  studies  of  chemical  fatigue 

*0p.  cit.,  Harvey  Lectures,  1905-06,  p.  183.  See  also  by  the  same 
author:  Cause  of  theTreppe.  Amer.  Jour,  oj  Physiology,  Vol.  XVHI,  No. 
HI,  p.  267  (April  1,  1907).  The  Action  of  Normal  Fatigue  Substances  on 
Muscle.  Ibid.,  Vol.  XX,  No.  I,  p.  170  (Oct.  1,  1907).  Pseudo-Fatigue  of 
the  Spinal  Cord.  Ibid.,  Vol.  XXIV,  No.  IV,  p.  384  (July  1,  1909).  Physical 
Exercise  from  the  Standpoint  of  Physiology.  Science,  N.  S.,  Vol.  XXIX, 
No.  744,  p.  521  (Apr.  2,  1909).  The  Nature  of  Fatigue.  Popular  Science 
Monthly.  Feb.,  1910,  p.  182. 

25 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

substances.  In  1904  Weichardt  claimed  to  have  isolated 
from  fatigued  muscles  a  specific  toxin  of  fatigue,  entirely 
analogous  to  other  bacterial  toxins,  such  as  that  of  diphtheria 
or  tetanus.*  He  asserts  that  if  this  toxin  obtained  from  the 
extract  of  fatigued  muscles  is  injected  into  animals,  it  pro- 
duces all  the  symptoms  of  fatigue.  When  given  in  large 
doses  it  is  said  even  to  cause  death.  In  human  beings  the 
production  of  fatigue  toxin  is  supposed  to  take  place  with 
ordinary  physiological  fatigue. 

Weichardt  even  lays  claim  to  having  obtained  a  true 
anti-toxin  of  fatigue.  He  asserts  that  when  small  doses  of 
the  toxin  are  administered  to  animals,  a  specific  anti-toxin  is 
produced  in  the  blood,  under  the  influence  of  which  the  mus- 
cles of  the  animals  experimented  upon  display  far  less  fatigue 
than  under  ordinary  conditions.  Their  endurance  capacity 
is  said  to  be  largely  increased  by  injection  of  the  anti-toxin. 
When  corresponding  amounts  of  the  anti-toxin  were  given 
with  doses  of  toxin,  the  paralyzing  effects  of  the  latter  were 
said  to  be  counteracted. 

These  later  theories  and  experiments,  verging  on  the 
fantastic,  have  not  been  cordially  accepted  by  the  scientific 
world.  In  the  eight  years  which  have  elapsed  since  Weich- 
ardt's  discovery  was  announced,  it  has  been  confirmed  by 
no  other  eminent  investigator.  At  present,  his  theories  of 
fatigue  toxin  and  anti-toxin  must  still  be  regarded  as  uncor- 
roborated. 

Moreover,  even  if  further  scientific  investigation  should 
sustain  Weichardt's  assertions,  they  would  be  of  theoretic  not 
practical  interest  and  value.  The  injection  of  an  anti-toxin 
of  fatigue  might  possibly  be  resorted  to  in  athletic  endurance 
tests  and  tours  de  force,  such  as  six-day  bicycle  races.     Ob- 

*  Weichardt,  W.:  Ober  Ermiidungstoxine  und  deren  Antitoxine. 
Miinchenermedizinische  Wochenschrift,  1904, 51.  Jahrgang,  No.  1,  pp.  12-13. 

Ibid.,  1904.     No.  48,  pp.  2121-2126. 

Ibid.,  1905.     No.  26.  pp.  1234-1236. 

Ibid.,  1906.     No.  1.  pp.  7-10. 

Ibid,  1906.    No.  35,  pp.  1701-1702. 

Vierteljahresschrift  fiir  offentliche  Gesundheitspflege.  XXIX.  1907. 
Ermiidungs  u    Obermudungsmassmethoden. 

26 


THE   NATURE   OF    FATIGUE 

viously  no  such  artificial  stimulus  could  be  of  any  concern 
in  the  daily  regimen  of  industry  with  which  we  are  concerned. 
A  glimpse  at  theories  of  fatigue  toxin  and  anti-toxin  is 
of  interest  to  us  chiefly  as  additional  evidence  of  the  gravity 
and  the  scientific  nature  of  our  problem.  Overstrain  in 
industry  is  obviously  no  invention  of  sentiment  or  fiction 
when  the  chemical  nature  of  fatigue  and  its  complex  relations 
with  life  are  realized.  The  more  we  learn  of  the  scientific 
nature  of  fatigue,  the  more  it  invites  us  to  utilize  such  knowl- 
edge for  the  improvement  of  working  conditions. 


5.  THE  NATURE  OF  NERVOUS  FATIGUE 

Thus  far  we  have  confined  ourselves  to  a  consideration 
of  the  main  underlying  causes  of  fatigue  in  the  breakdown  of 
normal  metabolism,  and  we  have  glanced  at  the  manifesta- 
tions of  muscular  fatigue.  We  must  proceed  now  to  other 
forms  of  fatigue,  nervous  and  psychic. 

Such  is  the  oneness  of  life,  the  controlling  unity  of  the 
living  body,  that  we  cannot  practically  estimate  any  one 
form  of  fatigue  separately;  we  cannot  set  definite  limits 
where  nervous  fatigue  ends  and  muscular  fatigue  begins,  or 
vice  versa.  They  are  inevitably  bound  up  together,  since 
every  voluntary  muscular  act  is  due  to  the  stimulus  received 
through  the  nerves  from  the  central  nervous  system.  Of  the 
nature  of  the  nerve  impulse  or  of  the  energy  generated  in  the 
centers,  little  is  agreed  upon,  excepting  that  some  form  of 
electric  activity  is  involved. 

But  though  the  origin  of  nerve  impulses  be  still  unknown, 
shrouded  in  the  mystery  of  life  itself,  it  is  undoubted  that 
our  levels  of  nervous  endurance  and  resistance  may  be  per- 
manently lowered  by  excessive  pressure  upon  them.  Further, 
we  know  that  nervous  energy  is  not  only  the  stimulus  of 
muscular  action,  but  the  controller  of  all  our  functions;  the 
"very  pulse  of  the  machine."  Hence  nervous  fatigue  and 
exhaustion  is  the  most  destructive  because  the  most  inclusive 
form  of  fatigue. 

27 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

We  have  seen  that  toxic  products  are  thrown  off  by  the 
muscles  and  are  carried  in  the  blood.  When  fatigued  blood 
becomes  laden  with  these  substances  they  affect  other  muscles 
through  which  the  blood  circulates.  Thus,  after  an  exhaust- 
ing walk,  as  Mosso  explains,  the  muscles  of  the  arms  as  well 
as  of  the  legs  are  indisposed  to  further  great  exertion.  Mag- 
giora,  a  student  and  follower  of  Mosso,  demonstrated  this 
fact  with  the  ergograph.     He  says: 

"After  a  fatiguing  day's  march,  certain  soldiers'  hand 
tracings  showed  a  notable  diminution  of  energy  even  after 
the  night's  rest,  being  very  low  at  7  a.m.,  less  so  at  9  and  11 
o'clock,  but  rising  to  normal  energy  only  by  3  p.  m."* 

Now,  just  as  the  metabolic  poisons  created  in  one  set  of 
muscles  are  carried  by  the  blood,  and  act  upon  other  muscles, 
so  they  act  also  upon  our  nervous  system — upon  nerve  end- 
ings in  muscle  and  upon  central  nerve  cells.  Further,  it  is 
agreed  that  there  is  a  metabolism  of  the  nervous  tissue  itself 
similar  to  that  of  muscle  tissue,  a  similar  building  up  and 
breaking  down  of  energy-yielding  material.  Hence  fatigue 
of  the  nervous  system  is  ascribed  to  the  same  double  origin 
as  muscle  fatigue:  accumulation  of  toxic  waste  products, 
and  consumption  of  substances  essential  for  activity. f 

(a)  The  Nervous  System,  Central  and  Peripheral 
The  nervous  system  is  composed  of  the  central  nervous 
system, — the  brain  and  spinal  cord;  and  the  peripheral  system, 
— nerve  ganglia  and  nerve  fibers  arising  from  the  centers. 
When  a  number  of  nerve  fibers  are  bound  together  in  a 
bundle  or  trunk,  we  have  the  plainly  visible  whitish  nerves. 
These  are  distributed  to  all  parts  of  the  body.  Every  organ 
and  tissue  has  its  own  supply  of  nerves  connecting  it  with  the 
brain  or  spinal  cord. 

*  Archiv  fijr  Anatomic  u.  Physiologic,  1890,  p.  191.  Physiologische 
Abtheilung.     Maggiora,  Dr.  Arnaido:  Uber  die  Gesetze  der  Ermiidung. 

t  Howell,  Wm.  H.:  Textbook  of  Physiology,  p.  110.  Philadelphia  and 
London,  W.  B.  Saunders  Co.,  1908. 

28 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

Nerve  fibers  are  divided  into  two  great  groups:  the 
efferent  fibers,  which  carry  impulses  out  from  the  nervous 
system  to  the  peripheral  tissues  (skin,  muscles,  etc.),  and 
the  afferent  fibers,  which  carry  impulses  inward  from  the 
peripheral  tissues  to  the  nerve  centers. 

Some  of  the  efferent  fibers,  carrying  impulses  outward 
from  the  centers,  are  also  called  motor  nerve  fibers.  If  these 
fibers  end  in  muscles,  the  effect  of  their  impulses  is  to  produce 
muscular  contraction.  If  they  end  in  glands,  they  cause  a 
secretion,  depending  on  the  kind  of  tissue  with  which  the 
nerve  fiber  is  connected.  Some  afferent  fibers,  bearing  im- 
pulses inward  to  the  nerve  centers,  are  also  called  sensory 
fibers,  because  in  many  instances  these  impulses  reach  the 
brain  and  give  rise  to  sensations  of  various  kinds.  Often^ 
however,  these  inward  carried  impulses  do  not  reach  the 
brain  in  consciousness,  but  are  manifested  as  reflex  actions, 
such  as  the  movements  of  the  heart,  intestines,  etc.  These 
reflex  activities  constitute  a  fundamental  part  of  our  nervous 
system,  but  we  may  for  the  time  being  leave  them  out  of 
account. 

(b)  The  Location  of  Nervous  Fatigue 
The  question  at  once  arises  how  our  intricate  nervous 
system  succumbs  to  fatigue  and  how  such  fatigue  is  mani- 
fested. It  obviously  cannot  easily  be  measured  and  regis- 
tered, like  muscular  fatigue,  upon  a  revolving  drum.  Labor- 
atory study  of  nervous  fatigue  has  been  beset  with  enormous 
difficulties  and  the  unsolved  problems  are  many.  There  is 
profound  disagreement  among  scientists  as  to  what  part  of 
the  nervous  system  first  succumbs  after  excessive  exertions. 
We  know  that  the  nerve  fibers  themselves — carriers 
of  energy — are  apparently  not  readily  subject  to  fatigue. 
That  is,  they  can  conduct  impulses  to  the  peripheral  tissues 
almost  indefinitely.  Varied  experiments  have  proved  that 
their  normal  functional  activity  may  be  carried  on  to  an  al- 
most indefinite  extent  without  causing  fatigue.  In  these 
experiments  the  underlying  idea  has  been  to  stimulate  the 

29 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

nerve  continuously,  but  to  interpose  a  block  somewhere 
along  the  course  of  the  nerve,  so  that  the  impulses  shall  not 
be  conducted  to  the  muscle  experimented  upon.  This  is 
obviously  necessary  because  otherwise  the  muscle  would  be- 
come fatigued,  and  there  would  be  no  way  to  distinguish 
between  fatigue  of  the  muscle  or  of  the  nerve  fiber.  By  the 
use  of  curare,  a  South  American  arrow  poison,  the  passage 
of  the  electric  stimulus  to  the  muscle  is  blocked,  the  poison 
affecting  the  terminations  of  the  nerves,  or  motor  end-plates, 
as  they  are  called,  and  preventing  their  transmission  of 
impulses  to  the  muscles.  By  the  use  of  curare,  then,  the 
sciatic  nerve  has  been  continuously  stimulated  for  as  long  as 
ten  hours.*  When  the  effects  of  curare  were  removed  (which 
can  be  accomplished  within  a  few  minutes)  the  nerve  was 
found  to  be  still  conducting,  the  muscle  responding.  Thus, 
nerve  fibers  are  practically  unfatiguable. 

It  has  long  been  supposed  that  while  nerve  fiber  is  proved 
highly  resistant,  the  central  portion  of  the  nervous  system  is 
extremely  susceptible  to  fatigue.  It  has  been  thought  that 
after  prolonged  muscular  activity  the  brain  and  spinal  cord 
tire  first,  before  the  muscle.  Thus,  after  a  finger  muscle  has 
become  so  fatigued  by  the  ergograph  that  it  can  no  longer 
voluntarily  lift  a  given  weight,  it  can  be  made  to  do  so  by 
electric  stimulation.  The  muscular  mechanism  is  apparently 
still  in  working  order,  at  least  for  a  space  of  time.  After  a 
longer  or  shorter  period,  even  the  given  electric  stimulus 
cannot  cause  the  muscle  to  contract,  and  the  individual's 
curve  of  fatigue  drops  after  electric  stimulation  in  very  much 
the  same  way  that  it  does  in  voluntary  contraction.  Ap- 
parently the  muscle  has  not  entirely  lost  its  power  of  contrac- 
tion when  it  can  no  longer  voluntarily  contract.  Accord- 
ing to  this  theory,  what  seems  to  be  muscular  fatigue  is  in 
reality  nervous  fatigue,  fatigue  of  some  part  of  our  nervous 
system. 

Laboratory  experiments  upon  animals  show  that  after 
prolonged   activity   demonstrable   histologic   changes   take 

*  Howell,  Wm.  H.,   op.  cit.,  p.  111. 
30 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

place  in  the  nerve  cells  of  the  brain  and  spinal  cord.*  Mosso 
drew  attention  to  the  marked  modifications  in  the  brains  of 
exhausted  birds.  He  gives  a  delightful  account  of  his  ex- 
perimental dove  cote  and  of  his  fatigue  tests  upon  military 
carrier  pigeons  provided  by  the  Italian  Ministry  of  War. 
He  studied  also  the  changes  and  characteristics  in  wearied 
migrating  birds,  such  as  the  quail  which  arrive  each  year  in 
great  numbers  from  Africa  upon  Italian  shores.  Exhausted 
by  their  journey,  hundreds  are  killed,  dashing  themselves 
in  plain  dayhght  against  walls  and  houses.  Either  they 
are  too  much  exhausted  to  see  these  bright  objects  which 
seem  to  fascinate  them  from  afar,  or  their  exhaustion  is 
too  great  to  allow  them  to  raise  themselves  even  one  extra 
yard  in  their  rapid  flight.  Mosso  ascribed  their  impaired 
vision  to  the  cerebral  anaemia  found  in  birds  exhausted  by 
long  flights.  Later  in  his  book  he  shows  how  profoundly  a 
diminished  circulation  of  the  blood  affects  the  functions  of 
nervous  tissue  in  man.  A  few  seconds'  pressure  upon  the 
eyelid,  lessening  the  blood  supply,  is  enough  to  distort  vision, 
and  a  diminution  of  the  brain's  blood  supply  is  followed  by 
loss  of  consciousness  after  six  or  seven  seconds. f 

Other  more  recent  experiments  throw  some  measure  of 
doubt  upon  these  demonstrations  of  fatigue  in  the  central  ner- 
vous system.  Some  investigators  suggest  that  the  first  part  of 
our  neuro-muscular  mechanism  to  tire  after  sustained  contrac- 
tion is  the  nerve-ending  in  the  muscle,  or  motor  end-plate. { 

*  Hodge,  C.  F.:  Amer.  Jour,  oj  Psychology,  1887-1888,  Vol.  I,  p. 
479;     1889,  Vol.  II,  p.  376.  jour,  of  Morphology,  1892,  Vol.  VII,  p.  95. 

Vas,  Fr. :   Archiv  fiir  mikroskopische  Anatomie,  1892,  Vol.  XL,  p.  375. 

Mann,  Gustav:  Jour,  of  Anatomy  &  Physiology,  1894,  Vol.  XXIX, p.  100. 

Lugaro,  E.:   LoSperimentale,  Sezione  biologica,  1895,  Vol.  XLIX,  p.  159. 

Eve,  F.  C:  Jour.  oJ  Physiology,  1896,  Vol.  XX,  p.  334. 

t  Mosso,  Angelo:  La  Fatica.  Milano,  1891.  English  translation, 
pp.  1-29,  72  and  73.     New  York,  Putnam,  1904. 

J  Miiller,  G.  E.:  Zeitschrift  fiir  Psychologic  und  Physiologic  der 
Sinnesorgane,  1893,  Vol.  IV,  p.  122. 

Miiller,  Robert:   Wundt's  Philosop.  Studien,  1901,  Vol.  XVII,  p.  1. 

Hough,  Theodore:   Amer.   Jour,  of  Physiology,  1901,  Vol.  V,  p.  240. 

Storey,  Thomas  A. ;   Amer.  Jour,  of  Physiology,  1903,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  355. 

Joteyko,  Mile.  J.:  Fatigue.  Richet's  Diet,  de  Physiologic.  Paris, 
1904,  Vol.  VI,  p.  29. 

Woodworth,  R.  S.:  N.  Y.  University  Bulletin  of  the  Medical  Sciences, 
1901,  Vol.  I,  p.  133. 

31 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Scientists  themselves  disagree  as  to  the  precise  nature 
and  locahzation  of  nervous  fatigue.  Little  is  known  as  to 
the  production  of  fatigue  substances  by  the  central  system. 
It  may  even  be  that  central  nerve  cells  are  less  readily  sus- 
ceptible to  fatigue  than  has  been  supposed  and  that  they 
succumb  only  to  a  really  high  degree  of  exertion.  Yet  it 
should  be  clearly  understood  that  the  uncertainty  of  scientists 
as  to  the  precise  localization  of  nervous  fatigue  does  not  touch 
the  acknowledged  fatiguability  of  some  portion,  not  yet 
completely  verified,  of  our  nervous  endowment.  Thus 
Professor  Frederic  S.  Lee,  one  of  the  physiologists  who  in- 
clines most  strongly  to  the  belief  that  central  cells  are  more 
resistant  than  has  been  supposed,  specifically  states  that 
"nervous  fatigue  is  an  undoubted  fact,"*  and  that,  "we  can- 
not deny  fatigue  to  psychic  centers,"  though  "the  intimate 
relations  of  central  and  peripheral  fatigue  are  much  in  need 
of  exact  experimental  study. "f 

Moreover,  it  is  not  essential  to  our  present  inquiry  to 
know  whether  muscle  or  nerve  substances  tire  first,  or  exactly 
what  part  of  our  nervous  system  is  first  affected.  These  still 
unsolved  problems  may  not  go  unmentioned  in  any  account 
of  the  study  of  fatigue.  They  are  the  unanswered  questions 
fronting  the  scientist,  for  whom  the  "humblest  catabolic 
product"  must  be  a  challenge,  until  he  has  plucked  out  the 
mystery  of  its  composition  and  effect.  For  our  purposes  it 
is  enough  to  realize  that  nervous  fatigue,  be  it  central  or 
peripheral,  exists,  a  relentless  fact,  reacting  inexorably  upon 
our  total  health  and  life.  It  is  the  form  of  fatigue  most 
fraught  with  possibilities  of  mischief.  For  when  fatigue 
affects  the  nervous  system,  it  attacks  what  has  been  called 
the  "administrative  instrument  of  the  individual,"  which 
"directs,  controls  and  harmonizes  the  work  of  the  parts  of 
the  organic  machine  and  gives  unity  to  the  whole." 

When  that  administrative  instrument  is  impaired  by 
overwork  and  exhaustion,  formidable  forms  of  disease  appear 

*0p.  cit..  Science.  N.  S.,  Vol.  XXIX.  No.  744,  p.  525. 
t  Op.  cit.,  Harvey  Lectures,  1905-06,  p.  180. 

32 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

which  we  shall  subsequently  view  so  far  as  they  may  be  traced 
to  industrial  causes.  But  first  we  must  proceed  to  examine 
how  nervous  fatigue  is  manifested  in  the  laboratory. 

6.     THE  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  WORKING  CAPACITY 

(a)   Work  Continued  Under  Fatigue  Costs  More  Effort 

One  of  the  most  valuable  contributions  of  the  Turin 
school  was  in  proving  graphically  the  nervous  strain  in  over- 
work. 

It  is  a  fact  familiar  to  every  one  that  work  done  after 
fatigue  has  set  in  requires  much  greater  expenditure  of  ner- 
vous energy  than  work  done  before  fatigue.  This  is  illus- 
trated by  the  simple  act  of  holding  up  a  weight  in  out- 
stretched arms  after  they  have  become  tired.  It  is  shown  in 
the  so-called  tension  of  the  will  needed  to  complete  a  difficult 
task,  the  unmistakable  sense  of  effort  in  "  keeping-up." 

Mosso  showed  that  a  much  stronger  electric  stimulus  is 
required  to  make  a  wearied  muscle  contract  than  one  which 
is  rested.  He  devised  an  apparatus,  the  ponometer,  which 
records  the  curve  of  nervous  effort  required  to  accomplish 
muscular  action  as  fatigue  increases.  He  showed  that  the 
nerve  centers  are  compelled  to  supply  an  ever  stronger 
stimulus  to  fatigued  muscles.  As  the  muscle  tires  and  ac- 
complishes less  work,  more  and  more  energy  must  be  supplied 
for  contraction.  In  the  language  of  the  laboratory,  the 
ponometric  curve  follows  a  course  which  is  the  inverse  of  the 
ergographic  curve;  or,  more  intelligibly  put,  effort  increases 
with  fatigue. 

In  another  way,  and  as  impressively,  Maggiora  showed 
how  much  greater  effort  is  needed  to  make  wearied  than  fresh 
muscles  work.  He  found  that  after  his  finger  muscles  were 
exhausted  by  a  series  of  contractions  in  the  ergograph,  he  had 
to  allow  a  two-hour  rest  before  they  were  completely  rested. 
If  he  diminished  this  period,  and  allowed  only  one  and  one- 
half  hour's  rest,  the  muscle  was  insufficiently  restored  and 
could  not  do  as  much  work  as  when  thoroughly  rested. 
3  33 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

By  analogy  it  might  be  supposed  that  if  the  work  were 
lessened,  the  period  of  rest  might  be  reduced  in  the  same  pro- 
portion; that  if  Maggiora  cut  in  half  the  work  which  re- 
quired two  hours'  rest,  he  would  need  only  one  hour  to  recover 
entirely  from  a  shorter  series  of  contractions.  But  experi- 
ment proved,  surprisingly,  that  even  less  rest  was  needed  after 
the  shorter  period  of  work.  If  work  is  reduced  by  one-half, 
the  period  of  necessary  rest  can  actually  be  reduced  half 
or  three-quarters  as  much  again.  Thus,  if  30  contractions 
exhaust  the  finger  muscle  so  that  it  needs  two  hours'  rest, 
15  contractions  require  not  one  hour  but  only  a  half-hour 
for  recuperation.  In  other  words,  the  expenditure  of  energy 
in  the  last  15  contractions,  after  fatigue  has  set  in,  is 
much  greater  than  the  energy  expended  in  the  first  15 
contractions,  since  the  last  set  of  contractions  exhaust  the  or- 
ganism much  more  than  the  first  set. 

Moreover,  the  tracings  of  work  done  in  the  second  set  of 
contractions  are  much  smaller  than  the  first  tracings;  the 
output  falls  off,  as  we  say  of  industrial  work.  Hence  strain, 
or  work  done  after  fatigue  has  set  in,  not  only  costs  more 
effort  but  accomplishes  less.  The  last  15  contractions  are 
decidedly  smaller,  while  the  effort  to  keep  up  costs  the  organ- 
ism four  times  as  long  a  rest  for  recuperation. 

The  ergographic  record  shows  also  the  remarkable  re- 
cuperative effect  of  rest  taken  at  the  critical  moment  before 
exhaustion  is  reached.  For  if  work  is  stopped  after  the  first 
set  of  contractions,  before  the  muscle  is  completely  exhausted, 
it  accomplishes  just  twice  the  amount  of  work  which  was 
produced  when  the  muscle  was  pushed  to  the  actual  point  of 
exhaustion.    As  Mosso  puts  it:* 

"Our  body  is  not  constructed  like  a  locomotive  which 
consumes  the  same  quantity  of  coal  for  every  kilogrammetre 
of  work.     When  the  body  is  fatigued,  even  a  small  amount  of 

work  produces  disastrous  effects The  workman 

that  persists  in  his  task  when  he  is  already  fatigued  not  only 
produces  less  effective  work,  but  receives  greater  injury  to  his 
organism." 

*  Op.  cit.,  English  translation,  pp.  152  and  157. 

34 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

(b)  The  Nature  of  Training 
Professor  Treves  at  Turin,  a  follower  of  Mosso,  throws 
further  light  upon  the  injuries  due  to  an  excessive  run  upon 
nervous  energy.  It  is  a  wellknown  fact  that  in  muscular 
exertion  there  is  a  marked  gain  in  efficiency  during  the  first 
period  of  work.  In  the  miuscular  contractions  of  men  as 
well  as  of  animals,  the  curve  of  fatigue  rises  before  it  begins 
to  fall.  That  is,  before  fatigue  begins  to  diminish  the  muscle's 
power  of  contracting,  there  is  a  period  during  which  the  muscle 
gains  strength  at  every  effort  and  is  able  to  raise  the  weight 
to  a  higher  and  higher  level.  This  upward  progression  of 
the  curve  is  known  to  physiologists  as  the  staircase,   or 


Fig.  6 

Series  of  contractions  of  a  frog's  sartorius  muscle,  excised  and  stimu- 
lated at  intervals  of  two  and  one  iialf  seconds.  Each  successive  vertical 
line  is  the  record  of  a  single  contraction,  The  contractions  at  first  increase 
in  extent,  this  stage  constituting  the  treppe,  and  later  decrease,  this  stage 
constituting  fatigue. 


"treppe."  The  treppe  means  that,  in  its  early  stages,  the 
working  power  of  muscle  is  augmented.  Its  physiological 
irritability,  or  power  of  responding  to  a  stimulus,  increases, 
so  that  the  same  stimulus  results  in  greater  contractions. 
After  a  certain  period  the  treppe  is  at  its  height,  and  contrac- 
tion continues  at  its  maximum  until  the  development  of 
fatigue  causes  it  to  diminish  and  fail. 

In  the  study  of  isolated  muscle  these  three  general 
though  not  sharply  defined  stages  of  work  may  be  observed. 
First,  the  treppe,  when  working  power  is  on  the  increase 
and  excitability  is  growing;  second,  the  period  when  the 
muscle  is  in  its  best  working  condition,  its  excitability 
highest;   and  third,  the  period  when  fatigue  products  clog 

35 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  muscle  more  and  more  until  contraction  is  finally  forced 
to  cease. 

These  three  general  stages  of  work,  graphically  shown  in 
the  contractions  of  isolated  muscle,  are  familiar  to  every  one 
in  ordinary  experience.  It  is  an  epitome  of  life  at  which  we 
are  looking — a  picture  of  human  work  drawn  without  per- 
spective. Everyone  knows  that  in  every  long-continued 
task,  the  first  stage  is  one  of  "limbering  up";  then  we 
gradually  reach  the  plane  where  our  working  power  is  at  its 
maximum  (more  or  less  variable  to  be  sure),  until  fatigue 
inclines  it  unmistakably  downward  towards  our  minimum — 
the  zero  of  exhaustion. 

Training  is  of  inestimable  value  in  all  work,  as  well  as 
in  sports.  It  increases  our  working  capacity  by  practically 
retarding  the  onset  of  fatigue  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period. 
It  does  this  by  making  the  tissues  more  or  less  resistant  to 
those  poisons  which,  as  we  have  seen,  are  generated  in  action 
and  accumulate  unduly  in  overexertion. 

Training,  like  the  fatigue  which  it  combats,  has  a  true 
physiological  basis,  and  physiology  explains  its  virtue  as 
clearly  as  it  does  the  essential  injuries  of  fatigue.  It  is  a 
wellknown  fact  that  the  body  adapts  itself  in  extraordinary 
measure  to  even  large  quantities  of  poisonous  drugs,  when 
they  are  taken  in  gradually  increasing  doses.  So,  also,  it 
adapts  itself  to  moderate  and  increasing  amounts  of  the 
fatigue  poisons.  Now,  proper  physical  training  provides 
graded  and  increasing  exercises,  and  these  increasing  exer- 
cises, by  producing  successively  larger  amounts  of  fatigue 
poisons,  inure  the  tissues  gradually  to  such  poisonous  prod- 
ucts. This  resistance  of  tissue  to  the  depressant  action  of 
our  self-generated  poisons  is  the  most  important  element  in 
all  training  or  practice. 

The  athlete  is  enabled  by  training  to  undergo  exertions 
which  would  kill  an  ordinary  untrained  man.  Training  even 
saves  a  certain  amount  of  nervous  energy  by  a  more  ready 
coordination  of  muscles  and  by  calling  upon  a  smaller  number 
of  muscles  than  are  used  by  the  untrained  man. 

36 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

The  question,  however,  arises  whether  in  intensive 
regular  labor  which  makes  great  demands  on  the  organism, 
muscular  efficiency  may  not  be  bought  at  too  dear  a  cost  of 
nervous  energy.  Overtraining  is  as  unmistakable  a  phenom- 
enon as  training,  and  the  pathologic  effects  of  overtraining 
are  not  confined  to  athletes.  We  have  seen  that  the  strain 
of  the  wearied  muscle  to  keep  up,  after  fatigue  has  set  in, 
costs  more  effort  and  accomplishes  less  than  the  work  of 
unwearied  muscle;  we  have  seen  that  nervous  stimulation 
must  increase  as  working  capacity  declines.  Now  Professor 
Treves  asserts  that  when  muscles  have  attained  their  greatest 
strength,  the  nervous  energy  at  their  command  will  not  have 
grown  in  proportion.     He  says:* 

"According  to  my  experience,  it  has  not  been  found 
that  training  has  as  favorable  an  effect  upon  energy  as  upon 
muscular  strength.  ,  .  .  This  fact  explains  why  mus- 
cular training  cannot  go  beyond  certain  limits  and  why 
athletes  are  often  broken  down  by  the  consequences  of  over- 
exertion. And  this  fact  teaches  also  the  practical  necessity 
of  preventing  women,  children,  and  even  adult  men  from  be- 
coming subjected  to  labor  which,  indeed,  a  gradual  muscular 
training  may  make  possible  but  at  the  price  of  an  excessive 
loss  of  nervous  energy  which  is  not  betrayed  by  any  obvious 
or  immediate  symptom,  either  objective  or  subjective. 
While  the  individual  works,  the  reserves  of  disposable  nervous 
energy  in  the  neurones  which  preside  over  muscles  diminish 
much  more  rapidly  than  the  production  of  work  which  may 
keep  to  the  normal  level.  ...  In  spite  of  this  diminu- 
tion, if  circumstances  continually  demand  intense  and  con- 
stant work,  the  stimulus  will  continue  to  be  sent  to  the  muscle 
with  the  intensity  necessary  to  accomplish  the  purpose.     .     . 

"  Here  we  have  an  arrangement  of  things  which  is  of 
inestimable  value  to  man  in  the  production  of  work;  but 
this  beneficent  provision  becomes  injurious  to  the  dynamic 
equilibrium  of  the  organism  as  soon  as  it  is  irrationally  em- 
ployed. It  is  this  that  needs  to  be  avoided  in  the  practical 
organization  of  industry." 

*  Thirteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography 
Brussels,  1903,  Vol.  V,  Sec.  IV,  pp.  6-7.  Treves,  Dr.  Z.  (University  of 
Turin):  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on  par  des  methodes  physiologiques 
6tudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres  dans  les  diverses  professions. 

37 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

One  Step  more  and  we  reach  the  terminus  of  our  analysis. 
We  have  seen  that  the  curve  of  muscular  work  normally 
begins  to  decline  after  it  has  reached  its  maximum,  when  the 
fatigue  products  clog  the  muscles  excessively.  Now  it  is  a 
fact  of  vast  consequence  to  our  total  health  that  with  nervous 
fatigue  the  curve  of  work  often  does  not  descend  as  nor- 
mally it  should.  Nervous  fatigue  may  indeed  seem  to  in- 
crease our  working  capacity  temporarily.  Most  persons  are 
familiar  with  what  is  colloquially  called  "working  on  one's 
nerves,"  when  nervous  fatigue  instead  of  depressing  our 
working  capacity,  as  it  normally  should  do,  stimulates  it  to 
greater  activity.  The  temporary  increase  in  efficiency  is, 
of  course,  illusive,  though  it  may  for  a  while  lead  to  a  really 
heightened  capacity.  But  at  too  dear  a  cost !  After  a  longer 
or  shorter  period  the  false  stimulation  breaks  like  a  bubble, 
leaving  the  worker  nervously  unstrung  and  dropped  abruptly 
down  to  a  plane  of  efficiency  far  lower  than  normal  fatigue 
should  have  declined  to. 

This  form  of  nervous  over-stimulation  thus  conceals  from 
the  worker  the  oncoming  of  fatigue,  so  that  he  may  ap- 
proach the  stage  of  exhaustion  before  he  is  aware  of  the  fact. 
Consciousness  of  fatigue  does  not  at  all  keep  pace  with  the 
progressive  exhaustion  of  the  nervous  mechanism,  with  its 
apparently  heightened  irritability  or  power  of  response. 

At  this  point  the  scientific  interpretation  of  industrial 
problems  advocated  at  the  outset  of  this  study  becomes 
obvious  enough.  A  flood  of  light  is  thrown  upon  the  intri- 
cate injuries  of  speed,  overtime,  piece-work,  and  the  like 
industrial  requirements.  For  if  fatigue  be  due  to  demon- 
strated chemical  action,  removable  only  by  proper  intervals 
of  rest;  if  overfatigue  or  exhaustion  results  from  the  accumu- 
lation of  chemical  fatigue  products  and  the  destruction  of 
energy-yielding  material  in  nerve  and  muscle  tissue;  if 
strain  or  labor  carried  on  after  fatigue  has  set  in  is  proved 
more  exhausting  than  simple  work,  and  if  muscular  training 
outruns  nervous  strength, — then  the  need  for  the  shorter 

58 


THE    NATURE   OF    FATIGUE 

workday  rests  upon  a  scientific  basis.     Science  makes  out  its 
case  for  the  short  day  in  industry. 

No  one  has  expressed  this  mission  of  science  to  labor  and 
industrial  legislation  with  more  discernment  than  M.  Hector 
Denis,  of  the  Belgian  Council  of  Labor.  In  a  few  eloquent 
sentences  he  has  transformed  the  dry  business  of  law-making 
into  a  calling  of  insight  and  the  imagination.* 

"Man  has  a  new  right,"  he  says,  "the  right  to  leisure 
and  rest,  as  well  as  work.  .  ,  .  The  history  of  labor 
legislation  can  be  given  in  two  words:  The  right  to  rest  is 
inherent  in  man's  physiological  structure.  From  this  follows 
the  social  need  to  do  away  with  the  exhaustion  resulting  from 
overwork  and  to  conserve  working  power,  the  most  precious 
possession  of  a  nation.  .  .  .  Science  traces  out  a  path 
for  the  modern  lawmaker.  His  difficult  but  glorious  mis- 
sion is  to  accomplish  the  normal  synthesis  of  these  two  in- 
alienable rights  springing  from  the  very  laws  of  life — the 
right  to  use  one's  working  powers  and  the  right  to  conserve 
them." 

7.    THE  GREATER  MORBIDITY  OF  WOMEN 

We  have  now  examined  some  of  the  features  of  our 
common  physiologic  life,  persistent,  though  varying  with  our 
ages,  our  states  of  health,  our  native  intensities,  our  individual 
psychological  motives  and  checks.  Before  proceeding  to 
examine  some  industrial  operations  and  their  demands  on 
human  energies,  it  remains  to  point  out  the  special  suscepti- 
bility to  fatigue  and  disease  which  distinguishes  the  female 
sex,  qua  female. 

This  physiological  diff'erentiation  between  men  and 
women  is  important  in  this  study  because  women's  physiolog- 
ical handicaps  make  them  subject  more  than  men  to  the 
new  strain  of  industry.  If  now  the  health  of  women  in 
industry  is  shown  to  be  specially  open  to  the  inroads  of 
fatigue  and  disease  on  account  of  their  physical  make-up, 
they  clearly  need  the  protection  of  special  laws. 

*  Royaume  de  Belgique.  Conseil  Superieur  du  Travail,  6e  Session. 
1901-1902.    T.  I.,  Fasc.  II.     Le  Repos  Hebdomadaire,  pp.  168  and  169. 

39 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  fundamental  fact  which 
distinguishes  women  physiologically  from  men,  is  their  par- 
ticular sex  function — the  bearing  of  children.  Their  anat- 
omy and  physiology  is  adapted  for  this  primal  function, 
whether  or  not  it  is  ever  to  be  realized,  whether  or  not  they 
are  ever  to  become  mothers  of  children.  The  unmarried  as 
well  as  the  married  woman,  therefore,  is  subject  to  the  phy- 
sical limitations  of  her  sex,  and  each  suffers  alike  from  those 
incidents  of  industrial  work  most  detrimental  to  the  female 
reproductive  system,  such  as  overstrain  from  excessive  speed 
and  complexity,  prolonged  standing,  and  the  absence  of  a 
monthly  day  of  rest.  These  and  similar  conditions  are  com- 
mon to  most  industrial  operations  and  they  are  particularly 
harmful  to  women. 

In  addition  to  their  susceptibility  to  injuries  of  the 
generative  organs,  working  women  have  been  found  more 
liable  than  men  to  disease  in  general.  There  is  a  consensus  of 
opinion  among  those  who  have  longest  observed  girls  and 
women  at  work,  that  the  burdens  of  industrial  life  press 
much  more  heavily  upon  them  than  upon  men.  Wherever 
statistics  of  the  morbidity  of  both  workingmen  and  working- 
women  exist,  the  morbidity  of  women  is  found  to  be  higher. 
Such  statistics  do  not  exist  in  this  country,  but  they  are  to  be 
found  abroad  in  the  records  of  foreign  sickness  insurance 
societies.*  The  two  most  important  facts  to  be  noted  are 
women's  higher  morbidity  when  compared  with  men  in  the 
same  occupations,  and  their  longer  duration  of  illness,  meas- 
ured by  the  number  of  days  lost  from  work. 

More  than  twenty  years  ago  the  eminent  Swiss  writers, 
Schuler  and  Burckhardt,  the  one  a  factory  inspector  and  the 
other  professor  of  hygiene  at  Bale,  showed  f  that  in  cotton 
mills  where  both  sexes  were  employed  the  relative  morbidity 
of  men  and  women  was  as  100  :  128.     This  was  in  the  spin- 

*  See  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  Vol.  LI  I,  No.  2, 
p.  138.     Editorial,  Jan.  9,  1909. 

t  Schuler,  Dr.  Fridolin,  und  Burckhardt,  Dr.  A.  E.:  Untersuchungen 
iiber  die  Gesundheitsverhaltnisse  der  Fabrikbevolkerung  der  Schweiz, 
p.  34.     Aarau,  Sauerlander,  1889. 

40 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

ning  rooms.    In  the  weaving  rooms  the  morbidity  of  women 
was  even  higher,  being  as  139  :  100. 

These  figures  have  since  been  confirmed  and  amplified 
by  other  authorities.  The  most  recent  authoritative  Ameri- 
can book  on  workingmen's  compensation  gives  the  morbidity 
figures  of  German  insurance  societies  during  a  period  of 
years.  These  figures  concern  men  and  women  not  of  the 
same  trades.  The  number  of  cases  of  sickness  among  men 
is  greater  than  among  women,  but  the  duration  of  women's 
illnesses  is  longer.  Hence,  what  is  technically  called  the 
co-efficient  of  morbidity,  that  is,  the  "duration  of  sickness 
per  member  each  year,"  is  higher  for  women  than  for  men.* 


PER  CENT  AND   DURATION   OF   SICKNESS   IN   GERMAN   SICKNESS 
INSURANCE    SOCIETIES,    1888-1907 


1888 

189^ 

190S 

1904 

1905 

1906 

1907 

Cases  of  sick-  |  Men 

33.5 

36.8 

38.3 

40.9 

41.4 

39.4 

42.7 

ness  per  year  [ 
per    100"  in-  [ 
sured.             j  Women 

28.8 

31.1 

33.0 

35.4 

35.0 

33.4 

35.6 

Averagenum-  ]  Men 
ber  of  days  . 
of     sickness 
per  case        J  Women 

16.6 
17.7 

17.0 
18.3 

18.1 
21.9 

18.7 
23.2 

18.7 
23.5 

18.5 
24.1 

18.5 
23.4 

Days  of  sick- 1  Men 

555.6 

626.6 

695.3 

762.1 

775.9 

728.6 

788.7 

ness  per  an-  1 

num  per  100 

insured           j  Women 

508.3 

569.7 

720.4 

822.9 

927.9 

804.7 

833.1 

The  same  thing  is  shown  in  a  recent  Swiss  report  regarding 
the  morbidity  of  men  and  women  in  the  Swiss  mutual  insur- 
ance societies.! 

*  Frankel,  Lee  K.,  and  Dawson,  Miles  W.:  Workingmen's  Insurance 
in  Europe,  pp.  240  and  241.  Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication.  New 
York,  Charities  Publication  Committee,  1910. 

t  Die  Gegenseitige  Hilfsgesellschaften  in  der  Schweiz  im  Jahre  1903. 
Berne,  1907. 

41 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

"Among  100  insured  men  an  average  of  26.76  received 
sick  relief;  but  among  100  women  only  24.26.  The  men  who 
received  sick  relief  averaged  23.55  days  of  illness;  the  women 
averaged  32.46. 

"The  women,  therefore,  showed  a  lower  percentage  of 
relief  but  a  longer  average  duration  of  sick  time,  and  as  a 
result  of  these  two  circumstances  the  average  morbidity  of 
the  women  is  higher  than  that  of  the  men — 7.87  as  against 
6.30." 

A  German  authority  gives  somewhat  less  recent  but 
interesting  comparative  figures  of  German  and  Austrian  sick- 
ness insurance  societies,  showing  in  each  case  the  same  longer 
duration  of  women's  illnesses.  For  each  100  persons  the  days 
of  illness  per  person  averaged  as  follows:  In  the  German 
society  referred  to,  the  men  averaged  21.6  days  lost  through 
illness,  the  women  averaged  24.4  days  so  lost.  In  the  Aus- 
trian society  the  men  lost  on  an  average  16.5  days  as  com- 
pared with  an  average  of  18.8  days  lost  by  the  women.* 

Thus  are  women  physiologically  handicapped  by  a 
greater  general  liability  to  disease,  and  a  peculiar  suscepti- 
bility to  injuries  of  the  generative  organs.  In  a  word,  they 
are  less  resistant  to  fatigue  than  men,  and  their  organisms 
suffer  more  gravely  than  men's  from  the  strains  and  stresses 
of  industrial  life,  to  whose  newer  aspects  we  are  next  to  turn. 

*  Prinzing,  Dr.  Friedrich:  Handbuch  der  Medizinischen  Statistik, 
p.  110.    Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 


42 


Ill 

THE  NEW  STRAIN  IN  INDUSTRY 

WHAT,  then,  are  the  special  forms  of  overstrain  found 
in  modern  industry,  viewing  industrial  conditions, 
as  was  our  premise,  from  the  physiological  point  of 
view?  In  a  brief  sketch  of  this  vast  field  it  will  be  possible 
to  single  out  only  a  very  few  features  for  comment.  We  can 
do  no  more  than  glance,  as  it  were,  at  some  of  the  innumer- 
able processes  which  directly  or  indirectly  feed  the  machinery 
of  the  world,  supplying  man's  needs  and  luxuries. 

Of  those  elements  in  industry  which  are  most  charac- 
teristic and  which  make  the  greatest  demands  on  human 
energies,  we  may  select  the  following:  speed  and  complexity, 
monotony,  piece-work,  and  overtime.  Let  us  attempt  to 
gauge  the  part  played  by  these  factors  in  a  few  trades,  so  as 
to  have  before  us  some  concrete  examples  of  industrial  things 
as  they  are.  Other  fatiguing  influences  in  machine  work, 
such  as  noise  and  the  mechanical  rhythms,  will  of  necessity 
come  within  the  scope  of  our  brief  analysis,  as  well  as  the  now 
recognized  relation  between  fatigue  and  the  incidence  of 
industrial  accidents. 

1.     SPEED  AND  COMPLEXITY 

(a)  The  Telephone  Service 
Let  us  begin  with  our  first  factors,  speed  and  complexity. 
Measured  by  these,  few  trades  can  equal  in  their  demands 
upon  the  human  organism  an  occupation  newly  open  to  the 
girls  and  women  of  our  generation  and  practically  new  to  the 
last  decade.  This  is  the  ubiquitous  telephone  service, — that 
network  of  wires  which  spans  continents  and  binds  together, 

43 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

as  never  before  in  history,  at  least  the  outward  and  visible 
activities  of  men.  Indeed,  we  could  scarcely  picture  to  our- 
selves the  spectacle  of  modern  life  without  a  telephone  at 
every  hand,  servant  of  every  whim  and  desire,  and  by  the 
same  token,  a  new  tyrant  that  few  can  escape. 

Now,  one  part  of  this  mechanism,  one  link  in  the  chain 
between  two  speakers,  is  the  girl's  voice  which  answers  every 
call  by  day  or  night,  a  link,  to  most  persons,  as  disembodied 
and  automatic  as  the  receiver  on  its  hook. 

We  are  to  look  a  little  more  closely  at  this  girl's  condi- 
tions of  work.  They  are  special  to  her  business,  but  not 
unfairly  typical  of  the  new  strain  in  all  industry.  Two  recent 
official  investigations*  give  us  an  unusual  abundance  of  facts 
by  which  to  gauge  that  phase  of  the  work  in  which  we  are 
here  interested:  its  effects  on  the  health  of  the  workers; 
its  cost,  not  in  money,  but  in  the  outlay  of  woman's  physio- 
logical powers. 

The  whole  telephone  business  is  new,  dating  from  1876. 
Originally  it  employed  only  men  and  boys.  In  1907,  ac- 
cording to  a  report  of  the  Bureau  of  the  Census,  there  were 
76,638  female  operators  in  the  United  States  as  against  3,576 
male  operators.  Something  like  twice  as  many  persons  were 
employed  in  other  positions  as  clerks,  mechanics,  officials,  and 
so  on.  We  shall  confine  ourselves  here  to  the  work  of  the 
women  operators. 

These  thousands  of  "telephone  girls"  whose  ages  vary 
from  sixteen  years  upward,  are  in  a  sense  picked  workers. f 
In  most  cities,  the  companies  require  for  the  efficiency  of  the 
service,  a  physical  examination  of  all  applicants,  and  seek  to 
exclude  girls  and  women  suffering  from  eye,  ear,  throat,  or 
heart  trouble.     Most  companies  have  also  an  educational 

*  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  a  Dispute  Respecting  Hours 
of  Employment  between  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  of  Canada,  Ltd., 
and  Operators  at  Toronto,  Ontario.     Ottawa,  1907. 

Investigation  of  Telephone  Companies  made  by  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor.  Senate  Document  No.  380,  61st  Congress,  2nd  Session. 
Washington.  1910. 

t  In  one  large  city,  out  of  6,152  applicants,  2,229  were  refused.  (Sen- 
ate Document  No.  380,  p.  19.) 

44 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

requirement,  accepting  no  applicants  who  have  not  completed 
the  fifth  or  grammar  grades  of  the  public  schools.  Most 
companies  also  give  a  month's  training  in  a  telephone  school 
where  applicants  learn  the  mechanism  of  the  switchboard 
and  the  manifold  duties  of  telephone  operating. 

These  picked  workers  also  receive,  on  the  whole,  more  in- 
telligent care  than  other  industrial  workers.  Fair  ventila- 
tion of  workrooms,  rest  rooms,  luncheons  provided  at  cost, 
and  free,  hot  beverages  at  lunch  time, — all  these  elementary 
"welfare"  provisions  have  been  found  useful  in  keeping  up 
the  operator's  efficiency  and  are  therefore  provided  by  most 
companies. 

So  much  we  have  on  the  credit  side  of  the  business, 
physiologically  viewed.  What,  then,  is  on  the  debit  side? 
To  gauge  this,  we  must  briefly  describe  what  telephone  oper- 
ating is.  The  most  concise  description  of  this  intricate  sub- 
ject involves  a  certain  amount  of  technical  detail,  since  the 
simplest  form  of  telephone  connection  requires  eleven  sep- 
arate processes  on  the  part  of  the  operator.  Yet  in  no  other 
way  than  by  tracing  these  separate  operations  can  we  in- 
telligently gauge  the  tax  of  this  occupation.  The  nature  of 
the  work,  the  large  and  daily  growing  number  of  girls  and 
women  engaged  in  it  throughout  the  country,  and  the  fact 
that  prominent  physicians  in  one  community  have  expressed 
themselves  forcibly  upon  its  physical  effects,  warrant  our 
devoting  material  attention  to  these  otherwise  unrelated 
details. 

The  center  of  the  telephone  system  is  the  "exchange." 
On  entering  the  operating  room  of  an  exchange  one  sees  per- 
haps one  hundred  young  women  seated  side  by  side,  on  ad- 
justable chairs  facing  the  switchboard,  which  extends  in  the 
form  of  a  semicircle  or  " U"  around  three  sides  of  the  room. 
The  switchboard  looks  not  unlike  a  continuous  line  of  up- 
right pianos  in  front  of  which  the  girls  are  seated.  Only, 
the  key-board  or  flat  shelf  extending  out  from  the  six-foot 
high  vertical  face  of  the  board  is  usually  wider  than  a  piano 
key-board,  varying  in  width  from  six  inches  to  a  foot.     The 

45 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

vertical  face  of  the  board  is  marked  off  into  sections  and 
panels,  honey-combed  with  holes.  Each  hole  in  the  lower 
panel  of  the  vertical  board  is  the  terminal  of  a  subscriber's 
telephone,  and  the  holes  are  so  distributed  that  each  operator 
has  before  her  a  certain  number  of  telephones  for  which  she 
is  directly  responsible.  Just  over  each  hole,  or  "answering 
jack"  as  it  is  called,  there  is  a  glass-covered  orifice,  containing 
a  miniature  incandescent  lamp,  which  glows  whenever  a 
subscriber  lifts  his  receiver  from  the  hook.  This  light,  to- 
gether with  a  clicking  sound  which  she  hears  through  her 
receiver  whenever  she  "  listens  in,"  signals  to  the  operator  that 
she  is  being  called. 

On  the  upper  half  of  the  vertical  board  known  as  the 
"multiple"  are  the  terminals,  or  jacks,  of  all  telephones  con- 
nected with  the  exchange,  by  means  of  which  the  operator 
can  connect  her  subscribers  with  the  persons  whom  they  wish 
to  reach.  These  upper  jacks  are  repeated  or  "multiplied" 
over  and  over  throughout  the  switchboard,  usually  once  in 
each  section,  or  each  six  feet,  so  that  the  operator  can  reach 
any  line  for  which  she  is  asked. 

On  the  horizontal  shelf  or  key-board,  extending  out  from 
the  vertical  face  of  the  board,  there  are  two  rows  of  small 
metal  plugs,  attached  to  cords,  the  points  of  the  plugs  alone 
showing  above  the  surface  of  the  board.  A  little  nearer  to 
the  operator,  on  the  shelf,  are  two  rows  of  tiny  glass-covered 
signal  lamps  similar  to  those  over  the  subscribers'  jacks  de- 
scribed above,  and  still  closer  to  the  operator,  on  the  shelf, 
there  is  a  row  of  small  levers  or  keys. 

Such  is  the  apparatus,  together  with  the  operator's  in- 
dividual "set," — a  receiver  strapped  over  her  ear  and  a 
mouth-piece  or  transmitter  suspended  so  that  she  can  con- 
veniently speak  into  it,  leaving  both  hands  free.  When 
a  subscriber  lifts  his  receiver  to  call  "central,"  the  signal 
light  immediately  flashes  out  at  the  terminal  of  his  line  on 
the  switchboard.  The  operator  thereupon  gets  into  com- 
munication with  the  subscriber  by  inserting  one  of  the 
plugs  with  its  attached  cord  into  the  hole  or  jack  correspond- 

46 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

ing  with  the  glowing  light.  She  then  throws  forward  one  of 
the  levers  known  as  the  "  listening  key."  This  connects  her 
with  the  calling  subscriber  and  extinguishes  the  signal  light. 
She  asks,  in  the  wellknown  phrase,  "Number,  please,"  and 
upon  receiving  a  reply  makes  the  desired  connection  as  fol- 
lows: She  inserts  the  companion  end  of  the  cord  which  she 
has  used  (the  cords  are  in  pairs  with  a  plug  at  the  end  of 
each),  into  the  proper  hole  on  the  upper  "multiple"  portion 
of  the  board,  bearing  the  number  of  the  desired  person.  She 
also  rings  up  this  second  person  by  pressing  another  lever,  at 
the  same  time  discontinuing  her  listening  key.*  Then  she 
makes  her  first  entry  upon  a  prescribed  slip,  in  order  to 
register  the  call. 

Thus  two  subscribers  are  in  communication.  But  there 
must  be  some  way  for  the  operator  to  learn  automatic- 
ally when  the  conversation  is  ended.  Therefore  each  pair  of 
cords  have  connected  to  them  two  of  the  tiny  signal  lamps. 
When  the  operator  inserts  the  plugs  into  the  jacks  their  cor- 
responding lights  begin  to  glow.  As  soon  as  the  called  sub- 
scriber lifts  his  receiver  the  signal  light  goes  out,  showing 
the  operator  that  her  ringing  has  been  answered.  The 
lights  remain  out  during  conversation,  but  as  soon  as  the 
subscribers  have  finished  and  hang  their  receivers,  the  lights 
above  the  companion  plugs  again  begin  to  glow.  This  warns 
the  operator  to  sever  the  connections  and  to  clear  the  jacks 
for  the  next  call. 

Thus  the  telephone  girl  must  be  continually  at  the  top- 
notch  of  expectancy,  watching  intently  for  the  flash  of  the 
signal  lights,  responding  instantly  to  the  clicking  sounds 
heard  whenever  impatient  subscribers  move  their  hooks  up 
and  down,  making  and  severing  connections  with  all  the 
speed  she  may. 

The  mere  statement  of  these  operations  in  the  simplest 
form  of  telephone  connection,  gives  us  some  insight  into  the 
prodigious  strain  of  this  occupation  upon  the  special  senses, — 

*  In  New  York  City,  the  operation  of  ringing  and  listening  is  done 
with  one  key. 

47 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

sight,  hearing,  touch, — as  well  as  the  muscular  exertion  of 
reaching  high  up  and  to  the  side.  We  cannot  here  enter  into 
the  complex  modifications  of  the  general  system  described 
above  (as  when  a  subscriber  is  called  whose  telephone  ter- 
minates in  a  different  exchange),  and  the  many  different  color 
signals  which  the  operator  must  instantly  recognize  when 
they  flash  before  her,  such  as,  toll  calls,  nickel  machine  calls, 
and  many  others. 

As  regards  the  physical  effects  of  the  work,  we  are 
fortunately  not  thrown  upon  surmise  but  have  expert  medical 
testimony  to  draw  upon.  This  is  available  in  the  remarkable 
report  of  the  royal  commission  appointed  to  investigate  a 
dispute  between  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  of  Canada  and 
their  operators  at  Toronto.  The  26  physicians  who  testified 
had  examined  the  exchanges  and  the  nature  of  the  work. 
We  must  postpone  until  our  next  chapter  their  detailed  state- 
ments as  to  the  detriment  to  health  from  overwork  in  the 
taxing  telephone  service,  the  specific  injuries  to  the  sense 
organs,  and  the  disastrous  reactions  upon  the  operator's 
nervous  system.  Here  it  is  enough  to  say  that  after  weigh- 
ing the  physicians'  testimony  and  recommendations,  the 
royal  commission,  with  some  misgivings,  permitted  the  total 
number  of  working  hours  for  women  switchboard  operators 
to  be  fixed  at  seven  hours,  broken  by  several  relief  periods 
and  spread  over  a  period  of  nine  hours. 

The  commission  took  pains  to  say,  however,  that  in 
view  of  the  medical  evidence  before  them,  a  seven-hour  work- 
day for  telephone  operators  seemed  to  them  "still  too  long," 
and  they  concluded : 

"  In  our  opinion  a  day  of  six  working  hours  spread  over 
a  period  of  from  eight  to  eight  and  three-quarter  hours,  and 
under  as  favorable  conditions  as  may  be  expected  in  an  ex- 
change doing  a  large  business,  is  quite  long  enough  for  a 
woman  to  be  engaged  in  this  class  of  work,  if  a  proper  regard 
is  to  be  had  for  the  effect  upon  her  health."* 

*  Two  hours'  work,  yi  hour  relief,  1>^  hours'  work,  1  hour  intermission, 
2  hours'  work,  yi  hour  relief,  and  1>^  hours'  work.  Report  of  the  Royal 
Commission,  pp.  99-100. 

48 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

Such  being  the  royal  commission's  mature  conclusions, 
we  turn  to  consider  the  same  work  in  the  United  States,  as 
set  forth  in  the  recent  report  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Labor.  The  methods  of  operating  here  and  in  Canada  are 
the  same. 

Where  the  royal  Canadian  commission  found  seven 
hours  "still  too  long"  and  recommended  six  hours,  we  find 
the  average  hours  of  work  in  the  United  States  reported  as 
eight  and  a  half  hours  per  day.  But  this  is  one  of  the  aver- 
ages which  hide  the  truth,  and,  in  practice,  owing  to  various 
reasons,  the  actual  working  hours  are  much  longer.  Tele- 
phone operators  are  divided  into  various  working  groups,  or 
"tricks,"  who  come  on  and  go  off  duty  at  widely  varying 
terminal  hours,  and  have  their  luncheon  and  relief  periods  at 
separate  times.  During  certain  busy  hours  of  the  day,  known 
as  "peak  of  the  load,"  morning  and  afternoon,  the  service  is 
vastly  increased  and  requires  an  increased  number  of  oper- 
ators. These  various  arrangements  of  work  are  necessary 
because  the  telephone  exchange  is  never  closed.  The  fires 
of  Vesta  burn  day  and  night!  They  must  be  tended  un- 
ceasingly. 

If  the  average  working  hours  are  eight  and  a  half  per  day, 
then  many  girls  must  work  longer  than  that  each  day,  as 
others  work  less.  Thus,  to  mention  merely  at  random  some 
daily  hours  far  in  excess  of  the  average  eight  and  a  half, 
in  1910  the  night  operators  of  the  Bell  Telephone  System 
were  reported  working  fifteen  hours  in  Springfield,  Missouri; 
twelve  hours  in  Kansas  City,  Missouri;  nine  hours  in  New 
Orleans,  Louisiana,  and  in  Dallas,  Texas.  Day  operators 
were  reported  as  employed  ten  hours  net  in  Kansas  City, 
and  nine  hours  net  in  Atlanta,  Georgia.  And  the  day  oper- 
ators of  the  American  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Company 
were  reported  as  employed  nine  hours  net  in  Kansas  City 
and  New  York  City.* 

The  requirement  of  overtime  work  makes  the  workday 
even  longer,  although  the  hours  officially  reported  already 

*  Senate  Document  No.  380,  61st  Congress,  2nd  Session,  pp.  37  and  38. 
4  49 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

by  far  exceed  the  maximum  deemed  compatible  with  health 
by  the  Canadian  physicians. 

The  custom  of  requiring  overtime  in  most  companies 
lengthens  the  workday  by  adding  from  a  few  minutes  to  two 
and  a  half  hours.  The  American  report  is  full  of  references 
to  this  pernicious  practice.  In  one  city,  for  instance,  where 
overtime  is  "not  above  the  average,"  the  company  reports 
that,  on  overtime,  their  day  operators  are  on  the  premises 
twelve  and  a  half  hours  and  on  duty  ten  hours.  Overtime  is 
stated  to  be  an  "integral  part"  of  the  schedule  of  hours  in  a 
number  of  telephone  companies. 

"Operators  not  only  are  asked  to  take  their  turn  in 
working  extra  hours,  but  in  some  companies  a  regular  extra 
period  is  assigned  to  each  operator  for  certain  days  each  week. 
She  is  virtually  compelled  to  do  this  extra  work,  lest  by  re- 
fusing she  incur  the  displeasure  of  her  chief  operator,  or  get 
the  reputation  of  shirking  her  share  of  work."* 

The  report  of  the  commission  to  investigate  the  condi- 
tions of  working  women  in  Kentucky,  states  that  in  one 
exchange  where  the  regular  hours  were  nine  in  one  day,  an 
operator  worked  39  hours  overtime  during  the  first  two  weeks 
of  November,  1911,  in  addition  to  her  daily  work.  The 
report  adds:  "This  is  not  an  exceptional  case.  Many  other 
girls  are  working  as  long  hours. "f 

One  of  the  most  vicious  forms  of  overtime  is  known  as 
"working  through";  that  is,  working  on  both  a  day  and  a 
night  shift.  Thus,  in  one  company,  where  the  shift  known 
as  the  "split  trick  operators"  usually  work  eight  hours 
(from  11  a.  m.  to  2  p.  m.,  and  from  4  to  9  p.  m.),  an  operator 
who  "works  through"  is  employed  thirteen  and  one-half 
hours  (from  11  a.  m.  to  2  p.m.,  and  again  from  4  p.  m.  to  7 
the  next  morning),  with  four  and  one-half  hours  off  duty 
during  the  night. 

*  Senate  Document  No.  380,  p.  110. 

t  Report  of  the  Commission  to  Investigate  the  Conditions  of  Working. 
Women  in  Kentucky,  p.  30.     Louisville,  December,  1911. 

50 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

"The  next  day  the  operator  reports  as  usual.  In  one 
case  a  fifteen-year-old  girl  (who  claims  to  be  sixteen)  is  re- 
ported 'working  through'  four  times  in  two  weeks.  While 
this  is  not  a  regular  thing,"  says  the  report,  "it  is  done  with 
sufficient  frequency  to  be  worth  noting."* 

In  connection  with  overtime  work,  nothing  is  more 
striking  than  the  extreme  variation  in  the  number  and  per- 
centage of  operators  employed  on  overtime  in  various  cities. 
In  New  York  City,  for  instance,  it  is  reported  that  less  than 
one-fifth  of  one  per  cent  of  the  operators  work  overtime  in  a 
given  period.  In  Boston  and  Washington,  also,  the  number 
is  small,  while  in  New  Orleans  and  Omaha  over  90  per  cent  of 
the  operators  worked  overtime  during  the  same  period.  In 
Cleveland,  Louisville,  and  Nashville,  over  85  per  cent,  in 
San  Francisco  and  Dallas,  Texas,  and  Atlanta,  Georgia,  over 
60  per  cent  of  the  operators  are  reported  to  have  worked 
overtime.! 

Besides  overtime,  several  other  hardships  of  the  tele- 
phone service  which  are  prominent  in  the  American  report, 
and  greatly  intensify  the  strain  of  this  occupation,  need 
mention.  One  of  these  is  the  almost  universal  requirement 
of  Sunday  work  twice  a  month.  This  hardship  speaks  for 
itself  and  scarcely  needs  comment.  It  means  that  for  most 
operators  the  day  of  rest,  which  may  not  be  lost  without 
physiological  retribution,  comes  only  once  a  fortnight. 
Sunday  and  holiday  work  clearly  cannot  be  avoided  in  the 
telephone  service,  but  as  the  report  remarks,  only  two  large 
companies  "have  discovered  that  this  need  not  mean  seven 
days'  work  each  week." 

A  second  acute  hardship  of  the  service  concerns  the  relief 
periods,  usually  fifteen  minutes  long,  which  are  designed 
to  break  the  morning  and  afternoon  work.  The  Canadian 
physicians  laid  supreme  stress  upon  the  importance  of  such 
reliefs  as  absolutely  indispensable  periods  of  recuperation, 
considering  even  twenty  minutes  off  duty  too  short  to  com- 
pensate for  a  two-hour  period  of  work;   but  in  many  com- 

*  Senate  Document  No.  380,  pp.  111-112.  f  Ibid.,  pp.  90-91. 

51 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

panics  these  reliefs  are  regarded  by  the  management  as  favors 
to  be  given  or  withheld  at  will,  rather  than  necessities.  At 
any  "rush"  when  most  needed,  the  reliefs  are  most  often 
curtailed.  Of  331  girl  operators  interviewed  by  agents  of 
the  Bureau  of  Labor,  126,  or  more  than  one-third,  reported 
that  they  had  either  no  relief  or  received  it  only  on  request. 

"Where  this  system  obtains,  girls  feel  a  reluctance  to 
ask  for  relief;  sometimes  they  feel  that  to  do  so  is  to  jeopard- 
ize promotions,  and  the  new  operators  who  need  it  most  are 
usually  the  very  ones  who  fail  to  get  it,  because  a  feeling  of 
strangeness  or  timidity  keeps  them  from  asking  favors."* 

A  third  hardship  of  the  telephone  service,  as  disastrous 
to  the  operator's  health  as  the  loss  of  the  "  relief,"  is  known 
as  "excess  loading."  This  concerns  the  number  of  calls 
handled  by  each  operator  per  hour.  Most  of  the  experts  for 
the  companies  consider  225  calls  per  hour  the  "breaking 
point  of  efficiency,"  that  is,  the  number  which  cannot  be 
greatly  exceeded  for  many  minutes  without  injuring  the 
service  rendered  to  the  public.     As  the  report  rightly  states: 

"  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  breaking  point  of  the  operator's 
health  is  not  far  from  the  breaking  point  of  efficient  work."t 

"  She  is  expected  to  give  all  the  subscribers  the  quickest 
possible  service  in  the  order  in  which  their  calls  come  in,  but 
when  several  signals  come  at  once  and  others  come  before 
these  can  be  cared  for,  the  order  of  calls  is  necessarily  lost 
and  the  effort  is  concentrated  merely  on  clearing  the  board,  or 
catching  up.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  with  each  signal 
there  is  not  only  the  flashing  of  a  small  light  in  the  operator's 
eyes,  but  there  is  a  clicking  sound  in  her  ears  through  the 
receivers  fastened  to  her  head.  So  when  the  impatient  sub- 
scriber, angry  because  his  call  has  not  been  answered,  moves 
the  receiver  hook  of  his  'phone  up  and  down  rapidly,  he 
flashes  the  signal  light  in  front  of  the  operator,  and  produces 
a  click  in  her  ears  every  time  the  hook  goes  up  and  down. 
The  consciousness  of  numbers  of  people  waiting  for  call  con- 
nections she  is  unable  to  make,  and  that  each  one  is  growing 
more  impatient  each  second;   that  a  supervisor  is  standing 

*  Senate  Dcxument  No.  380,  p.  33.  j  Ibid.,  p.  60. 

52 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

behind  her  either  hurrying  her  or  caUing  her  numbers  to  be 
taken  by  other  operators;  that  a  monitor  may  plug  in  and 
criticise  any  moment, — these,  with  the  height  of  up-reach 
and  length  of  side-reach,  go  to  form  the  elements  of  strain  on 
the  operator  who  is  'overloaded.'"* 

Yet,  in  spite  of  its  known  effect  upon  health  and  effi- 
ciency, an  inexcusable  degree  of  overloading  exists  in  a  wide 
range  of  cities,  chiefly  in  the  south  and  west.  Accepting  an 
average  of  225  calls  per  hour  as  the  breaking  point,  many 
exchanges  were  found  exceeding  that  number  for  all  operators 
in  the  exchange.  The  table  below  gives  some  of  the  cities 
found  exceeding  not  only  this  accepted  limit,  but  exceeding 
275  calls  per  hour.f 

TELEPHONE  EXCHANGES  IN  FIVE  CITIES  WHERE  CALLS  EXCEED 
275    PER    HOUR 


Company 

City 

Exchange 

Hour 
Ending 

No.  of 
Calls 

Mo.   and  Kansas  Tel. 
Co 

Kansas  City,  Mo. 
Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

West 

9  P.M. 

281.7 

Pac.    Tel.    and    Tele- 
graph Co 

East 

6  P.M. 

285.2 

7  P.M. 

317.0 

8  P.M. 

303.0 

San  Francisco, 
Cal. 

Market 
Franklin 

11P.M. 
3  P.M. 

279.0 
308.3 

Seattle,  Wash. 

Queen  Ann 

6P.M. 

283.2 

So.  Bell  Tel.  and  Tele- 
graph Co 

Birmingham,  Ala. 

Main 

11P.M. 

301.5 

(b)  Speed  in  the  Needle  Trades 
Turning  now  to  other  industries  in  which  women  and 
children  are  employed  in  great  numbers,  we  find  a  similar 
*  Ibid.,  p.  56.  t  Ibid.,  p.  61. 

53 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

State  of  affairs.  Let  us  next  consider  the  typically  feminine 
occupation  of  sewing,  the  traditional  sphere  of  womankind. 

It  is  undeniable  that  a  great  saving  of  human  energy 
was  accomplished  when  the  first  power  machines  replaced 
the  ordinary  foot  sewing  machine.  Long  hours  of  work  at 
foot  sewing  machines' had  been  responsible  for  many  female 
disorders  and  had  wrecked  the  lives  of  many  women.  But 
we  must  not  close  our  eyes  to  the  cost  of  the  new  order. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  increasing  per- 
fection of  motor  sewing  machines.  Some  kinds,  as  we  have 
seen,  now  carry  12  needles,  others  set  almost  4000  stitches  a 
minute.  Let  any  observer  enter  a  modern  roaring,  vibrating 
workroom  where  several  hundred  young  women  are  gathered 
together,  each  at  her  marvelous  machine,  which  automatically 
hems,  tucks,  cords,  sews  seams  together,  or  sews  on  the 
embroidery  trimming  of  white  underwear.  In  the  well 
equipped  shops  each  girl  has  a  brilliant  electric  light,  often 
unshaded,  hanging  directly  in  front  of  her  eyes  over  the 
machine.  Her  attention  cannot  relax  a  second  while  the 
machine  runs  its  deafening  course,  for  at  the  breaking  of  any 
one  of  the  12  gleaming  needles  or  the  12  darting  threads,  the 
power  must  instantly  be  shut  off.  The  roar  of  the  machines 
is  so  great  that  one  can  hardly  make  oneself  heard  by  shout- 
ing to  the  person  who  stands  beside  one. 

What  must  be  the  physiological  effect  of  work  so  carried 
on  during  long  hours?  In  New  York  state,  for  instance,  the 
great  center  for  the  manufacture  of  women's  stitched  white 
wear,  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  perfecting  its  laws  for 
women  since  their  first  enactment  twenty-six  years  ago, 
young  girls  who  have  reached  their  sixteenth  birthday  may 
legally  be  employed  at  power  machines  twelve  hours  in  the 
day  during  five  days  in  the  week.*  Illegally,  they  are  em- 
ployed even  longer  at  "rush"  seasons. 

The  strain  of  this  industry  is  further  intensified  by  two 
other  factors,  which  will  be  discussed  subsequently  more  at 
length,  but  which  must  not  go  unmentioned  here.     Pay  so 

*See  page  4  for  new  law  enacted  in  1912. 
54 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

low  that  it  makes  a  less  than  living  wage,  and  great  irregular- 
ity of  employment,  exist  in  the  stitching  trades  in  combina- 
tion with  the  excessively  long  hours,  possibly  because  of  them. 
These  factors,  at  any  rate,  make  an  evil  combination, — upper 
and  nether  millstones  between  which  the  health  of  the  girls 
and  women  in  this  trade  is  almost  inevitably  ground.  It  is 
true  that  some  girls  earn  high  wages  at  piece-rates  during  the 
busy  season,  reaching  $18  and  $20  per  week.  But  the  busy 
season  is  short — varying  from  two  to  three  months  for  the 
winter,  and  again  for  the  summer  trade,  and  the  year's  earn- 
ings of  the  best  paid  workers  fall  short  of  decent  self-support. 
The  great  majority  earn  wages  so  low  and  so  precarious  (from 
$4,00  to  $8.00  or  $10  per  week),  with  weeks  and  months  of 
non-employment,  that  were  it  not  for  the  testimony  of  trust- 
worthy witnesses  it  would  be  scarcely  credible  that  women 
living  away  from  home  and  wholly  dependent  upon  them- 
selves, could  support  life  on  such  a  yearly  income.* 

These  allied  problems  of  low  wages  and  irregularity  of 
work  may  seem  to  lead  too  far  afield  from  our  special  interest 
in  industrial  overstrain.  But  they  are  closely  knit  to  it,  and 
in  a  dozen  ways  are  related  to  the  length  of  the  day's  work. 
With  over-long  hours,  even  with  the  ten-hour  day,  all  that 
double  burden  of  household  work  added  to  wage  work,  which 
no  workingwoman  can  wholly  escape,  becomes  more  burden- 
some. Whether  she  lives  at  home,  her  own  or  her  parents', 
and  helps  in  the  household,  or  lives  alone  and  is  thrown  on 
her  own  resources  for  clothing  and  clean  linen  as  well  as  for 
food  and  for  some  sort  of  habitat,  she  must  find  time  for  some 
domestic  duties  after  her  wage  work  is  done. 

Two  traditional  economies  of  women,  unattained  by  men, 
are  washing  their  linen,  and  mending,  if  not  making,  their 
own  clothes;  and  after  a  working  day  of  reasonable  length, 
working  girls  can  and  do  achieve  these  economies  without 
too  great  a  tax  upon  their  endurance.     But  when  overtime 

*  Clark,  S.  A.,  and  Wyatt,  Edith:  Making  Both  Ends  Meet.  New 
York,  Macmillan,  1911.  (These  articles  are  based  upon  a  study  made  for 
the  National  Consumers'  League  of  the  income  and  outlay  of  more  than 
200  working  girls,  living  away  from  home,  in  New  York  City.) 

55 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

confines  them,  as  it  does  in  the  stitching  trades,  until  nine 
and  ten  o'clock  at  night,  irregularly,  for  weeks  in  succession, 
we  find  such  pitiable  items  as  those  disclosed  in  the  study 
above  referred  to,  of  200  working  girls  who  live  away  from 
home  in  New  York  City.  In  one  case  of  extreme  overwork, 
out  of  a  total  yearly  expenditure  of  only  $41.85  for  all  cloth- 
ing, an  unhappy  overworked  girl  spent  $15.60  for  stockings. 
She  lacked  time  and  strength  for  the  humblest  care  of  her 
wardrobe,  darning  stockings,  and  instead,  continued  all  year 
to  buy  two  pairs  a  week,  at  15  cents  each.  In  another  case  a 
similar  disproportionate  expenditure  of  $23.52  for  24  shirt- 
waists at  98  cents  a  piece,  out  of  a  whole  year's  expenditure 
of  $194.50,  resulted  also  from  an  exhausted  girl's  lack  of  time 
and  spirit  for  mending.  The  remarkable  folly  of  such  ex- 
penditures makes  them  none  the  less  piteous  evidences  of  the 
exhaustion  of  these  girl  operators,  alternately  overworked  at 
high  power  machines  and  then  left  destitute  of  work  and 
health. 

Many  other  ways  might  be  shown  in  which  low  wages 
together  with  the  excessive  length  of  the  workday  contribute 
to  the  new  strain  of  industries.  Physiologically  considered, 
as  we  shall  see,  the  worst  effect  of  low  pay,  especially  low 
piece-rates  such  as  prevail  in  the  stitching  trades,  is  their 
incentive  to  a  too  great  intensity  of  work,  and  to  a  feverish 
speed  on  the  part  of  the  operators. 

(c)  The  Textile  Industry 
In  the  sewing  trades,  then,  the  elements  of  speed  and 
complexity  are  growing  by  leaps  and  bounds.  The  same 
thing  is  evident  in  another  great  trade,  employing  women  and 
children,  the  textile  industry.  Here  the  increasing  strain  upon 
the  workers,  due  to  improved  equipment,  may  be  described 
by  one  of  the  officials  whose  daily  work  brings  them  into  con- 
tact with  the  conditions  of  which  they  speak. 

"  For  the  first  time  women  were  interviewed  who  were 
running  twelve  and  sixteen  Draper  looms.    These  machines 

56 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

are  practically  a  recent  addition,  and  are  so  arranged  that 
the  filling  in  the  shuttle  is  changed  automatically,  thus  enab- 
ling them  to  go  at  a  greater  rate  of  speed  and  with  less  inter- 
ruption. The  women  are  not  expected  to  clean,  oil  or  sweep. 
This  matter  was  quite  fully  discussed  and  the  complaint  m.ade 
that  the  work  was  too  hard,  but  that  they  tried  to  do  it,  as 
they  were  dependent  upon  their  positions  and  they  knew  there 
were  plenty  of  foreign  men  waiting  for  their  places.  Where 
a  woman  has  been  accustomed  to  tend  a  six-loom  set,  with 
the  Drapers  she  is  given  from  twelve  to  sixteen,  which  extend 
over  quite  an  area.  There  is  no  time  for  sitting  during  the 
day,  as  when  employed  on  the  other  looms.  One  woman 
said  she  could  not  sleep  at  night  after  running  these  vast 
machines,  and  many  have  had  to  give  up  their  places  and 
find  other  work. 

"This  marks  another  evolution  in  the  machinery  world. 
Years  ago,  a  woman  tended  two  slowly  running  looms. 
Later,  as  the  hours  of  work  grew  less,  the  number  of  looms  was 
increased  to  four  and  six,  and  now  with  the  Drapers,  an 
operative  is  expected  to  look  out  for  twelve  or  sixteen."* 

Even  this  statement  does  not  fully  cover  the  facts.  It 
is  not  uncommon  in  New  England  mills  for  one  weaver  to 
tend  from  16  to  24  Northrup  or  Draper  looms.  The  number 
of  looms  attended  by  one  weaver  has  even  risen  as  high  as  36 
in  southern  and,  less  frequently,  in  northern  mills.  But  the 
output  is  said  to  be  less  satisfactory  than  when  each  worker 
runs  a  smaller  number  of  looms. 

It  is  true  that  the  new  automatic  attachments  of  the 
Draper  loom  enable  weavers  to  run  a  larger  number  of  such 
machines  with  no  greater  effort  or  fatigue  than  was  formerly 
involved  in  running  a  smaller  number  of  old  looms.  But 
this  is  true  only  up  to  a  certain  point.  According  to  a  liberal 
estimate,  after  a  weaver  is  required  to  attend  more  than  18 
looms,  the  advantages  of  the  new  devices  are  more  than  coun- 
terbalanced by  the  increase  in  numbers,  and  the  strain  of  the 
occupation  becomes  too  great.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  strain 
upon  the  weaver's  attention  was  greatly  lessened  by  such  an 
automatic  invention  as  the  recent  warp  stop-motion,  whereby 

*  Report  of  the  Maine  Bureau  of  Industrial  and  Labor  Statistics, 
1908,  pp.  42-43. 

57 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

power  is  automatically  turned  off  and  the  loom  stops  at 
breakage  of  the  warp.  But  when  one  weaver  has  perhaps 
24  looms  to  tend  in  place  of  the  former  eight,  the  strain  upon 
attention  in  watching  for  the  automatic  stoppage  of  the  looms 
is  even  greater  than  before.  Since  the  weaver's  wages  depend 
upon  the  continuous  running  of  the  machines,  the  strain  is 
continuous. 

The  space  over  which  24  looms  extend  requires  also  much 
more  walking  on  the  part  of  the  weaver,  since  she  may  be 
called  to  and  fro  to  any  one  of  the  looms  in  turn,  to  any  place 
in  the  alley  or  alleys  along  which  they  are  ranged.  Yet  the 
physical  and  nervous  cost  of  running  three  times  as  many 
looms  as  before  the  Drapers  were  invented,  has  been  so  little 
regarded  that  the  manufacturers  of  the  loom  prophesy*  an 
even  greater  increase  in  the  number  of  machines  per  worker. 
They  see  no  reason  why  in  time  one  weaver  should  not  run 
50  looms,  provided  only  that  a  sliding  seat  be  arranged  along 
the  alley  to  relieve  her  from  constant  walking  to  and  fro.  If 
this  hopeful  prophecy  is  not  fulfilled,  it  will  probably  be 
due  to  the  unsatisfactory  economic  results  of  the  machinery 
rather  than  to  any  consideration  of  the  human  agents. 

2.     MONOTONY 

Besides  speed  and  complexity  of  operation,  work  with 
the  Draper  looms  illustrates  also  a  third  factor  in  industrial 
strain,  mentioned  at  the  outset;  that  is,  monotony  of  occu- 
pation. Weavers  formerly  varied  their  work  by  cleaning 
and  oiling  the  machines,  fetching  their  own  filling,  etc.  Now 
all  these  things  are  done  by  less  skilled  hands,  while  the 
weaver,  in  order  to  keep  up  with  the  number  of  her  looms, 
attends  strictly  and  continuously  to  running  the  machines. 

In  all  trades,  operations  tend  to  become  more  and  more 
machinelike  in  regularity  and  sameness.  Labor  tends  to 
become  more  and  more  subdivided,  each  worker  performing 
steadily  one  operation,  or  part  of  one  operation. 

*  Labor  Saving  Looms,  p.  112.  Third  Edition.  The  Draper  Co.,  Hope- 
dale,  Mass.,  1907. 

58 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

This  kind  of  single-minded  concentration  of  the  workers 
upon  their  immediate  tasks  obviously  makes  for  speed  and 
perfection  of  output.  It  is  an  integral  part  of  the  new  indus- 
trial efficiency  of  our  day  and  it  saves  constant  waste,  both 
of  time  and  of  materials.  But  we  must  also  consider  the 
reverse  side  of  the  picture.  If  concentration  and  subdivision 
are  part  of  the  new  efficiency  they  are  part,  too,  of  its  new 
strain.  So  far  as  the  workers  are  concerned,  subdivision 
and  concentration  are  added  hardships  of  the  long  day.  For 
they  lead  to  that  monotony  which  results  from  the  endless 
repetition  of  the  same  operations,  and  against  which  the 
human  spirit  innately  revolts.  Monotony,  indeed,  may  make 
highly  taxing  to  our  organism  work  which  is  ordinarily  con- 
sidered light  and  easy.  This  may  be  observed  in  many 
different  occupations. 

(a)  The  Canneries 

Thus,  in  the  canneries,  which  are  increasing  from  year 
to  year  in  every  fruit  and  vegetable  growing  state  from  Maine 
to  California,  the  chief  fatigue  of  the  work  is  due  to  its  com- 
bined speed  and  monotony. 

We  may  well  examine  a  little  in  detail  some  of  the  or- 
dinary cannery  processes,  because  they  illustrate  the  new 
strain  of  industry  which  we  are  considering,  and  because  the 
physical  and  nervous  tax  of  these  occupations  has  been  little 
recognized  throughout  the  country.  A  comparatively  short 
span  of  time  has  sufficed  to  see  evolved  from  the  yearly  preserv- 
ing and  jelly  pots  of  our  mothers'  generation  the  highly  speeded, 
intricate  machinery  of  the  modern  canneries.  Indeed,  the 
transformation  of  the  industry  is  not  yet  complete.  Canning 
has  still  the  double  disadvantage  of  a  household  and  a  factory 
business.  Cannery  workers  suffer  from  all  the  pressure  and 
speed  of  great  commercial  establishments.  They  suffer  also 
from  the  canner's  inadequate  methods  of  management,  in- 
herited from  the  original  home  work  which  preceded  the 
canneries.  When  each  family  provided  for  itself  a  winter's 
supply  of  fruits  and  sweets,  there  was  little  hardship  in  a 

59 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

few  days'  work  at  picking  and  preserving.  It  is  popularly 
supposed  that  canning  today  is  very  much  the  same,  and 
that  it  affords  farmers'  wives  and  children,  in  certain  parts 
of  the  country,  pleasant  holiday  work  and  pin  money  during 
the  summer. 

But  in  reality  this  is  far  from  true.  We  may  take  as 
typical,  in  spite  of  local  differences,  the  canneries  in  New  York 
state,  since  a  recent  official  investigation*  describes  the  con- 
ditions there,  and  they  happen  also  to  be  familiar  to  the  writer. 

Any  person  who  is  not  familiar  with  these  establish- 
ments must  imagine  them  situated  sometimes  in  open  coun- 
try, sometimes  on  the  outskirts  of  small  towns,  throughout 
the  central  and  western  part  of  New  York  state.  A  cannery 
usually  consists  of  one  central  building,  where  the  machinery 
is  supposed  to  be  located,  and  adjoining  sheds  where  the  work 
of  preparation — such  as  stringing  beans,  husking  corn,  hulling 
strawberries,  peeling  beets,  tomatoes,  etc. — is  supposed  to  be 
performed. 

On  the  whole,  the  new  strain  in  the  canning  industry  has 
come,  as  in  most  industries,  with  the  introduction  of  machin- 
ery. It  is  true  that  even  the  familiar  work  of  preparing 
fruits  and  vegetables  for  canning  has  become  more  taxing  to 
the  health  of  the  workers,  on  account  of  the  greater  speed  at 
which  it  is  done,  owing  to  the  very  low  piece-rates  paid  for 
this  work.f  But  the  main  change  since  canning  was  taken 
out  of  private  kitchens  has  been  due  to  the  machine  processes. 
Two  of  the  most  important  of  these  are  known  as  "sorting" 
and  "capping." 

For  "sorting"  vegetables,  conveyors  or  endless  moving 
bands  carry  past  the  girls  and  women  seated  or  standing  at 
the  sorting  tables,  a  ceaseless  stream  of  peas  or  beans  to  be 
picked  over  for  broken  or  spotted  vegetables,  thistle  buds, 
or  other  imperfections.     Hour  after  hour,  from  morning  until 

*  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Factory  Inspection.  Report  on  the 
Work  of  Children  and  Women  in  Canneries.  New  York  State  Department 
of  Labor,  1908. 

t  One-half  to  one  and  one-half  cents  per  pound  for  stringing  beans,  etc. 
60 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

night  (except  for  stoppages  from  breakdowns  and  irregularit}' 
of  supply),  the  workers'  eyes  and  attention  must  be  intent 
upon  the  moving  stream  before  them,  shoving  back  the  tide 
with  one  hand  if  it  comes  too  fast,  while  with  the  other  they 
pick  out  the  imperfections  which  must  not  be  allowed  to  pass 
into  the  cans.  The  work  is  sufficiently  easy,  so  far  as  mus- 
cular exertion  goes,  but  the  tax  upon  eyes  and  attention  is 
severe,  and  even  after  considerable  experience,  women  com- 
plain of  the  nausea  and  dizziness  resulting  from  the  monot- 
onous examination  of  the  moving  surface  of  the  conveyors. 

The  work  of  the  "cappers"  is  more  severe  than  that  of 
the  "sorters"  on  account  of  the  greater  speed  at  which  the 
conveyors  are  run.  When  the  cans  have  been  filled  with 
fruits  or  vegetables,  and  covered  with  brine  or  syrup,  they 
are  ready  to  be  hermetically  sealed.  The  conveyors  carry 
them  from  the  automatic  "filler"  to  the  sealing  or  capping 
machine.  One  to  three  "cappers"  are  employed,  who  place 
the  metal  caps  or  covers  on  the  filled  cans  in  rapid  succession 
as  they  file  past  swiftly  to  be  soldered.  The  capping  girl  sits 
close  to  the  red-hot  sealing  irons,  usually  holding  a  number  of 
caps  in  her  hand,  and  dropping  them  monotonously,  one  at  a 
time,  upon  the  cans  as  they  pass  swiftly  on  the  tireless  con- 
veyor, at  a  rate  varying  from  54  to  80  cans  per  minute.  It  is 
said  that  a  second  capper  is  usually  employed  on  machines 
operating  faster  than  60  cans  per  minute. 

The  fatigue  of  the  work  at  the  conveyors  or  sorting 
tables  is  increased  by  the  unnecessarily  constrained  and  un- 
comfortable positions  to  which  the  girls  are  subjected.  The 
tables  are  rarely  at  a  right  height  to  make  this  work  as  easy 
as  possible.  Sometimes  they  are  so  high  that  the  workers 
must  stand  all  day;  sometimes  so  low  (3  feet  from  the  ground) 
that  the  workers  cannot  sit  with  their  knees  under  the  tables, 
but  work  in  twisted  and  awkward  attitudes.  Moreover,  the 
seats  themselves  are  totally  inadequate.  According  to  the 
New  York  report,  of  about  1,400  girls  and  women  engaged  in 
sorting  peas  and  beans  at  various  factories  in  the  summer  of 
1908,  only  about  180  had  chairs  to  sit  upon.     The  others 

6i 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

were  supplied  with  inadequate  boxes,  crates,  stools,  or  benches. 
During  a  long  workday,  not  infrequently  exceeding  twelve 
hours,  the  difference  between  being  comfortably  seated  at 
work  or  crouched  upon  an  improvised  support  is  self  evident. 
Yet  these  two  operations  of  "capping"  and  "sorting"  em- 
ploy more  women  in  the  canneries  than  any  other  machine 
operations.  The  New  York  report  states  that  about  1,400 
persons  were  employed  at  "sorting"  peas  and  beans  alone. 
Two  hundred  and  twenty-seven  girls  were  employed  in 
"capping"  peas,  beans,  corn,  tomatoes,  and  fruits. 

Besides  the  work  of  "sorting"  and  "capping,"  another 
machine  operation  is  highly  taxing.  This  is  feeding  the  corn 
cutters,  and  it  is  also  performed  by  women.  The  workers 
feed  ears  of  corn  into  the  cutters  at  topmost  speed. 

"It  is  very  rapid  work,"  says  the  New  York  report,* 
"the  machine  is  very  noisy,  kernels  of  corn  are  flying  every- 
where, and  everything  is  damp  and  sticky  from  the  juice  of 
the  cut  corn.  Of  the  61  women  employed  at  this  work,  41 
were  standing.  The  cutters  are  operated  at  high  speed  and 
as  'their  capacity  is  only  limited  by  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  feeder  can  place  the  ears  in  the  feeding  trough,'!  the  oper- 
ators are  expected  to  work,  and  do  work,  at  high  tension." 

Such  is  the  nature  of  the  most  important  machine  oper- 
ations at  which  women  are  employed  in  the  canneries. 

It  is  true  that  the  working  year  is  short.  Canning  is, 
perforce,  a  season  trade,  though  the  season  lasts  much  longer 
than  merely  a  few  weeks,  as  the  canners  would  have  us  sup- 
pose. In  establishments  which  can  peas,  beans,  and  corn 
only,  the  season  is  from  about  the  last  week  of  June  until 
about  the  middle  of  October;  that  is,  between  three  and  four 
months.  Canneries  where  fruit  is  packed  have  a  longer 
season:  strawberries  ripen  in  June  and  apple  packing  is  often 
carried  on  into  December,  so  that  the  season  lasts  between 
six  and  seven  months. 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  374. 

t  "Circular  of  sales  house  distributing  one  of  the  leading  makes  of 
corn  cutters." 

62 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

Even  longer  duration  of  employment  is  reported  by  the 
latest  government  investigation  of  canning  establishments 
in  Maryland  and  California.  Agents  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor  studied  the  conditions  of  employment  in 
both  city  and  country  canneries.  The  government  states 
that  10  Baltimore  canneries,  operated  during  twenty-nine 
to  fifty-two  weeks  in  the  year;  that  is,  between  seven 
months  and  an  entire  year.  Four  of  the  canneries  reported 
a  range  of  fifty  weeks  or  over.  Five  city  canneries  in  Cali- 
fornia varied  in  duration  of  operation,  but  four  of  the  five  had 
a  season  of  more  than  twenty-nine  weeks;  that  is,  over  seven 
months.  Four  country  canneries  in  California  varied  between 
nineteen  and  one-half  to  twenty-four  weeks  in  operation.* 

Moreover,  our  studies  in  fatigue  have  shown  us  that 
overwork  is  not  balanced  by  idleness,  when  the  physiological 
limits  have  been  over-run.  Girls  in  the  critical  period  of 
adolescence,  and  women  who  are  overstrained  during  half  the 
year,  or  even  during  a  quarter  of  the  year,  may  be  perma- 
nently wrecked  in  health.  That  they  are  so  overstrained 
has  been  shown  by  repeated  private  investigation  of  New 
York  canneries.  During  the  summer  of  1911,  women  were 
observed  working  fifteen  hours  a  day  during  successive  days. 

According  to  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Bulletin,  in  10  Balti- 
more canneries  employing  2,214  women  the  hours  of  labor 
reported  by  the  employers  themselves  include  "days  of  11  }4, 
16>^,  \S}i  hours,  and  weeks  of  93,  91%  and  81  hours."t  In 
California,  the  employers  themselves  report  "days  of  18,  15 
and  13>^  hours,  and  weeks  of  96>^,  90  and  83  hours." 

In  the  cannery  occupations,  eyestrain  is  an  added  tax, 
but  in  many  kinds  of  work  it  is  the  sheer  repetition  of  unin- 
teresting samenesses  that  makes  the  work  fatiguing.  So  in 
the  making  of  paper  boxes,  the  infinite  repetition  of  me- 
chanical movements — steadying  a  strip  of  paper  in  a  box- 
covering  machine,  guiding  it  by  a  gauge  and  replacing  the 

*  Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  96,  September,  1911. 
Hours  of  Women's  Work  in  Maryland  and  California,  pp.  355  and  393. 
t  Ibid.,  pp.  355  and  393. 

63 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Strip  by  another  when  it  runs  out — continues  for  ten  hours 
in  the  day,  or  longer  at  "rush"  periods.  In  a  factory  where 
hinges  are  made,  girls  spend  a  long  day's  work  putting  50 
hinges  a  minute  through  a  machine,  lifting  a  hinge  out, 
slipping  it  into  place,  replacing  it  by  another  hinge,  unvary- 
ingly — and  the  list  of  such  occupations  might  be  indefinitely 
extended. 

(b)    Shoe  Making 

Even  in  trades  which  require  highly  skilled  workers,  the 
processes  of  manufacture  are  so  subdivided,  and  are  so  re- 
duced to  the  simplest  units,  that  a  man  or  woman  spends  his 
or  her  entire  working  life  performing  over  and  over  a  frac- 
tional part — sometimes  less  than  one-hundredth — in  the 
construction  of  a  whole. 

No  trade  illustrates  better  this  minutest  subdivision  of 
work  than  the  making  of  shoes.  Ten  years  ago  the  United 
States  Industrial  Commission,  in  its  report  on  the  hours  of 
labor  in  various  industries,  took  occasion  to  mention  speci- 
fically the  greater  intensity  of  labor  "in  the  boot  and  shoe 
factories  where  the  operator  is  required  to  handle  thousands  of 
pieces  in,a  day  and  guide  them  through  the  machine."  In 
the  decade  which  has  passed  since  this  was  written,  the 
speed  and  subdivision  of  work  at  shoe  machinery  have  been 
greatly  increased.  We  may  obtain  an  idea  of  the  extraordi- 
nary specialization  in  this  trade  at  present  when  we  learn  that 
a  well-built  shoe  has  passed  through  the  hands  of  about  100 
workers  and  through  the  operations  of  about  60  different 
kinds  of  shoe  making  machinery.*  These  figures  do  not 
include  the  workers  in  the  stitching  room,  where  a  separate 
force  sews  together,  on  specially  constructed  sewing  machines, 
the  pieces  of  leather  and  lining  which  make  up  the  so-called 
"uppers."  From  the  stitching  room,  the  flat,  sewed  uppers 
are  sent  to  the  making  or  "bottoming"  room,  where  they  are 
shaped  over  lasts  fastened  to  the  soles,  and  made  up  into  the 
forms  which  we  recognize  as  shoes. 

*  Goodyear  Welt  Shoes,  How  They  Are  Made.  United  Shoe  Machinery 
Co.,  Boston.  1909,  p.  11. 

64 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

Of  all  these  machines  and  operations  which  go  into  the 
making  of  shoes,  we  will  examine  two  a  little  more  closely. 
The  first  of  these  is  the  "upper  trimming"  machine,  through 
which  the  shoe  passes  on  its  way  to  completion. 

The  stitched  upper  has  already  been  pulled  over  the 
wooden  last,  which  gives  the  shoe  its  shape,  by  an  extra- 
ordinarily ingenious  machine  that  pulls  the  leather  with 
pincers  evenly  and  tightly  down  over  the  last,  driving  in  a 
tack  at  every  pull,  so  as  to  hold  the  upper  exactly  in  place  on 
the  last.  In  pulling  the  leather  over  the  bottom  edge  of  the 
last,  there  is  naturally  a  surplus  amount  of  leather  left  at 
the  rounded  toes  and  some  along  the  sides  of  the  shoe.  This 
is  "crimpled"  or  fulled  in  against  the  insole.  Now  the 
trimming  machine,  which  we  are  considering,  trims  off  this 
surplus  leather  fulled  in  at  the  toes  and  side,  so  as  to  make 
the  bottom  as  smooth  as  possible  before  the  sole  is  sewed  on. 
The  trimming  machine  consists  of  a  sharp  knife  edge,  operat- 
ing constantly  against  a  sharp  edged  revolving  top.  The 
man  who  works  the  machine  stands,  holding  upside  down 
somewhat  below  the  level  of  his  eyes,  the  partly  made,  still 
unsoled  shoe.  He  turns  it  skilfully  and  rapidly  on  the  re- 
volving top,  against  whose  sharp  edge  the  second  knife-blade 
operates,  cutting  off  all  the  surplus  crimpled  leather.  The 
work  is  extremely  rapid  and  absolutely  uniform.  But  it 
takes  skill  and  close  attention.  The  machine  could  easily 
cut  off  too  much,  or  could  cut  into  the  upper,  if  the  swift 
handling  of  the  shoe  were  not  exactly  correct.  The  work- 
man must  be  skilled,  but  all  that  constitutes  his  work  is 
daily  to  revolve  in  his  two  hands  about  2600  pairs  of  shoes, 
or  5200  single  shoes.  The  expert  workers  are  able  to  trim 
off  that  number  of  uppers  daily  in  this  machine.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  such  monotony  of  occupation  should  be  a 
factor  in  fatigue.  For  the  work  is  unvaried.  The  man  who 
operates  the  upper  trimmer  does  nothing  else.  His  skill  and 
speed  have  been  acquired  by  the  extremest  specialization.  He 
performs,  perhaps,  less  than  one-hundredth  part  in  the  making 
of  a  single  shoe,  and  he  does  not  know  how  to  operate,  or 
5  65 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

would  be  extremely  awkward  at,  the  machine  next  him  which 
performs  a  different  hundredth  fraction  of  the  manufacture. 

This  is  men's  work  in  shoe  making.  The  next  example 
is  women's  work.  It  is  the  operation  of  the  new  eyelet- 
ting  machines,  which  move  with  what  the  makers  rightly  de- 
scribe as  "  bewildering  rapidity."  The  girl  who  operates  this 
machine  sits  in  front  of  it,  guiding  the  flat  sewn  uppers, 
which  are  to  have  eyelets  punched  into  them,  somewhat  as 
she  would  guide  the  material  in  a  sewing  machine.  She 
adjusts  levers  and  various  mechanical  contrivances  to  regu- 
late the  speed  and  spacing  of  the  eyelets.  Women  maintain 
that  they  can  work  faster  than  men  at  this  machine,  because 
they  can  keep  a  supply  of  uppers  ready  in  their  laps,  while 
men  are  obliged  to  keep  their  supply  of  uppers  next  to  them 
and  have  to  make  an  extra  motion  of  the  arm  to  pick  them 
up.  The  output  of  the  machine  varies  according  to  the 
spacing  of  the  eyelets.  Men's  shoes,  which  have  only  four 
or  five  evenly  spaced  holes,  naturally  go  more  quickly  than 
women's,  which  have  often  as  many  as  12  holes  irregularly 
spaced.  An  expert  worker  at  the  eyeletting  machine  can 
finish  2000  pairs  of  ladies'  shoes  in  one  day,  although  this 
amount,  like  that  given  above,  is  probably  20  per  cent  higher 
than  the  average  worker's  output.*  Again,  the  work  is 
skilled,  extremely  swift,  and  monotonous.  The  workers  do 
not  have  the  opportunity  of  relaxing  the  particular  kind 
of  attention  which  their  machine  requires,  for  each  one  is  a 
specialist  in  her  own  fractional  field  only.  It  is  the  acme  of 
subdivision. 

Astonishing  as  are  the  material  results  in  output,  this 
minute  division  of  labor  and  the  unrelieved  monotony  of  work 
which  it  brings  must  be  counted  in  any  effort  to  appraise  the 
new  strain  of  industry.  Not  machine  workers  only,  mere 
feeders  of  larger  automata,  but  hand  workers  too,  suffer  from 
the  blight  of  monotony.  The  girls  and  women  who  pack  the 
innumerable  small  objects  which  must  be  wrapped  before 

*  Statement  in  a  letter  from  a  representative  of  the  United  Shoe 
Machinery  Co.,  March  4,  1912. 

66 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

they  reach  the  retail  stores — such  as  all  sorts  of  glass  objects, 
lamps,  crackers,  candy,  and  other  food-stuflfs — have  an  oc- 
cupation of  unrelieved  monotony.  It  requires  no  more  judg- 
ment or  skill  than  to  feed  a  machine,  only  speed  and  the 
indefinite  repetition  of  dull,  mechanical  movements. 

3.  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  MONOTONY 
It  goes  without  saying  that  monotony  of  work,  of  which 
these  are  random  examples,  cannot  be  avoided  in  our  in- 
dustries. It  is  a  part  of  their  development,  and  even  when 
ingenious  machines  are  invented  to  do  work  previously  done 
by  hand,  the  running  and  feeding  of  such  machines  often 
provides  only  another  form  of  monotonous  work  for  the 
human  agent.  With  subdivision,  and  the  loss  of  craftman- 
ship,  monotony  of  work  in  greater  or  less  degree  is  inevit- 
able, and  may  well  be  accepted  as  such.  For  when  once 
monotony  is  recognized  as  a  real  hardship,  and  as  in  itself 
a  source  of  fatigue,  rational  means  of  relieving  it  may  be 
sought,  in  shortening  hours  of  monotonous  labor  and  alter- 
nating work  of  different  kinds.  An  interesting  example 
is  given  by  a  German  factory  inspector  of  excessive  fatigue 
resulting  from  light,  but  monotonous,  work  on  corset  steels, 
which  was  relieved  by  periodical  changes  of  work  for  the 
employes  in  question.*  Enlightened  employers  in  various 
industries  have  found  such  alternations  of  work  practically 
beneficial  in  stemming  fatigue. 

From  our  physiological  point  of  view,  this  is  entirely 
logical,  because  the  strain  of  monotony  is  not  due  merely  to 
the  distaste  for  work  and  the  aversion  it  engenders.  Monot- 
ony of  occupation- is  a  true  factor  in  inducing  fatigue,  because 
it  has  a  true  physiological  basis,  which  can  briefly  be  made 
clear.  We  know  that  with  repetition  and  sameness  of  use 
there  results  continuous  fatigue  of  the  muscle  or  organ  used. 
So,  too,  with  the  nerve  centers  from  which  our  motive  power 

*  Quoted  by  Dr.  Emil  Roth.  Ermiidung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  Four- 
teenth International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography,  Berlin,  1907, 
Vol.  11,  Sec.  IV,  p.  614. 

67 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

springs.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  special  functions  of 
the  brain  have  separate  centers.  Thus,  there  is  a  center  for 
hearing,  another  for  sight,  another  for  speech,  etc.  When  cer- 
tain centers  are  working  continuously,  monotonously,  from 
morning  to  night,  day  by  day  and  week  by  week,  it  is  physiolog- 
ically inevitable  that  they  should  tire  more  easily  than  when 
work  is  sufficiently  varied  to  call  upon  other  centers  in  turn. 

The  monotony  of  so-called  light  and  easy  work  may  thus 
be  more  damaging  to  the  organism  than  heavier  work  which 
gives  some  chance  for  variety,  some  outlet  for  our  innate  re- 
volt against  unrelieved  repetitions.  Monotony  often  inflicts 
more  injury  than  greater  muscular  exertion  just  because 
it  requires  continuous  recurring  work  from  nerve  centers, 
fatigue  of  which,  as  we  have  seen,  reacts  with  such  disastrous 
consequences  upon  our  total  life  and  health.  The  evils  of 
monotony  illustrate  again  how  closely  all  the  functions  of  our 
life  are  bound  up  together;  how  the  physical  and  nervous 
and  psychic  parts  of  us  react  and  interact  upon  one  another. 
Aversion  from  a  monotonous  grind  of  work,  the  effort  of  the 
will  to  "  keep  up,"  requires  just  so  much  more  nervous  stim- 
ulus from  already  tired  nerve  centers. 

4.    NOISE 

In  both  the  needle  and  textile  trades,  which  we  have 
taken  as  types  of  work  involving  speed  and  complexity, 
fatigue  is  the  more  quickly  induced  by  other  attendant  in- 
fluences which  are  common  to  most  machine  work.  One  of 
these  fatiguing  influences  is  the  noise  of  the  machinery. 

The  fatiguing  effect  of  the  roar  of  machinery  is  chiefly 
due  to  its  influence  upon  the  faculty  of  attention.  Mental 
fatigue  is  "characterized  pre-erninently  by  a  weakening  of 
the  powers  of  attention."*  Voluntary  attention  is  essentially 
a  selective  process,  a  "  focalization  and  concentration  of  con- 
sciousness"! upon  one  thing  or  a  few  from  among  the  multi- 

*  Lee,  op.  cit.     Harvey  Lectures,  1905-06,  p.  180. 
t  James,  William:   The  Principles  of  Psychology.      Advanced  Course, 
p.  426.     New  York,  Henry  Holt  and  Co.,  1899. 

68 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

plicities,  physical  and  mental,  in  whose  midst  we  live.  There 
is  thus  in  attention  a  sensation  of  eflFort,  and  fatigue  of  at- 
tention is  in  direct  proportion  to  the  continuance  of  the  efforts 
and  the  difficulty  of  sustaining  them.  Now,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  loud  noise,  attention  is  distracted  and  the  difficulty 
of  sustaining  it  increased. 

The  term  reaction  time,  as  is  well  known,  is  used  for  the 
minute  interval  between  the  occurrence  of  some  external 
phenomenon  and  the  signal  of  its  having  been  perceived  by 
any  given  individual.  This  interval  is,  as  a  rule,  almost 
infinitesimal.  It  is  counted  in  hundred-thousandths  of  a 
second,  yet  individuals  differ  markedly  in  the  speed  of  their 
reactions.  In  laboratory  experiments  these  infinitesimal 
differences  are  exactly  measured  by  the  use  of  Hipps'  chro- 
nometer, a  stop  watch  constructed  to  mark  the  thousandth 
part  of  a  second.  The  laboratory  experiments  confirm  what 
we  know  from  everyday  life,  that  attention  increases,  and 
fatigue  of  attention  decreases,  our  promptitude  of  reaction. 
Thus  in  a  game  of  tennis,  for  instance,  or  in  any  sport  where 
the  reaction  must  be  instant,  we  fail  to  make  prompt  returns 
as  soon  as  attention  is  in  any  way  distracted  and  we  are  off 
guard.  Measured  by  the  chronometer,  most  people  take 
about  134  thousandths  of  a  second  before  responding  with 
the  hand  to  a  touch  on  the  foot,  but  fatigue  of  the  attention 
may  double  the  length  of  this  reaction,  prolonging  the  in- 
terval to  as  much  as  250  thousandths  of  a  second. 

Now,  further  laboratory  study  shows  how  noise,  like 
fatigue,  retards  the  time  of  reaction.  Mosso  quotes*  an 
experiment  which  showed  that  when  an  organ  was  played, 
reaction  time  was  increased  from  100  thousandths  of  a  second 
to  144  thousandths,  before  the  subject  of  the  experiment 
showed  that  he  felt  a  touch  upon  his  left  hand.  This  retar- 
dation took  place  in  spite  of  a  greater  intensity  of  atten- 
tion, and  whenever  the  disturbing  sound  ceased,  the  time 
of  physiological  reaction  became  as  before.  James  quotes 
more  careful,  detailed  studies  of  Wundt  which  disclose  the 

*  Mosso,  Angelo:    La  Fatica.     English  translation,  pp.  204  and  205. 

69 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

same  kind  of  retardation  in  reaction  through  the  influence  of 
disturbing  noise.* 

*  James,  William,  op.  cit.,  pp.  427-432. 

"Under  this  head,  the  shortening  of  reaction-time,  there  is  a  good  deal 
to  be  said  of  attention's  effects.  Since  Wundt  has  probably  worked  over 
the  subject  more  thoroughly  than  any  other  investigator  and  made  it  pecu- 
liarly his  own,  what  follows  had  better,  as  far  as  possible,  be  in  his  words. 

'  I  made  experiments  in  which  the  principal  impression,  or  signal  for 
reaction,  was  a  bell-stroke  whose  strength  could  be  graduated  by  a  spring 
against  the  hammer  with  a  movable  counterpoise.  Each  set  of  observations 
comprised  two  series,  in  one  of  which  the  bell-stroke  was  registered  in  the 
ordinary  way,  whilst  in  the  other  a  toothed  wheel  belonging  to  the  chrono- 
metric  apparatus  made  during  the  entire  experiment  a  steady  noise  against 
a  metal  spring.  In  one-half  of  the  latter  series  (A)  the  bell-stroke  was  only 
moderately  strong,  so  that  the  accompanying  noise  diminished  it  consider- 
ably, without,  however,  making  it  indistinguishable.  In  the  other  half  (B) 
the  bell-sound  was  so  loud  as  to  be  heard  with  perfect  distinctness  above 
the  noise. 


Mean 


Maximum 


Minimum 


No.  of  Ex- 
periments 


A  [  Without   noise 

(Bell-stroke  ] 

moderate)  [  With  noise.  . .  . 

B  f  Without    noise 

(Bell-stroke  \ 

loud)  [  With  noise. . . . 


0.189 
0.313 
0.158 
0.203 


0.244 
0.499 
0.206 
0.295 


0.156 
0.183 
0.133 
0.140 


21 
16 
20 
19 


'Since,  in  these  experiments,  the  sound  B  even  with  noise  made  a 
considerably  stronger  impression  than  the  sound  A  without,  we  must  see 
in  the  figures  a  direct  influence  of  the  disturbing  noise  on  the  process  of 
reaction.  This  influence  is  freed  from  mixture  with  other  factors  when  the 
momentary  stimulus  and  the  concomitant  disturbance  appeal  to  different 
senses.  I  chose,  to  test  this,  sight  and  hearing.  The  momentary  signal  was 
an  induction-spark  leaping  from  one  platinum  point  to  another  against  a 
dark  background.     The  steady  stimulation  was  the  noise  above  described. 


No.  of 

Spark 

Mean 

Maximum 

Minimum 

Experiments 

Without  noise. . 

..0.222 

0.284 

0.158 

20 

With  noise  . . . . 

..0.300 

0.390 

0.250 

18 

'When  one  reflects  that  in  the  experiments  with  one  and  the  same 
sense  the  relative  intensity  of  the  signal  is  always  depressed  (which  by  itself 
is  a  retarding  condition)  the  amount  of  retardation  in  these  last  observations 
makes  it  probable  that  the  disturbing  influence  upon  attention  is  greater  when 
the  stimuli  are  disparate  than  when  they  belong  to  the  same  sense.  One  does 
not,  in  fact,  find  it  particularly  hard  to  register  immediately,  when  the  bell 
rings  in  the  midst  of  the  noise;  but  when  the  spark  is  the  signal  one  has 
the  feeling  of  being  coerced,  as  one  turns  away  from  the  noise  towards  it.' " 
(Wundt.  Physiol.  Psych.,  2nd  ed.  II,  pp.  241-5.) 

70 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

Thus,  noise  not  only  distracts  attention  but  necessitates 
a  greater  exertion  of  intensity  or  conscious  application, 
thereby  hastening  the  onset  of  fatigue  of  the  attention.  A 
quite  uncounted  strain  upon  this  easily  fatigued  faculty  re- 
sults among  industrial  workers,  such  as  girl  machine  opera- 
tors, when  the  deafening  intermittent  roar  of  highly  speeded 
machinery  adds  its  quota  to  the  tax  of  a  long  day's  work. 
The  roar  is  not  even  continuous  enough  to  sink  into  monot- 
ony. With  each  stoppage  and  starting  of  a  machine,  it 
bursts  out  irregularly. 

The  subject  of  noise  in  industrial  establishments  is 
usually  dismissed  with  the  remark  that  the  workers  "get 
used  to  it,"  and  doubtless,  in  many  occupations,  the  workers 
themselves  are  scarcely,  or  not  at  all,  conscious  of  any  in- 
creased application  on  their  part,  due  to  the  noise.  But,  in 
the  main,  the  process  of  getting  used  to  it  involves  precisely 
that  increased  intensity  of  nervous  effort,  that  "feeling  of 
being  coerced,"  of  which  Wundt  speaks  in  the  laboratory 
experiments,  and  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  most  favorable 
for  the  approach  of  exhaustion. 


5.     FATIGUE  AND  INDUSTRIAL  ACCIDENTS 

Fatigue  of  the  attention  and  lack  of  muscular  control  are 
important  in  another  connection  hitherto  little  regarded.  It 
has  been  shown  to  play  a  subtle  part  in  the  occurrence  of 
industrial  accidents.  The  statistics  of  all  countries  which 
have  recorded  the  hours  at  which  such  injuries  occur  prove 
that,  other  things  being  equal,  the  accidents  increase  pro- 
gressively up  to  a  certain  time  in  the  morning  and  again  in 
afternoon  work. 

In  estimating  the  accidents  of  working  people,  we  are  too 
much  accustomed  to  dwell  only  upon  the  concrete  objects  of 
danger,  such  as  the  unguarded  machinery,  or  the  prodigious 
size  and  weight  and  speed  of  industry's  mechanisms;  or  the 
atmospheric  conditions  of  work  such  as  intense  heat  and 
glare,  or  cold  and  dark,  and  the  like.     But  besides  all  these 

71 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

external  factors  and  their  effects,  we  must  reckon  with  the 
human  subject  himself,  and  the  reason  why,  among  so  many 
ever-present  chances  of  danger,  so  many  are  escaped  as  well 
as  succumbed  to. 

Here,  again,  the  causes  of  immunity  or  the  reverse  can- 
not easily  be  isolated.  The  worker's  total  makeup, — his 
coolness,  his  experience,  his  native  quickness  of  reaction,  his 
state  of  being,  physical  and  mental,  taken  as  a  whole,  deter- 
mine his  chances.  Yet  we  know  that  even  in  the  healthiest 
organism  the  products  of  fatigue  accumulate  with  progressive 
hours  of  work;  we  know  that  our  promptitude  of  reaction 
rises  and  falls  with  the  freshness  of  our  attention;  that  noth- 
ing is  more  potent  than  fatigue  to  increase  reaction  time  and 
develop  muscular  inaccuracies. 

Hence,  when  we  find  the  number  and  ratio  of  accidents 
increasing  up  to  a  certain  point  with  each  successive  hour  of 
work  during  the  morning,  falling  towards  zero  at  the  noon 
hour  and  again  rising  to  a  maximum  in  the  afternoon,  it  is 
reasonable  to  ascribe  the  increase  in  large  part  to  the  effects 
of  fatigue,  direct  and  indirect. 

In  a  general  way,  the  increase  of  accidents  late  in  the 
day  has  long  been  known.  These  "melancholy  details" 
were  urged  as  arguments  for  shortening  the  workday  by  Lord 
Shaftesbury  and  the  earliest  English  reformers.*  But  it  has 
been  only  within  comparatively  recent  years  that  any  sta- 
tistics on  the  hours  of  incidence  have  become  available.  The 
data  from  various  states  and  countries  are  not  in  complete 
accord  and  show  various  discrepancies.  The  statistics 
quoted  below  should  be  regarded  merely  as  initial  studies. 
Yet  they  are  significant,  notwithstanding  their  defects, 
because  they  reveal  tendencies  too  uniform  and  consistent 
to  be  the  work  of  chance. 

The  most  valuable  and  complete  statistics  come  from 
Germany,  the  first  country  to  adopt,  in  1884,  a  comprehen- 
sive system  of  accident  compensation  on  a  national  scale. 
Germany  was  one  of  the  first  nations  to  require  that  the  hours 
*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     3rd  Series.     March  15,  1844. 

72 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

of  the  incidence  of  accidents  be  reported.  The  Imperial  In- 
surance Office  has  made  a  practice  of  publishing,  at  ten-year 
intervals,  special  studies  of  industrial  accidents  for  which 
compensation  has  been  paid  to  working  people  under  the 
national  accident  insurance  system.  Such  investigations 
were  made  for  the  industrial  insurance  associations  in  1887, 
1897,  and  1907.  The  following  table  shows  that  during  the 
year  1887  the  highest  accident  rate,  for  all  industries,  oc- 
curred between  ten  and  twelve  in  the  morning  and  between 
five  and  six  in  the  afternoon.* 


NUMBER  AND  PER  CENT  OF  ACCIDENTS  DURING  THE  YEAR  1887, 
BY    HOUR    OF    THE    DAY    (gERMANY) 


Accidents 

Hours 

Accidents 

Hours 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Morning 

Afternoon 

6  to    7  . . . 

435 

2.82 

12tol... 

587 

3.81 

7  to    8  . . . 

794 

5.16 

1  to  2... 

745 

4.84 

8  to    9... 

815 

5.29 

2  to  3... 

1037 

6.73 

9  to  10  . . . 

1069 

6.94 

3  to  4... 

1243 

8.07 

10  to  11  . . . 

1598 

10.37 

4to5... 

1178 

7.65 

11  tol2  ... 

1590 

10.31 

5  to  6.  .  . 

1306 

8.48 

The  latest  German  statistics  give  the  number  of  hours 
worked  by  injured  persons  on  the  days  of  their  accidents,t 
and  show  that  the  accident  rate  is  highest  during  the  fourth 
and  fifth  hours  of  morning  work. J 

*  Quoted  from  the  Amtliche  Nachrichten  des  Reichs-Versicherungs- 
amts,  1890,  in  tlie  24th  Annual  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Labor.  Workmen's  Insurance  and  Compensation  Systems  in  Europe, 
Vol.  I,  p.  1134. 

t  Amtliche  Nachrichten  des  Reichs-Versicherungsamts,  1910.  !. 
Beiheft  I.  Teil.  Gewerbe-Unfallstatistik  far  das  Jahr  1907,  pp.  329-335. 
Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  No.  92,  Jan.,  1911.  Harris, 
Henry  J.,  Ph.  D.:  Industrial  Accidents  and  Loss  of  Earning  Power:  Ger- 
many's Experiences  in  1897  and  1907,  p.  50. 

J  See  table  on  next  page.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  German 
custom  of  allowing  about  15  minutes  for  afternoon  lunch  (Vesperpause)  at  4 
o'clock  or  later  is  responsible  for  the  decrease  beginning  with  the  eighth  hour 
of  work.     See  Harris,  Henry  J.,  op.  cit.,  p.  49. 

73 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


NUMBER  AND  PER  CENT  OF  PERSONS  INJURED  OR  KILLED 
DURING  THE  YEAR  1907,  BY  NUMBER  OF  HOURS  OF  WORK 
ON    THE    DAY    OF    THE    ACCIDENT    (gERMANY) 


Number  of  Hours  Injured 

All  Industries,  etc. 

Persons  had  been  at  Work 

Number  Reported 

Per  Cent 

Less  than  1 

3,939 
6,885 
7,351 
9,004 
9,739 
8,106 
6,462 
6,908 
6,817 
6,041 
8,539 

4  94 

1  to    2 

8  63 

2  to    3 

9  21 

3  to    4 

11.28 

4  to    5 

12  20 

5  to    6 

10  16 

6  to    7 

8  10 

7  to    8 

8  66 

8  to    9 

8  54 

9  to  10 

7  57 

10  and  over 

10  71 

Total 

79,791 

100  00 

In  France,  too,  the  distribution  by  hours,  of  accidents 
occurring  among  French  workmen,  has  been  studied.  Be- 
tween 1904  and  1907,  Professor  Imbert  of  the  University  of 
MontpeUer,  in  conjunction  with  French  factory  inspectors, 
investigated  accidents  occurring  in  sundry  occupations  such 
as  the  building  trades,  metal  and  wood-working  trades. 
They  also  showed  graphically  the  hours  of  accidents  occur- 
ring among  140,407  workers  affected  during  the  year  1903 
by  the  French  accident  compensation  law.*  In  all  these 
studies  the  general  features  of  the  curves  were  the  same. 
The  summit  was  reached  between  10  and  11  a.  m.  and 
again  between  4  and  5  p.  m. 

Similar  studies  showing  similar  results  were  published  in 
1907,  by  the  Belgian  factory  inspectorsf  and  by  two  Italian 

*  Revue  Scientifique,  4e  Juin,  1904.  Ibid.,  24e  Septembre,  1904.  Ibid., 
21eOctobre,  1905.   Bulletin  del' Inspection  du  Travail  Fasc.  3-i.  Paris,  1906. 

t  Royaume  de  Belgique.  Rapports  Annuels  de  I'lnspection  du  Tra- 
vail, 1907,  p.  206. 

74 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 


physicians  who  investigated  more  than  5,000  accidents 
occurring  in  machine  shops  of  Itahan  railroads  during  a 
period  of  four  years.* 

So  far  as  concerns  the  United  States  the  study  of  work 
injuries  has  been  so  much  belated  that  the  significance  of  their 
times  of  incidence  has  not  been  noted  until  very  recently.  As 
late  as  the  year  1909  the  writer  was  unable  to  learn  of  any 
American  investigations  into  this  subject.  Since  then  sev- 
eral have  appeared.  In  its  report  for  the  year  1909-10, 
the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  published  a  brief  table  of 
accidents,  according  to  their  distribution  by  hours. f 

Some  unpublished  accident  statistics  of  the  Illinois 
State  Department  of  Factory  Inspection  for  the  >'ear  1910 

NUMBER  OF  ACCIDENTS   DURING  THE  YEAR   1910,    BY  HOUR  OF 
THE    DAY    (ILLINOIS) 


Morning 

Accidents 

Afternoon 

Accidents 

7  to    7  :59 

79 

1  to  1  :  59 

111 

8  to    8  :  59 

120 

2  to  2  :  59 

156 

9  to    9  :59 

193 

3  to  3  :  59 

227 

10  to  10:59 

246 

4  to  4  :  59 

260 

11  toll  :  59 

257 

5  to  5  :  59 

145 

12  to  12  :  59 

49 

Other  hours 

289 

were  quoted  in  a  recent  study  of  industrial  accidents  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Sociology. %  The  author  states  that  of 
the  accident  reports  examined,  2,687  gave  a  fairly  accurate 
description  of  what  had  happened  preceding  the  accidents, 
and  of  these,  2,203  or  82.2  per  cent  "conceivably  might  have 
been  avoided  if  the  injured,  or  the  fellow  servant  who  was  the 

*  II  Ramaiiini.  Giornale  Italiano  di  Medicina  Sociale.  Anno.  I. 
Fasc.  10-11.  Oct.,  1907.  Pieraccini,  Prof.  G.,  and  Mafifei,  Dr.  R.  (R. 
,A.rcispedaIe  di  S.  iM.  Nuova,  Firenze):  Le  stagioni,  i  giorni,  le  ore  nel  deter- 
minismo  degli  infortuni  del  lavoro. 

t  14th  Biennial  Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Indus- 
trial Statistics.     1909-1910,     Part  II,  p.  78. 

J  Bogardus,  Emery  S.:  The  Relation  of  Fatigue  to  Industrial  Acci- 
dents. American  Journal  of  Sociology,  University  of  Chicago  Press.  Volume 
XVII,  Nos.  2,  3,  and  4.  (September  and  November,  1911,  and  January, 
1912.)  ^ 

75 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


NUMBER  AND   PER  CENT  OF  ACCIDENTS   BY   HOUR  OF  THE  DAY 

(United  States — Some  Comparative  Statistics) 


Cotton  Mills 

Metal-works 

Hours 

126  Mills  1  Year 

1  Mill  8  Years 

Total 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

6       to    7  a.  m 

7.01  to    8  a.  m 

8.01  to    9  a.  m 

9.01  to  10  a.  m 

10.01  to  11  a.  m 

11.01  to  12  m 

12.01  to    1  p.  m 

1.01  to    2  p.  m 

2.01  to    3  p.  m 

3.01  to    4  p.  m 

4.01  to    5  p.  m 

5.01  to    6  p.  m 

6.01  to    7  p.  m 

7.01  to    8  p.  m 

73 

95 

126 

161 

128 
78 

58 

78 

98 

126 

90 

59 

7 

3 

6.19 

8.05 

10.68 

13.64 

10.85 

6.61 

4.92 

6.61 

8.30 

10.68 

7.63 

5.00 

.59 

.25 

63 
68 
82 
90 
114 
43 

9 

63 
67 
77 

57 

8.22 

8.88 

10.71 

11.75 

14.88 

5.61 

1.18 

8.22 
8.75 
10.05 
7.44 
4.31 

486 
677 
860 
763 
491 

241 

602 
676 
716 

511 
203 

7^81 
10.87 
13.81 

12.25 
7.89 

3.87 

9.67 
10.86 
11.50 

8.21 
3.26 

Total 

1,180 

100.00 

766 

100.00 

6,226 

100.00 

General  Manufacture 

Grand  Total 

Hours 

Indiana  3  Years 

IVisconsin 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

6       to    7  a.  m 

7.01  to    8  a.  m 

8.01  to    9  a.  m 

9.01  to  10  a.  m 

10.01  to  11  a.  m 

11,01  to  12  m 

12.01  to    1  p.  m 

1.01  to    2  p.  m 

2.01  to    3  p.  m 

3.01  to    4  p.  m 

4.01  to    5  p.  m 

5.01  to  6  p.  m 

6.01  to    7  p.  m 

7.01  to    8  p.  m 

546 
492 
603 
469 
338 

183 

441 
481 
598 
480 
197 

li.'31 

10.19 

12.49 

9.71 

7.00 

3.79 

9.13 

9.97 

12.38 

9.95 
4.08 

"76 
126 
227 
245 
208 

49 

126 
213 
240 
229 
151 

402 

6.67 

12.01 

12.96 

11.00 

2.59 

6.67 
11.27 
12.70 
12.12 

7.99 

136 
1,271 
1,503 
1.941 
1,719 
1,158 

540 

1,310 

1,535 

1.757 

1,367 

643 

7 

3 

0.91 

8.53 

10.09 

13.04 

11.54 
7.78 

3.63 

8.80 

10.31 

11.80 

9.18 

4.32 

.05 

.02 

Total 

4,828 

100.00 

1,890 

100.00 

14,890 

100.00 

76 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

cause  of  the  accident  in  some  cases,  had  had  accurate  muscu- 
lar control."  Of  the  2,203  accidents  which  might  have  been 
avoided,  the  time  was  given  at  which  2,162  had  occurred,  and 
again  showed  the  summit  of  the  accident  curve  between  10 
and  12  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  4  and  5  in  the  afternoon. 

The  federal  investigation  of  wage-earning  women  and 
children  includes  a  study  of  accidents  among  about  14,000 
metal  workers,  male  and  female,  and  more  than  75,000  cotton 
mill  workers.  For  purposes  of  comparison  it  includes  the 
Wisconsin  table  and  some  unpublished  statistics  from  the 
Indiana  Bureau  of  Factory  Inspection.  "Here,"  says  the 
report,*  "  are  four  sets  of  figures,  collected  by  different  agencies 
in  different  parts  of  the  Union  at  different  times  and  covering 
different  industries,  each  agency  working  independently  of 
the  others.  Yet  the  figures  thus  gathered  show  .  .  .  strik- 
ing similarity."  Omitting  the  hour  from  6  to  7  a.  m.,  the 
accident  rate  is  shown  to  be  highest  during  the  third  and 
fourth  hours  of  work. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  testimony  of  the  statistics.  It  is 
true  that  most  of  these  studies  of  accidents  are  open  to  various 
criticisms.  They  are  not  sufficiently  full  and  specific  to  be 
scientifically  accurate.  They  do  not  state  the  actual  number 
of  workers  employed  at  each  hour  of  the  day.  More  workers 
are  employed  at  some  hours  than  at  others;  hence  the  in- 
creased number  of  accidents  during  the  third  and  fourth  hours 
of  the  morning  or  afternoon  may  be  due  to  the  presence  of  a 
larger  working  force.  In  that  case  the  number  of  accidents 
would  necessarily  be  heightened. 

The  question  has  also  been  raised  why,  if  fatigue  is  a 
primary  cause  for  these  accidents,  their  number  is  not  great- 
est during  the  last  hour  of  the  morning  and  of  the  afternoon? 
If  it  is  the  workers'  exhaustion  which  inclines  them  to  these 
hazards,  why  does  it  not  do  so  most  when  they  are  presum- 
ably most  fatigued? 

*  Senate  Document  No.  645,  61st  Congress,  Second  Session,  1911. 
Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United 
States,  Vol.  XI,  pp.  96-97.     See  table  on  p.  76. 

77 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

To  this  objection  there  are  several  conclusive  repHes. 
In  the  first  place,  the  variation  in  the  lunch  hour  in  different 
establishments  lessens  the  number  of  persons  at  work  between 
eleven  and  one  o'clock.*  So,  also,  variations  in  "quitting 
time"  and  the  smaller  number  of  persons  at  work  between 
five  and  six,  go  toward  explaining  the  usually  smaller  num- 
ber of  accidents  which  occur  at  that  time.  Moreover,  some 
familiar  psychological  phenomena  help  further  to  explain 
the  smaller  number  of  accidents  during  the  first  and  last 
hours  of  morning  and  afternoon  employment.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  first  period  of  work  is  one  of  "limbering  up," 
when  the  worker  has  not  yet  reached  his  normal  plane  of 
efficiency  or  production.  During  the  last  hour  of  work,  also, 
with  increasing  fatigue,  the  rate  naturally  falls.  In  a  sub- 
sequent chapter  we  shall  observe,  from  actual  experiments, 
how  markedly  the  productivity  and  output  drop  during  the 
last  hours  of  the  morning  and  afternoon. 

Now  this  lower  rate  of  activity,  due  to  complex  causes, 
is  in  all  probability  a  highly  important  factor  in  the  reduced 
accident  rate  during  the  first  and  last  hours  of  the  morning 
and  afternoon.  It  is  well  known  that  operations  requiring 
increased  speed  tend  to  produce  a  heightened  accident  rate, 
and  the  reverse  is  as  true.  With  the  slackening  of  speed  and 
production,  therefore,  it  is  natural  for  the  accident  rate  to 
fall.  Thus  the  effects  of  fatigue  upon  the  accident  rate  are 
both  direct  and  indirect.  As  the  American  report  acutely 
saysif 

"  It  is  evident  that  in  the  interrelation  of  influences 
acting  upon  the  situation  now  one  and  now  another  may  be 
dominant.  The  most  constant  factor  will  be  fatigue.  It 
will  be  present  in  varying  proportion  in  every  case.  It 
may  act  with  the  tendency  to  increase  speed  to  produce 

*  "  In  one  Chicago  plant  employing  about  3,000  men  and  women,  the 
writer  found  that  practically  one-half  of  this  number  took  their  lunch  from 
11  :30  to  12.  Frequently  the  employees  begin  their  afternoon  period  of 
work  at  12  :45  p.  m.  and  in  some  cities  at  12  :30  p.  m." — Bogardus,  op. 
cit.,  p.  513. 

t  Senate  Document  No.  645,  Vol.  XI,  p.  100. 

78 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

a  greater  number  of  accidents.  It  may  in  the  end  become 
so  pronounced  that  speed  is  reduced  and  the  accident  rate 
lowered.  .  .  .  It  is  a  steadily  progressive  process.  It 
gradually  upsets  those  nice  adjustments  of  the  living  or- 
ganism upon  which  depend  efficient  labor  and  the  safety  of 
the  worker.  The  margin  of  safety  in  modern  industry  is 
small.  It  is  measured  too  frequently  by  fractions  of  an  inch. 
Reduce  the  alertness  and  the  exactness  with  which  the  body 
responds  to  the  necessities  of  labor,  and  by  just  so  much  have 
you  increased  the  liability  that  the  hand  will  be  misplaced 
that  fraction  which  means  mutilation." 

Obviously  these  statistics  and  surmises  as  to  the  relation 
of  fatigue  to  the  accident  rate  urgently  need  further  confirma- 
tion. They  do  not  completely  agree  and  need  to  be  clari- 
fied by  a  really  scientific  examination  of  both  the  production 
rate  and  the  accident  rate  in  the  same  establishments.  In 
order  to  clarify  the  influence  of  fatigue  on  the  accident  rate, 
the  number  of  hours  worked  by  injured  persons  on  the  days 
of  their  injuries  should  obviously  be  included  in  all  future 
statistics,  besides  the  actual  hours  of  incidence. 

Side  by  side  with  the  perfection  of  mechanisms  and 
safety  appliances  should  go  the  study  of  those  underlying 
physiological  and  psychological  factors  which  so  largely  con- 
tribute to  swell  the  accident  rate  and  which  may,  when  better 
studied  and  understood,  be  modified  if  not  obliterated  by  the 
provision  of  periodic  rests  or  pauses,  and  similar  devices  to 
check  the  inroads  of  fatigue  and  exhaustion. 

6.  RHYTHM 

The  strain  of  machine  work  upon  the  faculty  of  atten- 
tion thus  leads  to  the  gravest  consequences.  Another  subtly 
fatiguing  element  in  machine  work,  which  we  have  not  yet 
examined,  is  due  to  its  rhythm.  It  is  apparent  that  the 
rhythm  of  any  power-driven  machinery  is  fixed  and  mechan- 
ical, depending  upon  its  construction  and  its  rate  of  speed. 
Now  it  is  true  also  that  human  beings  tend  to  work  rhyth- 
mically, and  when  the  individual's  natural  swing  or  rhythmic 

79 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

tendency  must  be  wholly  subordinated  to  the  machine's 
more  rapid  mechanical  rhythm,  fatigue  is  likely  to  ensue. 

Rhythm  in  human  beings  is  not  a  fanciful  or  theoretic 
notion;  it  is  a  common  endowment.  The  human  organism 
instinctively  attunes  itself  to  rhythm,  as  a  dancer  yields  her- 
self to  her  measure,  without  thought  or  even  consciousness. 
This  is  a  matter  of  everyday  experience.  Some  persons  are 
palpably  disturbed  by  the  sudden  stopping  of  a  clock  to  the 
ticking  of  which  they  have  been  accustomed.  The  rhythm 
of  the  tick  may  be  missed  even  in  sleep;  its  sudden  cessation 
is  sufficient  to  awaken  one  when  a  bedroom  clock  runs  down 
at  night.  Everyone  knows  how  acutely  the  rhythm  of  a 
train  or  vessel  may  be  missed,  when  one  first  sets  foot  on 
solid  earth  after  a  long  journey. 

Since  the  beginning  of  time,  this  natural  instinct  for 
rhythm  has  found  an  outlet  in  dance  and  song.*  It  was  the 
mother  of  the  arts.  It  gave  birth  to  the  folksongs  and  folk- 
dances,  in  which  primitive  people  expressed  themselves — 
their  loves  and  hates,  their  dreams  of  life  and  death,  and 
their  concrete  activities.  Not  the  poetry  of  existence  only, 
but  all  the  daily  offices  of  life — spinning,  weaving,  sowing 
the  grain,  harvesting,  and  the  rest — inspired  song  and  dance, 
their  own  rhythms. 

Even  today  innumerable  survivals  persist,  marking  our 
kinship  with  the  earlier  children  of  men.  Sailors  and  other 
workmen  almost  unconsciously  chant  or  "hoy-ho"as  they 
haul.  In  the  midst  of  discordant  city  traffic,  workmen  who 
are  mending  the  pavements  drive  steel  wedges  with  rhyth- 
mic shouts  and  rhythmic  alternating  blows  of  their  sledges. 
They  know,  instinctively,  that  the  rhythm  makes  the  work 
easier.  So,  too,  soldiers  march  better  and  with  less  exertion 
to  a  tune.  It  is  not  only  the  emotional  excitement  of  a 
martial  air,  it  is  the  rhythmic  beat  of  the  music  that  helps  to 
swing  the  march  along  in  unison. 

*  Biicher,  Karl:  Arbeit  und  Rhythmus.  Fourth  edition.  Leipzig, 
Teubner,  1909. 


80 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

"For  the  world  was  built  in  order 
And  the  atoms  march  in  tune; 
Rhyme  the  pipe,  and  Time  the  warder, 
The  sun  obeys  them  and  the  moon.  .  .  . 
None  so  backward  in  the  troop, 
When  the  music  and  the  dance 
Reach  his  place  and  circumstance." 

Even  in  the  animal  world,  rhythm  is  natural.  The 
rhythm  of  the  trotting  horse  or  the  ambling  camel  is  as  in- 
dividual to  itself  as  the  beat  of  the  blacksmith's,  the  cobbler's 
or  the  carpenter's  hammer,  or  the  swing  of  the  housemaid's 
broom.  With  a  musical  people,  such  as  the  American  Negro, 
not  only  rhythmic  movements  but  rhythmic  songs  persist 
among  such  diverse  workers  as  cotton-pickers  in  Georgia, 
laborers  laying  railroad  and  trolley  rails  in  Kentucky,  and 
the  roustabouts  on  the  Mississippi.* 

The  reason  why  rhythm  makes  work  easier  as  well  as 
more  enjoyable  is  that  in  any  given  tempo,  each  effort  is 
followed  by  a  corresponding  rest.  There  is  a  perfect  balance 
of  swing  and  recovery,  rise  and  fall,  exertion  and  repose — 
"  primal  chimes "  as  Emerson,  the  lover  of  rhythm,  calls  them : 

'Trimal  chimes  of  sun  and  shade, 
Of  sound  and  echo,  man  and  maid;  .  .  . 
For  Nature  beats  in  perfect  tune. 
And  rounds  with  rhyme  her  every  rune." 

If  such  a  balance  could  be  permanently  established  in 
work,  fatigue  could  never  occur.  Such  a  condition  exists  in 
the  physiological  rhythm  of  the  heart  and  respiratory  muscles, 
which  function  unceasingly  through  life,  alternating  work 
and  rest,  work  and  rest.  In  its  steady  rhythmic  tempo  the 
heart  relaxes  at  each  contraction,  exerting  energy  estimated 
at  about  20,000  kilogrammeters  in  one  day.f 

Thus  are  we  physiologically  attuned  to  rhythm.  It  is 
our  common  heritage.  The  injury  of  highly  speeded  machine 
work  lies,  as  we  have  said,  in  this,  that  the  mechanical,  rapid 

*  Biicher,  op.  cit.,  pp.  235-251. 

t  Roth,  Dr.  Emil:  Ermiidung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  Op.  cit.,  p.  606. 
Kilogrammeter=7.2  foot  pounds.     For  definition  of  foot  pound  see  p.  195. 

6  8l 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

rhythm  of  machinery  dominates  the  human  agent,  whatever 
be  his  natural  rate  or  rhythmic  tendency.  The  machine 
sets  the  tempo;  the  worker  must  keep  to  it. 

Not  only  is  the  beat  of  the  machine  much  more  rapid 
and  regular  than  the  more  elastic  human  rhythms;  it  is  often 
wholly  lost  in  the  chaos  of  different  rhythms  of  the  various 
machines,  belts,  and  pulleys  in  one  workroom.  The  roar  and 
vibration  of  machinery  tends  further  to  distract  any  sense 
of  rhythm  on  the  part  of  the  workers. 


7.    PIECE-WORK 

Another  enemy  of  the  physiological  tempo  lies  in  the 
abuse  of  the  piece-work  system.  Here  we  must  preface  our 
physiological  objections  to  the  abuse  of  a  system,  by  realizing 
the  inherent  value  of  the  system  itself,  properly  managed. 
Briefly,  piece-work  presupposes  a  naturally  varying  rate  of 
work  and  output  among  individuals,  according  to  which  each 
worker  is  paid.  Obviously,  this  should  be  the  most  just  way 
to  allow  for  the  play  of  natural  talents.  Increased  effort  or 
skill  brings  its  immediate  reward,  and  the  best  worker  is  the 
best  paid.  In  highly  organized  trades,  where  the  piece-work 
system  has  been  minutely  worked  out,  as  in  the  great  shoe 
industry,  neither  workers  nor  employers  would  for  a  moment 
consider  returning  to  a  time  basis,  where  individuals  are  paid 
alike  by  the  hour. 

In  criticising  the  piece-rates,  therefore,  we  are  dealing 
with  an  entrenched  practice,  and  criticism  must  attack  not 
the  system,  but  its  flagrant  abuses.  These,  unfortunately, 
are  common  and  widespread,  especially  among  workingwomen 
in  poorly  organized  trades,  where  no  collective  bargaining 
protects  individuals  from  pressure.  In  such  occupations,  of 
which  the  ramified  needle  and  clothing  trades  are  the  best 
examples,  piece-work  develops  chiefly  into  a  system  of  "  speed- 
ing up"  the  workers  in  both  machine  and  hand  work.  The 
workers  are  spurred  to  a  feverish  intensity.  They  apply 
themselves  hectically.     It  is  almost  inevitable  that  the  most 

82 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

rapid  workers  should  be  so-called  "pace-makers"  and  set  the 
rhythm  for  all  the  other  workers.  For  pay  is  usually  ad- 
justed to  the  rate  of  the  quickest  workers,  and  in  order  to  earn 
a  fair  wage,  all  the  others  must  keep  up  as  near  to  them  as 
possible.  Thus,  if  a  quick  girl  can  stitch  ten  dozen  pieces  of 
white  underwear  in  a  day,  she  can  earn  SI. 50  at  the  rate  of 
15  cents  per  dozen.  Another  girl  can  at  her  natural  pace 
stitch  no  more  than  six  dozen  in  one  day.  But  since  she 
would  earn  only  90  cents  a  day  at  the  same  rate  of  pay,  she 
drives  herself  feverishly  to  greater  exertion.  Piece-work, 
then,  means  working  watch  in  hand.  When  every  minute 
means  loss  of  an  already  meager  wage,  the  incentive  to  spurt 
is  irresistible. 

Many  employers  contend  that  unless  workers  have  such 
incentives,  or  a  personal  stake  in  working  steadily,  the>'  tend 
to  slacken  and  are  indifferent  to  the  amount  of  their  output 
so  long  as  wages  are  assured.  The  workers,  on  the  other 
hand,  return  that  in  piece-work,  even  the  utmost  speed  does 
not  assure  them  of  their  wages,  since  the  piece-work  price  is 
often  cut  when  the  rapid  workers  are  thought  to  be  earning 
too  much  in  one  day.  The  rate  per  piece  is  lowered.  Then 
the  same  speed  is  required  to  earn  the  lower  wage.* 

Another  hardship  in  piece-work  of  which  the  workers 
justly  complain  and  which  adds  greatly  to  the  nervous  tax  of 
any  occupation  is  due  to  the  extraordinarily  rapid  changes  of 
fashion.  Thus,  for  example,  just  when  a  girl  has  become 
proficient  enough  to  earn  a  fair  wage  at  piece-rates  in  tucking 
women's  shirtwaists,  the  tucks  go  out  of  fashion,  and  a  new 
kind  of  stitching  is  required.  Even  the  skilled  worker  is  a 
novice  at  first,  and  cannot  for  some  time  equal  the  speed  she 
had  acquired  by  practice  at  her  former  work.  Yet  the  manu- 
facturer, in  fixing  piece-rates,  rarely  makes  allowance  for  such 
sudden  freaks  of  fashion,  and  the  hardship  of  the  inevitable 
changes  falls  on  the  one  least  able  to  support  it,  the  worker. 

*  For  a  striking  example  of  the  abuse  of  the  piece-work  system  in  the 
manufacture  of  electric  lamp  bulbs,  see  Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and 
Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United  States,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  480.  Senate  Docu- 
ment No.  645,  61st  Congress,  2nd  Session,  1911. 

83 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Her  wage  practically  is  cut  and  her  work  intensified  by  every 
shift  of  fashion. 

Thus,  though  the  piece-work  system  is  sound  in  theory 
and  works  admirably  in  highly  organized  trades  where  col- 
lective agreements  assure  the  workers  fair,  fixed  rates,  it 
fails  among  the  most  helpless  workers  who  most  need  to  be 
protected  from  over-pressure  and  the  inroads  of  fatigue. 
With  them  it  almost  inevitably  breeds  a  spirit  of  permanent 
"rush"  in  work,  and  to  that  extent  it  is  physiologically 
dangerous:  "the  most  pernicious  thing  that  could  be  de- 
vised to  weaken  what,  for  a  better  term,  might  be  de- 
scribed as  the  dynamic  efficiency  of  the  nervous  system,"* 
writes  a  physician  familiar  with  the  effects  of  unregulated 
piece-rates  among  garment  workers. 


8.     OVERTIME 

The  factors  which  we  selected  as  typical  of  the  new 
strain  in  industry  are  all  aggravated  and  intensified  by  the 
system  of  overtime  evening  work,  to  which  we  have  already 
made  passing  reference.  Overtime  means  that  after  the 
regular  day's  work  is  done,  evening  work  is  required  in 
addition. 

Overtime  is  an  elastic  term.  In  its  extremes!  forms, 
reported  in  printing  and  binding  establishments,  it  lengthens 
the  workday  to  twenty-four  hours  in  one  stretch.  In  less 
extreme  degree,  overtime  is  worked  during  the  fall  months 
until  eight  or  nine  or  ten  o'clock  each  evening  in  factories 
which  supply  the  Christmas  market;  in  paper  box  making; 
in  the  manufacture  of  innumerable  articles  of  women's  wear — 
from  lace  collars  to  Japanese  kimonos;  in  leather  and  jewelry 
work;  in  making  the  cheaper  and  more  lasting  candies,  and 
in  many  other  occupations. 

Indeed,  overtime  is  common  to  almost  all  industries  and 

*  Schwab,  Dr.  Sidney  I.  (Professor  of  Nervous  and  Mental  Diseases, 
St.  Louis  University):  Neurasthenia  among  Garment  Wori<ers.  American 
Labor  Legislation  Review,  Vol.  I,  No.  I,  p.  27.     (January,  1911.) 

84 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

is  prevalent  in  every  industrial  center,  to  a  degree  wholly 
unknown  to  most  persons.  No  more  arresting  fact  emerges 
from  the  comprehensive  study  of  wage-earning  women  and 
children  made  by  the  federal  government,  than  the  almost 
incredible  length  and  duration  of  this  form  of  extra  employ- 
ment. 

People  speak  habitually,  and  labor  statistics  usually 
treat  of,  the  so-called  "normal"  hours  of  labor,  dismissing 
overtime  as  an  insignificant  and  merely  occasional  side  issue. 
Overtime  is  regarded  as  a  sort  of  temporary  emergency, 
similar  to  many  other  of  life's  stresses  which  people  weather 
without  permanent  injury,  thanks  to  their  reserve  strength. 
But,  in  fact,  overtime  is  an  integral  part  of  the  workers'  lives, 
persisting  not  only  for  days  at  a  time  but  for  weeks  and 
months;  not  occasionally  lengthening  the  day's  work,  but 
during  a  large  part  of  the  year  straining  health  and  endurance 
to  the  utmost. 

Thus,  in  the  recent  federal  investigation  of  wage-earning 
women  and  children,  agents  of  the  government  reported  the 
normal  hours  of  work,  in  miscellaneous  manufactures,  as  55>^ 
in  New  York,  56.4  in  Chicago,  53.3  in  Philadelphia,  53  in 
Baltimore.  But  the  average  duration  of  overtime  of  selected 
workers  in  those  cities,  during  1907-08,  was  17.3  weeks  or 
over  four  months  in  New  York,  13)4  weeks  or  more  than  three 
months  in  Chicago,  16.6  weeks  or  again  over  four  months  in 
Philadelphia,  13  weeks  in  Baltimore.*  In  one  printing  es- 
tablishment in  New  York  City,  girls  were  employed  once  and 
sometimes  twice  a  week,  during  a  period  of  sixteen  to  twenty- 
six  weeks,  for  16^,  20>^,  22>^,  and  24>^  continuous  hours. f 

These  longest  days  of  overtime  work  are  reported  in 
New  York  binderies.  But  in  a  special  investigation  of 
Chicago  box  factories  the  weeks  of  overtime  persisted  longest.  + 

*  Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the 
United  States,  Vol.  V,  pp.  204,  208,  211,  213.  Senate  Document  No. 
645.     61st  Congress,  2nd  Session.     1910. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  205. 

t  Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  No.  91,  Nov.,  1910.  Working 
Hours  of  Wage-earning  Women  in  Chicago,  pp.  875-880. 

85 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Eleven  box  factories  employing  1010  workers  were  in- 
vestigated. Their  average  duration  of  overtime  was  fifteen 
weeks  in  the  year;  one  factory  reported  overtime  extending 
over  thirty-seven  weeks  in  the  year;  that  is,  more  than  nine 
months*  In  this  case,  the  so-called  "normal"  hours  were 
worked  only  three  months;  the  supposedly  extra  "overtime 
hours"  were  worked  regularly  more  than  nine  months  in  the 
year, — a  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  the  whole  matter.  Yet  this 
is  not  merely  an  eccentricity  of  nomenclature.  It  is  a  trick 
of  psychology;  a  not  unfair  example  of  our  habitual  mental 
attitude  towards  the  custom  of  overtime,  accepting  the 
shorter  hours  as  normal  and  habitual,  dismissing  from  mind 
the  excessive  hours  no  matter  how  long  they  may  persist,  as 
exceptional,  under  the  head  of  "overtime." 

Obviously,  when  overtime  extends  over  such  hours  as 
those  quoted  here,  it  shares  all  the  dangers  inherent  in  regu- 
lar night  work.  Upon  these  dangers  we  shall  dwell  subse- 
quently, in  discussing  more  fully  the  phenomenon  of  all  night 
work.  Here  it  suffices  to  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  be- 
side the  dangers  to  health,  there  are  inevitably  moral  dangers 
also,  potential  in  all  employment  of  women  after  dark. 

The  return  home  at  late  night  or  early  morning  hours  is 
fraught  with  the  peril  of  insult  if  not  of  attack;  association 
with  men  employes  at  night,  and  during  the  midnight  recess 
in  establishments  running  all  night  long,  presents  special 
temptation;  women  who  live  away  from  home  cannot  easily 
return  to  reputable  living  places  late  at  night. 

Such  hardships  are  incurred  by  the  worker  kept  for 
overtime  as  well  as  by  the  all  night  worker.  But  physio- 
logically considered,  overtime  sins  against  health  in  a  way 
peculiar  to  itself.  It  means  that  the  elements  which  make 
up  industrial  stress — speed,  complexity,  monotony,  and  the 

*  In  this  firm,  the  normal  hours  were  fifty-nine  in  one  week,  the  "long 
day"  being  ten  hours;  in  the  busy  season  (thirty-seven  weeks)  the  "long 
day"  was  thirteen  and  one-half  hours,  and  the  week  was  made  up  as  follows: 

"One  nine-hour  day,  three  thirteen  and  one-half-hour  days  and  two 
ten-hour  days,  making  the  total  number  of  hours  for  the  six-day  week 
sixty-nine  and  one-half."     Op.  cit.,  p.  877. 

86 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

rest — must  be  endured  by  an  organism  which  has  presumably 
already  reached  its  limits. 

The  essential  injury  of  overtime  is  due  to  what  we  have 
seen  graphically  proved  with  the  ergograph:  that  effort 
increases  with  fatigue;  that  work  continued  after  fatigue 
has  set  in  requires  so  much  more  subsequent  time  for  re- 
cuperation. But  during  a  "rush"  or  overtime  season  such 
time  for  recuperation  is  necessarily  lacking.  The  girl  who  is 
kept  in  the  great  department  stores  until  ten  or  eleven  or 
twelve  o'clock  at  night  during  one  or  two  frenzied  weeks  be- 
fore the  holiday  which  heralds  the  reign  of  Peace;  the  girl  who 
works  at  fever  heat  all  evening  stitching  women's  shirtwaists 
in  January  for  the  spring  trade,  is  not  relieved  from  the 
necessity  of  reporting  for  work  at  seven  or  eight  o'clock  the 
next  morning.  She  comes  to  work  unrepaired,  and  with  each 
day  of  overtime,  accumulated  fatigue  necessarily  grows. 

One  of  the  least  known  and  most  straining  forms  of 
overtime,  for  which  Christmas  is  responsible,  occurs  in  the 
auditing  department  of  the  great  stores.  One  of  the  largest 
establishments  in  New  York  City,  typical  of  the  best  stores, 
closes  its  doors  to  shoppers  throughout  the  winter  at  six 
o'clock.  But  the  girls  who  serve  behind  the  counters  may 
leave  every  night  at  their  regular  hour  though  girls  upstairs 
in  the  clerical  department  are  kept  until  nine  o'clock  in  the 
evening  during  more  than  two  months,  that  is,  from  De- 
cember 1  until  February.  They  usually  receive  no  extra 
pay  for  the  three  extra  daily  hours  of  work,  but  have  an 
allowance  of  35  cents  each  evening  for  supper  money. 

In  theory,  the  requirement  of  overtime  is  supposed  to  be 
balanced  by  the  slack  period  which  often  follows.  A  short 
period  of  over-exertion  is  assumed  to  be  compensated  by  a 
subsequent  let-up.  But  the  slack  period  which  often  follows 
overtime  does  not  give  the  supposed  opportunity  for  leisure 
and  recuperation.  It  is  itself  a  season  of  deprivation.  For 
slack  work  means  slack  pay,  with  a  consequent  loss  rather 
than  gain  in  opportunities  for  recuperation. 

But  deeper  than  this  objection  to  the  alternation  of 

87 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

overwork  and  idleness,  is  the  physiological  objection.  Dur- 
ing overtime,  leisure  and  rest  are  cut  down  at  the  very  same 
time  that  heavier  and  longer  demands  are  made  upon  the 
human  organism.  It  is  practically  inevitable  that  the  meta- 
bolic balance  should  be  thrown  out  of  gear.  Regular  sea- 
sonal overtime  in  such  occupations  as  those  cited  above, 
leaves  the  worker  with  too  great  a  physiological  deficit. 
There  is  no  rebound,  or  an  infinitely  slow  one  when  our 
elastic  capacities  have  been  too  tensely  stretched.  It  takes 
much  more  time,  rest,  repair  than  the  working  girl  can  possibly 
afford  to  make  good  such  metabolic  losses.  Compensation 
— oflF-time — comes  too  late.  As  we  know  instinctively,  and 
as  we  have  seen  diagrammatically  proved  in  the  laboratory, 
the  essential  thing  in  rest  is  the  time  at  which  it  conies.  Rest 
postponed  is  rest  more-than-proportionally  deprived  of 
virtue.  Fatigue  let  run  is  a  debt  to  be  paid  at  compound 
interest.  Maggiora  showed  that  after  a  doubled  task, 
muscle  requires  not  double  but  four  times  as  long  a  rest  for 
recuperation,  and  a  similar  need  for  more-than-proportionally 
increased  rest  after  excessive  work  is  true  also  of  our  other 
tissues,  and  of  our  organism  in  its  totality. 

No  one  need  therefore  be  surprised  to  learn  that  after  a 
period  of  overtime  work,  a  marked  growth  of  many  minor 
ailments  has  been  found  where  there  has  been  medical  ex- 
amination of  working  girls  and  women.  A  recent  report  of 
the  British  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories  quotes  a  striking 
example  of  this.*  In  six  large  tobacco  factories,  physicians 
appointed  by  the  firms  reported  an  increase  of  from  one- 
third  to  one-half  in  the  number  of  workers  coming  to  them 
for  treatment  after  continuous  overtime  work.  No  special 
diseases  were  found  but,  as  might  be  expected,  aggravated 
cases  of  the  ordinary  ailments,  such  as  indigestion,  anaemia, 
heavy  colds  in  winter,  gastric  disorders  in  summer.  This 
was  in  a  trade  considered  not  in  itself  unhealthy  by  the 
physicians  quoted,  and  where  overtime  was  limited  by  the 
*  British  Sessional  Papers,  Vol.  X,  Appendix  II,  1907,  pp.  253-254. 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

British  law  so  that  the  total  amount  of  work  done  could  not 
exceed  ten  and  one-half  hours  in  one  day. 

This  is  only  one  example  of  many  which  might  be  quoted. 
Year  after  year  the  British  factory  inspectors  have  registered 
their  disapproval  of  overtime  on  physical  grounds,  and  have 
denounced  its  physical  effects.  "Nothing  short  of  a  public 
scandal,"  "inexcusable,"  "outrageous,"  are  some  of  the  epi- 
thets repeatedly  used.  In  France,  the  "veillee"  or  evening 
overtime  work,  especially  in  dressmaking  establishments, 
comes  in  for  the  same  denunciation.  A  German  physician, 
Dr.  Emil  Roth,  of  Potsdam,  expresses  himself  similarly  in 
an  address  which  combines  scientific  thoroughness  with  a 
first  hand  knowledge  of  industry.  His  observation  inclines 
him  to  believe  that  the  strain  of  seasonal  overwork  upon  the 
health  of  working  women  in  stores  and  factories  is  never  com- 
pensated, but  encroaches  steadily  upon  the  worker's  total 
health  and  endurance,  permanently  lowering  their  levels.* 

*  Roth,  Dr.  Emil:    Ermiidung  durch  Berufsarbeit.     Op.  cit.,  p.  610. 


89 


IV 

SOME    SPECIFIC   STUDIES   OF    PHYSICAL   OVER- 
STRAIN IN  INDUSTRY 

THUS  a  rapid  glance  at  some  actual  conditions  in 
diverse  occupations  such  as  the  telephone  service, 
the  great  woman-employing  needle  and  textile  and 
shoe  trades,  and  the  canneries,  throws  some  light  upon  the 
new  strain  of  industry.  In  all  these  occupations  work  has 
increased  its  demands  upon  human  energies.  We  turn  next 
to  learn  some  of  the  physical  effects  upon  the  workers,  so 
far  as  these  have  been  observed  and  recorded. 

As  concerns  the  past,  we  have  abundant  testimony  on 
the  fruits  of  overwork,  not  only  regarding  those  who  have 
themselves  been  bound  to  exacting  tasks,  but  regarding  their 
children  and  the  communities  in  which  their  lives  were  spent. 
This  kind  of  testimony,  to  which  we  shall  often  have  occasion 
to  refer  in  this  study,  is  found  in  the  accumulated  official 
and  unofficial  reports  of  the  inspectors  and  physicians  who 
have  had  daily  to  observe  the  conditions  of  labor  at  first 
hand,  and  whose  unconscious  unanimity  gives  to  their  evi- 
dence, as  we  have  pointed  out,  a  strangely  heightened  power. 
The  individual  observer  may  exaggerate  or  minimize  or 
strain  the  facts.  But  no  one  can  read  without  a  deep  sense 
of  its  total  truth,  the  reiterated  evidence  of  generations  of 
such  observers,  in  many  countries,  writing  independently 
but  agreeing  fundamentally  in  their  observations  and  diag- 
noses.* 

There  is  a  peculiar  significance  in  this  kind  of  testimony. 

It  is  the  accumulated  experience  of  mankind  and  has  an 

authority  due  to  its  very  iterations.     This  is  the  power  and 

*  See  Part  II  of  this  volume. 

90 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

the  moving  appeal  of  history,  that  it  gives  us,  as  fiction  rarely 
can,  precisely  the  cumulative  experiences,  the  persistent  re- 
alities of  our  common  lot.  A  truth  that  has  been  a  hundred 
years  in  the  forging  is,  in  so  far  forth,  just  so  much  the  truer. 
It  is  not  a  mathematical  formula,  proved  once  for  all  and 
immutable.  The  truths  of  history  gain  in  meaning  and  power 
under  changed  guises,  coming  down  to  the  children  of  a  later 
age  with  a  fuller  and  more  significant  content.  This  is  as 
true  of  industrial  history  as  of  any  other;  and  hence  the  in- 
dustrial experience  of  the  past  should  enable  us  more  in- 
telligently to  estimate  our  own  difficulties  and  performances. 


1.     INFANT  MORTALITY 

According  to  the  testimony  of  many  observers,  the 
industrial  overstrain  of  women  has  commonly  reacted  in 
three  visible  ways:  in  a  heightened  infant  mortality,  a 
lowered  birth  rate,  and  an  impaired  second  generation.  We 
can  readily  see  that  many  factors  besides  overwork  contribute 
to  the  greater  mortality  of  infants  among  the  working  class. 
Probably  improper  feeding  holds  the  first  place  amongst 
causes,  and  overcrowding,  with  all  its  train  of  ills  such  as 
foul  air,  dirt,  and  darkness,  is  an  important  item.  But  the 
relation,  direct  and  indirect,  between  women's  industrial  work 
and  a  high  death  rate  among  infants  is  well-established. 
Few  exact  and  detailed  studies  of  this  relationship  have 
been  made  in  our  country,  but  it  has  been  pointed  out 
that  infant  mortality  is  highest  in  industrial  communities 
where  mainly  women  are  employed  in  factories.  Thus  an 
abnormally  high  death  rate  of  infants  is  asserted  to  exist  in 
two  cotton  mill  towns  of  New  England, — Fall  River,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Biddeford,  Maine.* 

The  latest  government  statistics  also  show  the  abnormally 
high  infant  mortality  in  textile  towns.     In  1910,  in  selected 

*  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality.  Being  the  papers  and  discussions 
of  a  Conference  on  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality,  New  Haven,  Conn., 
1909,  p.  37.     Under  the  Auspices  of  the  American  Academy  of  Medicine. 

91 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

cities,  the  number  of  deaths  of  infants  under  one  year,  per 
100  deaths  at  all  ages,  was  as  follows:* 

Boston 19 

Chicago 21 

New  York  City 21 

Biddeford 27 

Lowell 29 

Lawrence 35 

Holyoke 35 

Fall  River 39 

In  1910  the  number  of  deaths  of  infants  under  one  year, 
per  1000  births,  in  selected  cities  was  as  follows:! 

New  York  City 125 

Boston 126 

Philadelphia 138 

Lawrence 167 

New  Bedford 177 

Holyoke 213 

Lowell 231 

More  detailed  studies  abroad  have  sought  to  show 
the  relation  between  a  high  mortality  of  young  children  and 
the  industrial  employment  of  women.  The  death  rate  of 
infants  is  said  to  increase  in  proportion  to  the  increase 
in  the  number  of  women  at  work.  Dr.  Newman  in  his 
standard  work|  devotes  material  attention  to  this  subject 
as  it  affects  the  death  rate  in  Great  Britain.  He  compares 
eight  towns  chosen  for  their  low  percentage  of  women  at 
work  and  eight  towns  chosen  for  their  high  percentage  of 
women  engaged  in  the  textile  trades,  between  the  ages  of 
fifteen  and  thirty-five  years,  that  is,  during  the  ages  of  re- 
productive potentiality. 

In  the  non-textile  towns,  the  average  yearly  infant  mor- 
tality during  the  decennium,  1896  to  1905,  was  150  per  1,000 
infants. 

*  Bureau  of  the  Census.  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor. 
Bulletin  109.     Mortality  Statistics,  1910,  p.  14.     Washington,  1912. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  18. 

t  Newman,  George,  M.D.  (Lecturer  on  Public  Health  at  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's Hospital,  London;  Medical  Officer  of  Health  of  Metropolitan  Borough 
of  Finsbury):  infant  Mortality,  p.  105.  New  York,  E.  P.  Dutton  and 
Co.,  1907. 

92 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

AVERAGE   INFANT    MORTALITY   RATE    IN   SOME    ENGLISH   NON- 
TEXTILE  TOWNS,  1896-1905 


Town 

Infant  Mortality 
Rate,  1896-1905 

Percentage  of  Occupied 
Women,  ages  15  to  35. 

Total 

Married  or  IVidowed 

Sunderland 

166 
160 
157 
155 
153 
147 
144 
119 

55.1 
59.4 
63.3 
53.8 
63.6 
62.6 
57.9 
60.5 

2.8 

Swansen 

5.0 

Lincoln 

South  Shields 

3.2 
3.0 

Newton 

Cardiff  

Barrow-in-Furness 

Burton 

2.6 
3.8 
2.9 
2.0 

Average 

150 

59.5 

3.1 

In  the  textile  towns,  on  the  other  hand,  the  average 
infant  mortahty  was  182  per  1,000  infants,  rising  as  high  as 
208.* 


INFANT    MORTALITY   RATE  IN  SOME  ENGLISH  TEXTILE  TOWNS, 

1896-1905 


Town 

Infant  Mortality 
Rate,  1896-1905 

Percentage  of  Occupied 
Women,  ages  15  to  35 

Total 

Married  or  iVidowed 

Burnley 

208 
208 
183 
180 
175 
170 
166 
164 

90.9 

84.4 
91.8 
84.6 
87.6 
87.3 
87.4 
88.9 

59.7 

Preston 

50  5 

Blackburn 

Nottingham 

63.9 

27.5 

Leicester 

41  6 

Oldham 

33  4 

Bolton 

24.7 

Bury 

448 

Average 

182 

88.4 

43.2 

Newman,  op.  cit.,  p.  106. 

93 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

From  these  tables  it  appears  that  the  percentage  of 
workingwomen  between  fifteen  and  thirty-five  years  in  the 
high  mortahty  textile  towns  was  28.9  per  cent  higher  than  in 
the  low  mortality  towns;  the  percentage  of  married  working- 
women  was  40  per  cent  more  than  in  the  low  mortality  towns. 

Another  careful  study  extending  over  twenty  years  was 
made  by  the  medical  officer  of  health  of  Kearsley,  a  Lanca- 
shire town  of  about  10,000  inhabitants.  The  death  rate  of 
Kearsley  remained  stationary  between  1885  and  1904,  but 
the  infant  death  rate  rose  in  the  same  period  from  143  to 
229.  During  the  same  period  the  birth  rate  fell  from  39  to 
27  per  1,000.  These  striking  figures  are  attributed  to  the 
fact  that  the  town  has  developed  into  a  manufacturing  dis- 
trict of  many  mills,  where  large  numbers  of  women  are  em- 
ployed. 

Again,  in  Preston,  the  increase  in  infant  mortality  was 
so  marked  between  1881  and  1900  that  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  study  the  matter.  While  the  general  death 
rate  sank  from  24.73  to  20.80,  the  number  of  babies  who 
died  rose  from  208  to  236  per  1,000  infants.  The  committee 
reported*  that  in  its  opinion  the  causes  of  this  increase  were 
the  employment  of  women  in  mills  and  the  consequent  en- 
forced neglect  of  babies  at  home. 

Dr.  Newman  sums  up  the  whole  matter  by  saying  if 

"It  is  the  employment  of  women  from  girlhood  all 
through  married  life,  and  through  the  period  of  child-bearing 
— the  continual  stress  and  strain  of  the  work  and  hours  and 
general  conditions  prevailing  in  women's  labour — that  is 
exerting  its  baneful  influence  on  the  individual  and  on  the 
home." 

If  the  death  rate  of  infants  is  so  high  where  women 
are  employed  in  the  protected  British  textile  trade,  with 
its  ten-hour   day  and  fifty-five  and  a  half  hour  week  en- 

*  Report  on  Health  of  Preston,  1902,  pp.  10-12.  (Quoted  by  Newman, 
p.  136.) 

t  Newman,  op.  cit.,  p.  136. 

94 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

forced,  we  may  well  ask  what  are  likely  to  be  the  effects  of 
the  stress  and  strain  of  such  American  industries  as  we  have 
examined  above,  upon  child  bearing  and  infant  mortality. 


2.     LOW  BIRTH  RATE 

It  is  true  that  women's  industrial  work  probably  affects 
the  infant  death  rate  less  here  than  abroad  owing  to  the  far 
smaller  proportion  of  married  women  in  industry.  But  a 
point  of  equal  importance  is  the  effect  of  industrial  overstrain 
in  lowering  the  birth  rate  itself.  It  is  not  only  the  work  of 
women  after  marriage,  or  just  before  confinement,  which  rnost 
gravely  affects  childbirth.  The  pressure  of  industry  has  not 
only  in  innumerable  cases  marred,  but  often  destroyed  al- 
together that  immemorial  function  of  women,  the  center  of 
the  tenderest  associations  of  our  race.  Medical  authorities 
assert  that  the  strain  of  continuous  standing  and  overwork 
during  girlhood,  such  as  many  young  women  endure  in  stores 
as  well  as  factories,  is  responsible  for  unmistakable  pelvic 
and  uterine  disease  and  sometimes  subsequent  sterility  after 
marriage. 

The  most  impressive  evidence  on  this  topic  was  brought 
out  in  England,  in  successive  efforts  to  establish  by  law  a 
shorter  workday  in  mercantile  establishments.  The  reports 
of  select  committees  (several  of  which  sat  between  1886 
and  1901  and  heard  the  highest  medical  testimony  regard- 
ing the  effects  of  work  in  stores),  dwell  insistently  upon  the 
injuries  from  the  long  hours  and  the  continuous  standing 
upon  the  generative  organs,  in  girlhood  as  well  as  after 
marriage. 

From  among  a  large  number  of  medical  statements  we 
may  cite  one  by  Dr.  Grigg,  out-patient  physician  for  the  dis- 
eases of  women  at  Westminster  Hospital,  senior  physician  to 
the  Queen  Charlotte  Lying-in  Hospital,  and  connected  with 
the  Victoria  Hospital  for  children.  This  physician  was  ques- 
tioned about  the  injuries  of  overwork  to  the  health  of 
girls  and  women  employed  in  stores,  "shop-girl  assistants" 

95 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

as  they  are  called  in  England.     He  said  of  the  prolonged 
hours  :* 

"They  have  a  very  grave  effect  upon  the  generative 
organs  of  women,  entailing  a  great  deal  of  suffering,  and  also 
injuring  a  very  large  body  of  them  permanently,  setting  up 
inflammation  in  the  pelvis  in  connection  with  these  organs. 

"  If  the  matter  could  be  gone  into  carefully,  I  think  the 
Committee  would  be  perfectly  surprised  to  find  what  a  large 
number  of  these  women  are  rendered  sterile  in  consequence 
of  these  prolonged  hours. 

"  I  think  it  must  be  acknowledged  sterility  is  often  due 
to  this  inflammatory  mischief  arising  around  the  generative 
organs.  1  believe  that  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  evils  attached 
to  these  prolonged  hours.  I  have  seen  many  cases  in  families 
where  certain  members  who  have  pursued  the  calling  of 
shop-girl  assistants  have  been  sterile,  while  other  members 
of  the  family  have  borne  children.  1  know  of  one  case  where 
four  members  of  a  family  who  were  shop  girls  were  sterile 
and  two  other  girls,  not  shop  girls,  have  borne  children; 
and  1  have  known  other  cases  in  which  this  has  occurred. 
.  .  .  I  have  patients  come  to  me  from  all  parts  of  London. 
It  appears  to  be  a  most  common  condition." 

Not  only  do  the  children  of  mothers  at  work  or  over- 
strained during  girlhood  die  in  greater  numbers,  but  the  birth 
rate  is  lower.  The  most  detailed  studies  on  this  subject  ap- 
pear to  have  been  made  by  Professor  Ugo  Broggi,  who  has 
published  extensive  figures  on  the  fecundity  of  working  women . 
He  states!  that  of  172,365  Italian  working  women  between 
the  ages  of  fifteen  and  fifty-four,  who  were  employed  in 
industrial  occupations,  the  average  child-bearing  co-efficient 
was  only  45  per  thousand  or  about  one-third  of  the  general 
fertility  of  Italian  women  (120  per  thousand), 

*  British  Sessional  Papers,  Vol.  XII,  1895.  Report  of  Select  Com- 
mittee on  Shops  (Early  Closing  Bill),  pp.  219-220.  Witness.  Dr.  W.  Chap- 
man Grigg. 

See  also  Part  1 1  of  this  volume,  pp.  135-142. 

tZeitschrift  der  Socialen  Wissenschaft,  Bd.  VIII,  Nr.  10,  1905.  Die 
Fruchtbarkeit  der  selbstarbeitenden  und  den  arbeitenden  Standen  ange- 
horigen  Frauen,  p.  663. 

96 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 


3.     RACE  DEGENERATION 

Besides  a  high  death  rate  and  a  low  birth  rate,  sub- 
normaHties  of  size  and  weight  often  characterize  the  children 
born  of  working  mothers.  Thus  are  they  handicapped  at 
the  start  and  the  misfortunes  of  the  parents  are  visited  upon 
the  next  generation. 

Such  racial  deterioration,  due  to  the  extremest  over- 
work, was  unmistakably  evident  in  England  after  the  first 
period  of  unchecked  industrial  exploitation.  Between  1830 
and  1840  the  intolerable  overwork  of  two  generations  achieved 
its  result.  The  accounts  of  eye-witnesses,  horrified  by  the 
appearance  of  the  factory  population,  agree  that  there  was  a 
visible  decline  in  the  stature  and  strength  as  well  as  in  the 
morals  of  the  manufacturing  shires. 

"The  factory  population  appear  to  have  become  a  dis- 
tinct race,  that  was  known  at  a  glance,  so  defined  had  the 
effects  of  overwork  and  unhealthy  dwellings  become  upon 
the  physical  appearance  and  condition  of  the  people."* 

"  Competition  far  from  regulation  had  in  half  a  century 
produced  a  race  of  pale,  stunted,  and  emaciated  creatures, 
irregular  in  their  lives  and  dissolute  in  their  habits.  Their 
case  appeared  so  desperate  that  for  those  who  believed  in 
laissei  faire,  'the  only  hope,'  as  Harriet  Martineau  con- 
fessed, '  seems  to  be  that  the  race  will  die  out  in  two  or  three 
generations.'"! 

Home  life  was  totally  lost;  young  children,  girls,  and 
women  were  all  pressed  into  the  service;  the  very  preserva- 
tion of  the  race  was  threatened. 

In  more  recent  times,  the  existence  of  racial  deteriora- 
tion, due  in  large  part  to  overwork  and  exhaustion,  has  been 
interestingly  corroborated  by  the  statistics  of  military  ser- 
vice. In  various  countries,  especially  where  such  service  is 
compulsory,  it  has  been  found  that  the  proportion  of  young 

*  British  Sessional  Papers,  1875,  Vol.  XVI,  p.  23. 
See  also  Part  II  of  this  volume,  pp.  276-286. 

t  The  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts.  Edited  by  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.  p. 
46.     London,  Grant  Richards,  1901. 

7  97 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

men  rejected  for  physical  unfitness  is  far  higher  in  industrial 
communities  than  in  others. 

The  great  physiologist  Mosso  drew  attention  to  this 
fact  regarding  the  exploited  carusi  or  sulphur  workers  of 
Sicily.  He  had  been  sent  to  the  island  as  a  young  army 
surgeon,  and  he  first  realized  there,  with  a  shock  of  horror, 
the  "ruin  which  the  exhaustion  of  fatigue  brings  about  in 
man"  when  he  saw  the  evidences  of  his  countrymen's  de- 
generation in  the  province  of  Caltanisetta,  in  the  midst  of  the 
loveliest  natural  scenery  in  the  world.  Such  was  the  physical 
condition  of  these  people  that  in  the  four  years  between  1881 
and  1884,  out  of  3,672  sulphur  workers  who  presented  them- 
selves at  the  recruiting  offices,  only  203  were  declared  fit  for 
service.* 

At  about  the  same  time,  in  1886,  Dr.  Schuler,  the  emi- 
nent Swiss  factory  inspector,  reported  f  to  a  congress  of 
German  scientists  and  physicians  at  Strassburg,  that  the 
factory  work  of  young  persons  in  Switzerland  was  attracting 
marked  attention  owing  to  the  shocking  statistics  of  recruiting 
offices.  Dr.  Schuler  stated  that  in  rural  districts,  where 
there  were  few  mills,  only  14.3  per  cent  to  18.9  per  cent  of  the 
recruits  were  found  unfit  for  immediate  service  and  were 
temporarily  rejected  (that  is,  had  their  terms  of  service  post- 
poned for  two  years).  In  factory  districts,  19.7  to  23.3  per 
cent  of  the  young  men  were  found  unfit  for  service  and  were 
temporarily  rejected.  It  had  been  assumed  that  the  higher 
standard  of  living  obtained  through  the  increased  wages  of 
factory  workers  would  compensate  for  the  hardships  of 
factory  life.  But  these  expectations  were  not  fulfilled. 
Later  investigations  showed  that  in  the  canton  of  Zug,  for 
instance,  only  37  per  cent  of  cotton  mill  operatives  were 
physically  fit  for  service,  while  in  the  same  canton  among  farm 
laborers  49  per  cent  were  fit,  and  among  artisans  from  47 

*  Mosso,  op.  cit.     English  translation,  pp.  158-159. 

t  Deutsche  Vierteljahresschrift  fiir  offentiiche  Gesundheitspflege, 
Vol.  XVI 1 1,  1880,  pp.  134-135.  58.  Kongress  der  Deutschen  Naturforscher 
und  Arzte.  Schuler,  Dr.  F.:  Die  Uberbiirdung  der  Arbeiterinnen  und 
Kinder  in  Fabriken. 

98 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

to  83  per  cent  were  fit.  In  another  canton,  Thurgau,  34 
to  39  per  cent  of  factory  workers  were  rejected  as  against 
12  to  23  per  cent  of  non-factory  workers. 

A  more  recent  study  of  German  workingmen  gives 
similar  figures.  It  is  stated  by  a  German  physician,*  on 
the  authority  of  a  local  magistrate  who  had  long  been  study- 
ing the  subject,  that  in  a  district  v/here  the  manufacturing 
of  nails  had  long  been  carried  on,  only  26  per  cent  of  the 
workers  liable  for  military  service  had  been  found  physically 
fit.  In  another  district,  where  buckles  were  extensively 
manufactured,  only  21  per  cent  of  the  young  men  were  fit. 
These  very  unfavorable  figures  are  said  to  be  due  to  long 
hours  and  great  monotony  of  work  requiring  the  constant 
repetition  of  mechanical  movements.  "The  avoidance  of 
such  dangers  to  the  future  defense  of  the  country,"  says  Dr. 
Ascher,  'Ties  in  shorter  hours  of  work,  and  exercise  as  a 
preventive  of  some  of  these  physical  defects." 

The  report  of  the  French  factory  inspectors  in  1900  on 
the  question  of  night  work  also  dwells  upon  the  physical 
deterioration  observed  at  the  recruiting  offices.  They  state 
that  in  industrial  centers  the  proportion  of  rejections  on 
account  of  physical  unfitness  has  been  as  high  as  50  per  cent 
while  in  the  country  it  is  only  about  25  per  cent.f 

Doubtless  many  incidents  of  city  life  such  as  overcrowd- 
ing and  unsanitary  housing  help  to  swell  the  numbers  of 

*  Handbuch  der  Arbeiterwohlfahrt.  Edited  by  Dr.  Otto  Dammer. 
Bd.  I.  Ascher,  Dr.:  Beschadigungen  der  Arbeiter  bei  der  Arbeit,  p.  494. 
Stuttgart,  Enke,  1902. 

t  Rapports  presentes  a  M.  le  Ministre  de  Commerce,  de  1' Industrie, 
des  Postes  et  des  Telegraphes,  par  les  Inspecteurs  du  Travail.  La  Question 
de  r Interdiction  du  Travail  de  Nuit,  p.  73.  Paris,  Imprimerie  Nationale, 
1900. 

See  also.  Report  of  the  Eighth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene 
and  Demography,  Vol.  VII,  Section  VII,  Budapest,  1894.  Donath,  Dr. 
Julius  (Univ.  of  Budapest):  Der  Physische  Riickgang  der  Bevolkerung  in 
den  Modernen  Culturstaaten,  mit  besonderer  Riicksicht  auf  Oesterreich- 
Ungarn. 

Tenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography,  Paris, 
1900.  Vaillant,  M.  Edouard,  (M.  R.  C.  S.  England):  Legislation  et  Regie- 
mentation  du  Travail  au  point  de  Vue  de  I'Hygiene. 

British  Sessional  Papers,  1904,  Vol.  XXXII.  Report  of  the  Inter- 
Departmental  Committee  on  Physical  Deterioration,  Vols.  I,  II,  and  III. 

99 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

physically  degenerate  workingmen  disclosed  by  the  military 
statistics.  But  the  most  careful  students  of  the  subject 
appear  to  lay  chief  stress  upon  the  "increasing  intensity  of 
production  and  industrial  over-pressure"  as  the  most  prom- 
inent cause  of  physical  deterioration  among  the  candidates 
examined. 


4.  LACK  OF  INFORMATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Our  brief  survey  of  some  great  modern  industries  has 
shown  that  they  are  increasing  their  demands  upon  human 
energies.  The  effect  upon  the  workers  is  bound  to  be 
accordingly  complicated.  What  are  those  effects  today? 
Have  we  reliable  evidence  on  the  results  of  the  speed,  com- 
plexity, and  monotony  in  industry  which  we  have  been  con- 
sidering? It  is  undeniable  that  there  is  a  baffling  lack  of 
exact  knowledge  on  this  point  in  the  United  States.  Work- 
ing people  who  have  become  ill  or  worn  out  at  their  trades 
do  not  congregate  in  resorts  or  places  where  they  can  be 
recognized  as  victims  of  overpressure.  They  are  dispersed, 
lost  in  the  masses  of  our  population.  When  some  of  them 
emerge,  from  a  longer  or  shorter  struggle  for  existence,  into 
public  sight, — seeking  employment  or  aid  from  relief  so- 
cieties, in  hospitals  or  clinics,  or  more  tragically,  in  the 
criminal  courts, — the  original  cause  of  their  breakdown  in 
health  and  efficiency  is  often  entirely  obscure.  Even  the 
trade  unions  have,  as  yet,  kept  little  track  of  the  physical 
condition  of  their  members.  On  the  whole,  all  that  we  can 
learn  from  union  workers  are  individual  stories  of  break- 
down and  overstrain.  The  new  interest  of  the  printers  in 
the  disease  which  is  thinning  their  ranks,  tuberculosis,  and 
the  results  of  their  short  campaign  show  what  a  force  the 
unions  may  sometime  be  in  conserving  health.  But  as  yet 
they  have  few  exact  or  constructive  data. 

The  social  settlements  and  social  workers  have  not  much 
more.  Something,  it  is  true,  we  can  learn  as  to  the  effect 
of  industrial  strain,  from  the  personal  observations  of  persons 

100 


STUDIES   OF    PHYSICAL  OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

who  are  in  friendly  relations  with  their  poorer  neighbors. 
They  see  the  early  age  at  which  the  once  vigorous  immigrant 
father  begins  to  slacken  in  the  race.  They  see  the  ill  effects 
of  youthful  overstrain  in  the  feeble  offspring  of  exhausted 
young  mothers.  They  see  the  revolt  from  monotonous 
work  in  the  reaction  of  working  children  against  any  re- 
straints.* 

But  for  statistical  or  definite  proof  of  the  causal  connec- 
tion between  industrial  overstrain  and  actual  illnesses,  we 
must  turn  to  other  countries,  where  similar  if  not  the  same 
conditions  prevail,  and  where  enlightened  physicians  have 
studied  wage-earners  who  have  broken  down  at  work. 

Such  medical  observation  is  at  best  still  rare  and  chaotic. 
But  in  the  records  and  experiences  of  the  foreign  sickness 
insurance  societies  real  light  is  shed  upon  the  subject.  They 
confirm  all  that  we  have  discussed  up  to  this  point. 


5.     MEDICAL  STUDY  OF  WORKING   PEOPLE  IN  FOREIGN 
INSURANCE  SOCIETIES 

The  German  workingmen's  insurance  system,  with  its 
sickness,  accident,  invalidity  and  old  age  benefits,  is  too  vast 
a  subject  to  be  more  than  touched  upon  here.  A  suggestion 
of  the  opportunities  it  off"ers  for  the  study  of  working  people 
and  their  disabilities  may  be  indicated  by  a  single  paragraph. 
According  to  Dr.  Zacher  (Leitfaden  zur  Arbeiterversicherung 
des  Deutschen  Reiches,  1906)  quoted  by  Professor  Hender- 
son,t 

" At  the  end  of  1905  in  all  about  70  million 

pensioners  (sick,  injured,  invalids  and  their  dependents)  had 
received  $1,200,000,000  in  benefits.  The  workmen  have 
contributed  less  than  half  of  the  premiums,  and  have  re- 
ceived $480,000,000  more  than  they  have  paid  out.  Prop- 
erty is  owned  to  the  amount  of  $408,000,000,   of  which 

*  Addams,  Jane:  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets.  New 
York,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1909. 

t  Henderson,  Charles  R.:  Summary  of  European  Laws  on  Industrial 
Insurance.     Charities,  Dec.  7,  1907,  p.  1196. 

lOI 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

almost  $120,000,000  have  been  invested  in  workmen's 
dwellings,  hospitals  and  convalescent  houses,  sanitaria, 
baths,  and  similar  institutions  of  welfare." 

The  sanitaria  of  the  German  State  Insurance  Depart- 
ment were  founded  for  the  treatment  of  insured  working 
people  who  have  fallen  ill.  Obviously,  to  cure  the  sick  and 
restore  their  working  capacity  is  more  economical  as  well 
as  more  humane  than  to  continue  merely  to  pay  out  insur- 
ance. Accordingly,  in  1889,  a  law  was  passed  authorizing 
insurance  societies  to  invest  part  of  their  funds  in  hospitals 
and  sanitaria,  to  afford  the  best  facilities  for  speedy  recovery, 
and  as  far  as  possible  to  prevent  permanent  disabilities.* 
The  first  sanitarium  was  built  in  1894  at  Giitergutz  for  about 
100  chronic  male  cases.  Applications  for  treatment  were  so 
numerous  that  a  larger  sanitarium  for  both  men  and  wo- 
men was  next  erected  at  Beelitz,  near  Berlin. 

Aside  from  the  direct  benefit  to  working  people  from  the 
immediate  diagnoses  of  their  illnesses  and  the  treatment 
received,  the  establishment  of  the  sanitaria  has  been  of 
incalculable  value  in  stimulating  a  new  interest  in  the  under- 
lying causes  of  illness.  Hundreds  of  working  people  were 
gathered  together  for  treatment.  Many  were  found  suffer- 
ing from   the  same  disorders;    some  diseases  were  found 

*"0f  special  interest  is  the  item  of  medical  care.  In  the  five  years 
between  1900-1905  the  cost  of  treatment  rose  from  5,578,300  marks  ($1,- 
394,575)  to  12,158,800  marks  ($3,039,700)  and  in  1907  the  figure  reached 
15,186,300  marks  ($3,796,575).  This  is  one  of  the  most  admirable  out- 
growths of  the  pension  system.  To  avoid  having  an  unnecessarily  large 
number  of  chronic  invalids  to  support,  the  insurance  system  has  developed 
a  great  preventive  and  restorative  movement.     .     .     . 

"Thousands  of  cases  are  treated  each  year  and  a  large  percentage 
of  those  who  ordinarily  would  have  become  permanent  public  charges  are 
either  fully  restored  to  strength,  or  at  any  rate  enabled  to  do  something 
towards  their  own  support.  There  is  at  present  great  enthusiasm  for  this 
system,  and  the  ailing  are  only  too  eager  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportu- 
nities offered  them,  as  it  puts  at  their  disposal  medical  treatment,  rest,  food, 
shelter,  clothing,  sanitary  surroundings  and  care  which  otherwise  would 
be  far  beyond  their  means."  Frankel,  Lee  K.,  and  Dawson,  Miles  W.: 
Workingmen's  Insurance  in  Europe,  p.  356.  Russell  Sage  Foundation 
Publication.     New  York,  Charities  Publication  Committee,  1910. 

See  also  Kober,  Dr.  Geo.  M.:  Industrial  and  Personal  Hygiene,  p.  90. 
Published  by  the  President's  Homes  Commission,  Washington,  D.  C,  1908. 

102 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

increasing  at  abnormally  rapid  rates.  Here  were  facts, 
for  the  first  time  not  only  accessible,  but  challenging  the 
curiosity  of  physicians.  Might  the  causes  for  such  com- 
mon ills  lurk  unrecognized  in  the  workers'  previous  lives? 
The  physicians  were  indeed  forced  to  conclude  that  some 
common  factors  in  the  lives  of  workingmen  and  women  must 
be  responsible  for  the  spread  of  certain  diseases.  What  were 
such  common  factors?  The  question  widens  from  the  purely 
medical  to  something  social  and  economic.  Prevention  is 
becoming  each  year  a  more  insistent  demand,  and  in  the 
interests  of  prevention  the  nature  of  the  worker's  occupation, 
at  which  more  than  half  of  his  waking  life  is  spent,  has  re- 
ceived a  new  medical  attention. 


6.  THE  INCREASE  OF  NER\'OLS  DISORDERS 

Now  it  is  of  unusual  interest  for  our  special  inquiry, 
to  find  that  these  most  common  diseases  of  patients  in  the 
German  insurance  sanitaria  (not  including  tuberculosis) 
were  found  to  be  precisely  the  nervous  disorders  springing 
from  industrial  strain  and  overpressure. 

In  a  thoughtful  article,  two  physicians  formerly  of  the 
Beelitz  Sanitarium  write:* 

"The  increase  of  diseases  of  the  nervous  system  among 
working  people  in  the  last  decade  is  a  fact  that  is  now  firmly 
established  by  extensive  and  carefully  conducted  statistical 
inquiry.  This  is  most  clearly  evident  in  respect  to  the  psy- 
choses; but  there  is  also  no  doubt,  in  the  minds  of  the  most 
informed  authorities,  that  neurasthenia — which,  though  less 
menacing  than  insanity  to  the  efficiency  and  labor  capacity 
of  the  worker  is  still  sufficiently  serious  in  this  respect — is 
also  steadily  increasing  in  frequency  and  in  severity.  .  .  . 
Though,  for  some  years,  not  only  the  laity,  but  also  the  chief 
medical  experts  on  neurasthenia,  as  Lowenfeld  and  Bins- 
wanger,  overlooked  the  working  classes  in  relation  to  this 
disease,  this  attitude  is  now  radicall}'  changed.     On  all  sides, 

*  Deutsche  Medizinische  Wochenschrift,  25.  May,  1905,  p.  820.  Dr. 
P.  Leubuscher  u.  Dr.  W.  Bibrowicz:    Die  Neurasthenie  in  Arbeiterkreisen. 

103 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

in  the  clinics  and  physicians'  offices,  and  by  the  managers  of 
the  large  insurance  funds,  proofs  of  the  enormous  increase 
of  neurasthenia  as  a  cause  of  inability  to  work  are  being 
presented/' 

In  a  recent  report,  the  physician-in-chief  of  the  Beelitz 
Sanitarium  says:* 

"In  the  course  of  the  year,  1815  men  and  803  women 
were  treated.     .     .     . 

"Of  the  1815  male  patients  who  were  discharged,  1206, 
in  round  numbers  almost  70  per  cent,  were  nervous  cases. 
While  in  some  the  exciting  cause  of  the  breakdown  might  be 
variously  explained,  in  by  far  the  largest  proportion  of  it 
arose  from  overstrain  of  their  daily  labor. 

"Of  the  female  cases,  more  than  one-seventh,  or  128 
of  803,  were  anaemic  and  chlorotic.  Among  these,  one-half 
of  all  suffered  from  nerve  strain  although  other  complica- 
tions might  be  present." 

The  serious  effects  upon  working  capacity  of  these 
nervous  disorders,  in  comparison  with  other  diseases,  may 
be  seen  in  the  following  figures,  giving  the  entire  number  of 
days  lost  from  work  on  account  of  sickness. t 

COMPARATIVE  NUMBER  OF  WORKING  DAYS    LOST  BY    PATIENTS 
AT  BEELITZ  SANITARIUM. — BY  DISEASE  GROUPS 

Total  number  of  working  days  lost  from 
Disease  Groups  time  of  cessation  of  work  to  time  of  dis- 

charge from  Sanitarium 

Men  iVomen 

Infections 60  373 

Poisonings 1,259 

Malnutritions 2,773  7,861 

Skin,  Muscles,  Joints,  etc 5,177  935 

Nervous  Disorders 44,965  25,075 

Dr.  Liibenau,  assistant  physician  at  Beelitz,  writes  in 

*  Verwaltungsbericht  der  Landesversicherungsanstalt  Berlin  fiir  das 
Jahr  1909,  p.  112.  Similar  statistics  may  be  found  in  the  reports  of  preced- 
ing years. 

t  Entire  table  not  reproduced. 

104 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

an  article  on  "  Heart  Disease  among  the  Working  People  of 
Berlin":* 

"  In  coming  to  the  class  of  cardiac  neuroses  it  is  to  be 
remarked  that  nervous  affections  of  the  heart  among  Berlin 
workmen  are  very  common,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the 
extraordinary  prevalence  of  neurasthenia.  ...  In  most 
of  these  cases  of  simple  neurasthenia,  nervous  affections  of 
the  heart  are  the  rule.  There  is  the  sensation  of  palpita- 
tions, pain  in  the  region  of  the  heart,  a  feeling  of  great 
anxiety,  and  shortness  of  breath  after  exertion.  Such  dis- 
eases have  serious  importance  for  workers  on  account  of  car- 
diac complication. 

"The  cases  described  above  are  limited  to  those  in  which 
the  heart  symptoms  of  nervous  origin  present  the  dominating 
features  and  which,  therefore,  may  be  regarded  purely  as 
cases  of  cardiac  neuroses." 

Another  physician.  Dr.  Emil  Roth  of  Potsdam,  who  has 
been  prominent  in  the  study  of  diseases  of  working  people, 

says:t 

"  How  alarming  the  increase  of  ansemia  and  neurasthe- 
nia among  working  people  has  been  in  the  past  ten  years  is 
shown  by  the  records  of  the  sick  benefit  funds,  the  polyclinics, 
and  the  hospitals.  Many  medical  and  scientific  authorities 
have  emphasized  the  increase  of  neurasthenia  in  the  work- 
ing classes.  The  ample  materials  of  the  Berlin  State  Insur- 
ance Sanitarium  at  Beelitz  have  more  particularly  served  to 
prove  the  steady  increase  of  neurasthenia, — actually  from 
18  per  cent  in  1897  to  40  per  cent  in  1904.  Similar  figures 
are  shown  by  the  sanitarium  at  Zehlendorf,  where  the  highest 
percentage  of  neurotic  patients  were  handworkers  and  skilled 
workers,  with  whom  the  combination  of  physical  and  mental 
strain  reacted  destructively  on  the  nervous  system." 

Doubtless  such  an  increase  in  figures  is  due  to  improved 
diagnosis  as  well  as  to  the  actual  growth  of  neurasthenia 
among   working    people.     The    insurance    physicians    have 

*Zeitschrift  fur  Klinische  Medizin,  Bd.  60.  ..1906.  Aus  dem  Sana- 
torium der  Landesjersicherungsanstalt  Berlin.  Ober  Herzerkrankungen 
in  der  Berliner  Arbeiterbevolkerung,  pp.  136  and  137. 

t  Roth,  Dr  Emil:  Ermudung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  Op.  cit.,  pp. 
613-614. 

105 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

come  to  designate  as  neurasthenic,  illnesses  which  formerly 
were  called  heart  troubles,  indigestion,  and  the  like. 

But  whatever  the  exact  rate  of  increase  in  nervous  dis- 
orders, we  are  more  nearly  concerned  in  the  fact  of  their 
existence  today,  established  by  the  more  careful,  immediate 
diagnosis  of  wage-earners  by  the  insurance  physicians.  The 
liability  of  working  people  to  nervous  disorders  from  over- 
strain is  still  so  little  recognized  that  these  physicians  feel 
constrained  to  state  specifically  that  they  find  no  differences, 
as  to  clinical  appearances,  between  the  neurasthenic  work- 
man and  the  neurasthenic  patient  of  any  other  social  class. 
The  symptoms  and  conditions  are  the  same. 

They  are  no  less  assured  that  the  nervous  breakdown 
of  these  workers  is  to  be  ascribed  in  large  part  to  the  in- 
dustrial overpressure  to  which  they  are  subjected.  Thus 
a  recent  authoritative  American  study  of  foreign  insurance 
systems  reports:* 

"The  authorities  insist,  that  increase  of  sickness  is 
genuine  and  is  due  in  Germany  to  the  stress  and  strain  of 
modern  industry.  Hours  of  labor  are  from  eight  to  fifteen 
per  day.  The  large  stores,  for  instance,  open  at  8  a.  m. 
and  close  at  8  p.  m.,  allowing  one  hour  for  luncheon.  It  has 
been  ascertained  that  in  those  factories  where  the  hours  are 
longest,  the  greatest  number  of  cases  of  accident  and  sick- 
ness occur.  Many  workmen  continue  to  work  even  when 
really  incapacitated,  and  only  when  the  slack  season  comes 
do  they  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  consult  a 
physician.  This,  it  is  asserted,  accounts  for  the  increase  of 
sickness  during  such  periods." 

Dr.  Roth,  quoted  above,  says  on  this  point  if 

"The  psychic  factor  is  also  important  in  another  respect. 
With  the  progressive  division  of  labor,  work  has  become  more 
and  more  mechanical.  ...  A  definite  share  of  over- 
fatigue and  its  sequels,  especially  neurasthenia,  must  be 
ascribed  to  this  monotony;  to  the  absence  of  spontaneity 
or  joy  in  work.     .     .     .     But   that   monotony  is  also  of 

242. 


*  Frankel  and  Dawson,  op.  cit.,  p. 
t  Roth,  op.  cit.,  pp.  611;  613-615. 

io6 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

importance  in  so  far  as  it  nullifies  pleasure  in  work,  thereby 
favoring  the  onset  of  fatigue,  must  also  be  admitted  from  a 
part  of  the  statistics.  So,  according  to  a  factory  inspector, 
the  effect  of  certain  light  work  with  corset  steels,  admitting 
of  no  break  for  several  hours,  was  distinctly  fatiguing;  the 
remedy  was  a  periodical  change  of  work  for  the  employees 
in  question. 

"Of  greater  importance  is  the  excessive  overstrain  of 
piece-work,  which  indeed  pays  better,  but  at  the  cost  of  a 
speed  and  intensity  of  work  which  was  formerly  unknown. 
That  these  injurious  effects  first  assail  the  weaker  part  of  the 
working  population  is  self-evident.  My  own  observations, 
especially  in  textile  mills,  confirmed  the  frequency  of  anaemia 
and  neurasthenia,  especially  among  young  women." 

An  observer  at  the  Zehlendorf  sanitarium  writes  in  a 
similar  vein:* 

"  It  seems  indubitable  that  factory  work  considerably 
outweighs  other  occupations  in  the  sense  that  it  provides  the 
greatest  number  of  factors  tending  to  produce  the  neuroses 
of  work  in  the  industrial  populations,  and  1  am  compelled 
to  conclude  that  modern  industry,  continually  developing 
as  it  is  on  more  and  more  colossal  lines,  constitutes  a  danger- 
ous and  potent  cause  for  a  continuous  increase  of  neuras- 
thenia and  hysteria." 

Dr.  Treves  of  Turin,  who  unites  with  physiological  and 
psychological  knowledge  a  keen  insight  into  industrial  con- 
ditions, sums  up  the  whole  question  when  he  says'.f 

"Does  what  physicians  call  'exhaustion'  (surmenage) 
really  exist  in  the  working  population?  This  question,  which 
was  not  thought  of  in  the  earliest  studies  of  neurasthenia, 
since  neurasthenic  conditions  were  supposed  to  be  ailments 
of  the  liberal  professions  and  those  engaged  in  intense  in- 
tellectual application  exclusively,  has  today  been  answered 
by  the  medical  profession  in  the  affirmative;   the  daily  ob- 

*  Schonhals,  Paul:  tjber  die  Ursachen  der  Neurasthenie  u.  Hysterie 
bei  Arbeitern,  p.  26.  Berlin,  1906.  (A  Study  of  200  Cases  in  the  Work- 
ingman's  Sanitarium  at  Zehlendorf.) 

t  Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography, 
Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV,  Berlin,  1907,  pp.  626-627. 

See  also  Part  II  of  this  volume,  pp.  163-185. 

107 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

servation  of  workers  in  hospital  and  dispensary  has  led  to 
this  conclusion.  .  .  .  Overstrain  resulting  from  occu- 
pation does  exist;  it  is  also  entirely  possible  to  combat  it; 
there  is,  in  short,  a  problem  of  overwork.     .     .     . 

"This  overstrain,  which  physiologists,  psychologists,  clini- 
cians, and  above  all  nerve  specialists  and  alienists,  encounter  so 
often  as  to  be  no  longer  deceived  by  it,  does  not  present  a 
well-defined  morbid  picture;  but  it  is  a  slow  deviation,  often 
obscured  by  its  very  slowness,  and  predisposing  to  illness  of 
any  nature;  it  is  the  borderland  of  illness." 

It  is  extremely  interesting  to  find  a  similar  stress  upon 
the  occurrence  of  nervous  disorders  in  the  detailed  testi- 
mony of  the  distinguished  physicians  called  in  by  the  Cana- 
dian Royal  Commission,  which  investigated  the  telephone 
service  in  Toronto  a  few  years  ago.  Many  of  them,  in  their 
practice,  had  treated  telephone  operators  for  eye  strain, 
headache,  and  affections  of  the  ears.  But  the  chief  emphasis 
in  their  testimony  was  laid,  not  upon  such  specific  injuries 
to  the  special  sense  organs,  but  upon  the  detriment  to  the 
operator's  total  health,  particularly  to  her  nervous  organiza- 
tion. 

"The  service  is  such  a  strain  upon  the  sight,  hearing, 
speech,  and  muscles  of  the  arms  and  body,  that  it  is  nerve 
exhausting," 

testified  one  physician*  of  eighteen  years'  practice,  associate 
professor  of  clinical  medicine  in  Toronto  University. 

Another  physician  of  thirty-one  years'  practice,  testi- 
fied! that  he  had  attended  employes  suffering 

"from  nervous  debility  occasioned  by  the  strain  of  that 
particular  work  upon  the  nervous  system,  which  includes 
the  senses  of  hearing,  speaking,  seeing,  and  using  arms, 
causing  too  much  strain  upon  the  nerve  center.  ...  In 
a  number  of  cases  of  young  ladies  whom  I  had  known  as 
the  physician  of  the  family  before  they  entered  into  the  tele- 

*  Dr.  William  B.  Thistle.  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission.  Op. 
cit.,  p.  71. 

t  Dr.  William  Britton  of  the  University  of  Toronto,  and  of  the  Medical 
Council.     Ibid.,  pp.  66-67. 

1 08 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

phone  service  and  who  were  apparently  healthy,  after  a 
length  of  service  in  the  telephone  office  I  had  to  prescribe 
for  them  for  various  types  of  nervous  debility,  and  my  advice 
to  the  majority  of  them  was  to  discontinue  the  work.  The 
constant  listening  and  the  keen  buzzing  means  a  state  of 
tension  of  the  nervous  system  all  the  time;  fifteen  minutes' 
relief  would  be  a  very  slight  one.  I  have  quite  often  seen 
nervous  hysteria  from  this  nervous  strain  to  the  telephone 
girls." 

The  medical  superintendent  of  the  Toronto  Asylum 
testified:* 

"Work  is  automatic  only  to  a  limited  extent.  It  re- 
quires a  mental  effort  every  time.  Nervous  strain  is  intense 
and  would  react  on  the  physical  health  in  a  marked  way 
after  three  years'  service,  and  might  pass  on  to  the  next 
generation  in  a  more  striking  way  than  even  in  the  present 
generation.  I  am  basing  that  statement  on  my  every  day 
experiences  with  just  such  cases,  having  an  experience  on 
that  kind  of  thing  for  several  years." 

The  professor  of  therapeutics,  and  teacher  in  connection 
with  the  diseases  of  the  eye  and  ear  in  Toronto  University, 
stated  :t 

"The  result  of  work  would  be  nerve  fag,  and  might  be 
a  nervous  breakdown.  .  .  .  We  know  practically  that 
changes  in  illumination  from  dark  to  light  do  irritate  the 
optic  nerve,  and  that  is  going  on  all  the  time.  ,  .  . 
Flashing  of  the  light  has  an  irritating  effect  and  is  in  that  way 
injurious.  The  nerves  governing  the  extra  ocular  muscles 
which  focus  the  eye  upon  the  object  looked  upon,  are  the 
nerves  where  the  greatest  part  of  the  strain  comes.  The 
sound  kept  up  for  hours  must  have  an  effect  on  the  auditory 
nerves,  and  if  for  long  hours,  an  injurious  effect  might  cause 
deafness.  The  possibility  of  receiving  shocks  would  add 
to  the  nerve  strain,  effect  on  vocal  organs  not  much.  The 
effect  upon  the  nervous  system  is  through  the  nerves  of  the 
eye  and  the  auditory  nerves;  reaching  is  subsidiary;  operat- 
ing together  causes  the  difficulty." 

*  Dr.  Charles  R.  Clark.     Ibid.,  p.  72. 

t  Dr.  J.  M.  McCallum.     Ibid.,  p.  72. 

109 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Similar  statements  were  repeated  by  all  the  physicians 
who  testified.  They  concluded  that  the  only  preventive  was 
to  regulate  most  carefully  the  hours  of  work  so  taxing  to 
women's  physical  powers;  and  above  all,  to  break  the  work 
by  proper  relief  periods  for  rest  and  recuperation.  A  con- 
tinuous stretch  of  work  without  rest,  for  even  a  comparatively 
short  time,  was  unanimously  condemned,  precisely  on  the 
ground  of  the  excessive  nervous  strain. 

"  It  is  the  length  of  time,  rather  than  the  number  of  calls 
that  1  emphasize." 

"  It  is  the  period  that  she  is  on  duty  with  her  faculties 
on  the  alert  constantly  that  is  more  important  than  the 
volume  of  work  done." 

Such  is  the  sentiment  repeatedly  expressed. 

The  only  American  publication  on  this  subject  known  to 
the  writer,  are  some  notes  by  a  St.  Louis  physician  on  the 
strikingly  large  percentage  of  neurasthenics  found  among 
7,000  garment  workers,  during  a  period  of  ten  years,  at  the 
St.  Louis  Jewish  Dispensary.*  This  physician,  without 
going  further  afield,  limits  his  conclusions  strictly  to  the 
"stubborn  fact"  observed:  "that  20  to  30  per  cent  of  these 
7,000  garment  workers  applying  for  relief  were  found  to  be 
subjects  of  neurasthenia,"  meaning  by  that  term  the  "clin- 
ical entity"  understood  among  neurologists.  He  draws  at- 
tention to  two  phases  of  their  employment  which  seem  to 
have  a  "very  positive  influence  on  the  production  of  neuras- 
thenia." These  are  the  irregularity  of  employment  in  the 
garment  trades  and  piece-work — both  of  them  common  inci- 
dents of  industrial  life  upon  whose  sinister  possibilities  we 
have  elsewhere  dwelt. 

*  Schwab,  Sidney  I.  (Professor  of  Nervous  and  Mental  Diseases,  St. 
Louis  University):  Neurasthenia  Among  Garment  Workers.  American 
Labor  Legislation  Review,  Vol.  I,  No.  I,  p.  27.     (January,  1911.) 


I  10 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

7.     GENERAL  PREDISPOSITION  TO  DISEASE 

The  close  causal  connection  between  overfatigue  and 
certain  types  of  nervous  disease  must  not  obscure  the  much 
larger  and  more  significant  role  of  fatigue  in  undermining 
health,  to  which  Professor  Treves  refers  above  as  the  "bor- 
derland of  illness."  Fatigue  not  only  causes  specific  ills; 
its  victims  are  predisposed  to  disease  in  general.  It  is  today 
almost  a  truism  that  health  and  freedom  from  illness  spring 
from  a  maximum  power  of  resistance.  Not  absence  of  ex- 
posure but  strength  of  resistance  is  what  keeps  us  well.  It 
is  the  peculiar  misery  of  the  exhausted  that  they  fall  victims 
to  the  first  infection  or  minor  ailment  which  they  may  happen 
to  encounter.  This  is  apparent  in  everyday  life;  and  in  the 
laboratory,  animal  experimentation  tends  to  show  that 
fatigue  markedly  diminishes  the  power  of  the  blood  to  over- 
come bacteria  and  their  toxic  products.* 

The  danger  of  even  indirectly  spreading  infectious 
diseases  needs  no  emphasis.  Work  which  exhausts,  and  so 
contributes  to  the  spread  of  infections  and  epidemics,  is 
clearly  a  public  as  well  as  a  private  menace.  On  this  ground, 
the  overstrain  of  thousands  of  workingmen  and  working- 
women  which  keeps  a  large  part  of  our  population  in  fit 
condition  to  take  and  spread  contagions,  should  be  considered 
as  intolerable  as  any  other  provocation  of  epidemics. 

But  even  careful  observers  are  apt  to  underrate  or  ignore 
the  predominating  influence  of  overfatigue  in  causing  the 
lowered  vitality  and  the  minor  ailments  of  working  people. 
Our  analysis  of  exhaustion  as  due  to  the  accumulation  of 
fatigue  products  and  an  excessive  drain  on  men's  energies, 

*  Charrin  and  Roget:  Archives  de  Physiologic  norma'.e  et  patholo- 
gique,  1890.     No.  2,  p.  273. 

Wetzel,  G.:  Pfluger's  Archiv,  1900.     Bd.  82,  p.  505. 

Cohnstein,  Dr.  Wilhelm:  Virchow's  Archiv,  1892.     Bd.  130,  p.  332. 

De  Sandro,  Domenico:  Riforma  Med.,  1910,  XXXV,  pp.  841  and  871. 
Reviewed  in  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  Vol.  LVI, 
No.  I,  p.  46.     (Jan.  7,  1911.) 

Abbott,  A.  C.,  and  Giidersleeve,  N.:  The  Influence  of  Muscular  Fatigue 
and  of  Alcohol  on  Certain  of  the  Normal  Defenses.  Univ.  of  Penn.  Medical 
Bui.  Vol.  23,  pp.  169-181.     1910. 

I  I  I 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

will  have  been  useless  if  it  does  not  help  us  to  realize  anew  how 
health  hangs  upon  the  metabolic  balance;  how  vitality  and 
resistance  spring  buoyant  from  physiologic  equilibrium;  and 
how  fatally  overstrain  tips  the  scales  down. 

8.  A  NEW  MEDICAL  SCRUTINY  OF  OVERWORK 

The  physiological  study  of  overwork  must  be  sharply 
differentiated  from  the  longer  established  study  of  special 
trade  diseases.  Medical  interest  in  the  special  diseases  of 
various  trades  is  of  long  standing,  and  has  been  growing 
steadily  since  the  Italian  Ramazzini  first  drew  attention  to 
the  diseases  of  working  people  over  200  years  ago.*  The 
literature  of  special  trade  illnesses — lead  poisoning,  phos- 
phorous poisoning,  arsenic  poisoning,  anthrax,  diseases  from 
lint,  fluff,  dust,  humidity,  extremes  of  temperature,  and  the 
like — is  enormous,  a  recent  partial  bibliography  in  regard  to 
tuberculosis  alone  filling  almost  twenty  printed  pages  of 
close  type.f 

In  every  country  where  sickness  insurance  exists,  the 
study  of  trade  diseases  is  bound  to  grow  steadily.  Day  by 
day  and  year  by  year  many  physicians  attached  to  insurance 
societies  have  opportunities  of  observing  and  treating  cases 
of  industrial  disease.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  1908  the  largest 
sickness  insurance  society  in  Germany,  the  Local  Society  of 
Leipzig,  employed  under  contract  410  physicians,  137  spe- 
cialists, 23  dentists,  55  druggists,  and  20  opticians. t  Trade 
diseases,  indeed,  have  become  so  important  a  branch  of 
medical  practice  abroad  that  the  establishment  of  special 
chairs  at  universities  for  the  training  of  specialists  in  these 
branches  has  been  advocated.  §     Medical  courses  on  simula- 

*  Ramazzini,  B.:    De  Morbis  Artificium  Diatriba,  Modena,  1701. 

t  Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  79,  1908.  Hoffman, 
Frederick  L. :   Mortality  from  Consumption  in  Dusty  Trades. 

X  Frankel  and  Dawson,  op.  cit.,  p.  258. 

§  Congres  Internationale  des  Assurance  Sociales.  Rome,  1908,  Session 
8.  Peyser,  Dr.  Alfred  (Berlin):  Die  Soziale  Medizin  als  Gegenstand  des 
Unterrichts.  Sternberg,  Prof.  Dr.  Max  (Vienna):  Die  Soziale  Medizin 
als  Besonderer  Unterrichts  Gegenstand. 

I  12 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

tion,  or  the  attempts  of  working  people  to  counterfeit  trade 
diseases,  are  even  now  regularly  given  by  European  pro- 
fessors. In  March,  1910,  the  first  clinic  for  the  treatment  of 
industrial  diseases  was  dedicated  in  Milan. 

But  in  all  this,  the  emphasis  upon  fatigue  and  the  causal 
connection  between  overwork  and  disease  has  until  recently 
been  slight.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  in  the  workmen's  in- 
surance system,  the  sinister  role  of  overwork  is  beginning 
to  show  itself  unmistakably.  The  medical  observation  of 
fatigue  in  industry,  even  abroad,  is  recent  and  still  quite  dis- 
organized. There  is  abundant  complaint  that  the  vast  op- 
portunities of  investigation  among  insured  working  people 
are  not  yet  utilized;  that  the  present  methods  of  observation 
are  inadequate,  and  that  standards  are  lacking  for  diagnoses 
of  illnesses  and  their  industrial  causes.  But  the  essential 
fact  is  that  a  new  medical  scrutiny  of  modern  work  and  its 
strain  on  human  energies  has  at  least  begun.  It  centers  on 
fatigue  as  itself  a  danger  of  occupation. 

This  new  medical  emphasis  on  industrial  fatigue  and 
overwork  was  conspicuous  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  In- 
ternational Congress  of  Hygiene  held  at  Berlin  in  1907. 
Discussions  of  fatigue  and  exhaustion  as  dangers  of  occupa- 
tion were  given  a  new  place  of  prominence.*  Even  earlier, 
this  congress  of  physicians  and  scientists  had  devoted  some 
attention  to  the  subject  at  its  meetings  in  Budapest,  1894, 
and  in  Paris,  1900.  At  its  meeting  in  Brussels,  1903,  the 
congress  urged  governments  to  study  overfatigue  as  one  of 
the  most  fertile  sources  of  ill  health  among  working  people. 
This  recommendation  was  quoted  and  repeated  in  hearings 
before  the  British  Interdepartmental  Committee  on  Phy- 
sical Degeneration  in  1904. 

The  Italians,  among  whom  the  laboratory  studies  of 
fatigue  have  been  so  extensively  carried  on,  take  a  prominent 
part  in  this  new  research.  They  call  it  inclusively  Patalogia 
del  Lavoro,  pathology  of  work,  or  the  study  of  all  those  factors 

*  Ermudung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  Discussed  by  Dr.  Z.  Treves  of 
Turin,  Dr.  E.  Roth  of  Potsdam,  and  others. 

8  I  13 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

in  work  which  result  in  abnormal  or  pathologic  consequences 
to  the  human  organism.  As  Dr.  Giglioli  of  Florence,  himself 
one  of  the  young  Italians  at  work  in  this  new  field,  says:* 

"The  first  vague  Ramazzinian  conception  of  trade  dis- 
eases has  developed  into  the  wider  and  more  definite  theory 
of  the  patholog}'  of  labor.  This  most  important  division  of 
social  medicine  has  developed  in  a  very  short  time  into  a  well 
organized  and  distinct  study.  It  is  not,  nor  does  it  tend  to 
become,  what  is  popularly  called  a  'specialty,'  but  it  has  the 
dignity  of  being  considered  the  most  modern  branch  of 
medical  study,  and  has  its  ardent  expounders,  clinics,  labora- 
tories, and  students. 

"It  is  a  very  modern  development,  stimulated  by  the 
most  recent  scientific  researches  and  acquisitions  in  hygiene, 
economics,  and  politics.  Through  it,  new  methods  of  study 
have  developed,  by  which  not  only  the  typical  trade  diseases 
but  all  the  factors  which  bear  upon  the  health  conditions  of 
wage-earners  are  estimated  and  studied  clinically  and  ex- 
perimentally.    .     .     . 

"  Modern  pathology  thus  unites  study  of  fatigue  and 
nutrition  with  the  most  recent  theories  of  predisposition  to 
infection  induced  in  formerly  healthy  organisms.  It  recon- 
ciles the  very  latest  theories  of  neuro-pathology  with  the 
latest  ideas  about  the  neurasthenics  of  labor.  While  it  does 
not  attempt  to  invade  the  other  branches  of  medicine,  it 
does  draw  from  them  facts  and  data  with  which  to  re-en- 
force its  own  postulates  on  social  economic  methods.  This 
most  modern  development  may  appear  to  some  too  vague 
and  general,  to  others  too  restricted,  but  it  is  certainly  gain- 
ing ground  and  growing  continually  more  complete  and 
definite." 

This  new  emphasis  is  likewise  shown  in  the  able  little 
Italian  monthly  called  II  Ramanini,  from  which  the  above 
is  quoted.  This  is  a  journal  of  social  medicine,  started  in 
1907.  In  the  admirable  bibliographies  of  current  socio- 
medical-literature  which  //  Ramanini  publishes  for  the 
International  Commission  on  Trade  Diseases  (founded  1906), 

*  11  Ramaizini.  Giornale  Italiano  di  Medicina  Sociale.  Anno  I.  Fasc. 
12.  (December,  1907.)  Giglioli,  Dr.  G.  Y.  (R.  Istituto  di  Clinica  Medica. 
Firenze):  Nuovo  Ricerche  e  Nuovo  Conquiste  nel  Campo  della  Patologia  e 
del'  Igiene. 

114 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

prominent  place  is  given  to  the  section  headed  "  Surmenage," 
or  exhaustion. 

In  the  "pathology  of  labor"  belong  indeed  the  trade 
diseases  with  their  train  of  temporary  and  chronic  ills.  But 
the  first  place  is  taken  by  those  disturbances  of  metabolism, 
those  self-generated  poisons  of  fatigue,  which  are  common  not 
only  to  workers  in  so-called  dangerous  occupations,  but  to 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  who  breathes  and  v/orks. 


9.  OPPORTUNITIES  FOR  SUCH  STUDY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

In  the  almost  total  absence,  in  this  country,  of  medi- 
cal emphasis  upon  the  pathogenic  nature  of  industrial  over- 
fatigue, it  is  significant  to  read  Professor  Irving  Fisher's 
note  in  his  Report  on  National  Vitality,  prepared  for  the 
National  Conservation  Commission.     He  says:* 

"The  present  working  day  is  a  striking  example  of  the 
failure  to  conserve  national  vitality.  .  .  .  The  fatigue 
of  workmen  is  largely  traceable  to  their  long  work  day.     .     . 

"The  relatively  slight  impairment  of  efficiency  due  to 
overfatigue  leads  to  more  serious  impairment.  Just  as  minor 
ailments  prove  to  have  an  unsuspected  imiportance  when 
considered  as  gateways  to  serious  illness,  so  the  inefficiency 
from  overfatigue  is  vested  with  great  significance.  Obviously, 
if  overfatigue  would  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  this  reduction 
would  carry  with  it  the  prevention  of  the  major  part  of  minor 
ailments,  which  in  turn  would  lead  to  a  great  reduction  in 
more  serious  illnesses,  and  this  finally  would  lead  to  a  great 
reduction  in  mortality.  A  typical  succession  of  events  is, 
first  fatigue,  then  colds,  then  tuberculosis,  then  death.  Pre- 
vention, to  be  effective,  must  begin  at  the  beginning." 

Back  of  the  great  scourges  and  acute  contagions,  back 
even  of  the  minor  ailments  which  often  precede  them,  lies 
the  lowered  vitality,  the  unbalanced  metabolism,  to  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  overwork  so  largely  contributes.  Serious 
discussion  or  consideration  of  this  fatal  sequence  among 

*  Bulletin  of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred  on  National  Health, 
No.  30,  pp.  45  and  47,  July,  1909. 

115 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

working  people  is  rare  indeed.  It  is  touched  on  with  peculiar 
insight  by  Dr.  Edward  T.  Devine  in  his  stirring  presentation 
of  a  dark  topic,  "Misery  and  Its  Causes." 

From  the  point  of  view  of  social  welfare,  Dr.  Devine 
holds  the  minor  ailments  responsible  for  far  greater  misery 
among  the  poor  than  has  been  realized  or  ministered  to  by 
the  medical  profession,  in  comparison  with  the  great  plagues 
and  the  more  acutely  contagious  diseases. 

"  I  suppose,"  he  says,*  "  that  no  medical  authority  would 
think  of  grouping  together  such  diseases  as  I  have  named 
(rheumatism,  indigestion,  influenza,  colds,  catarrh,  bronchitis 
and  constipation),  as  from  the  medical  point  of  view  they  may 
have  nothing  in  common;  but  for  us  they  have  this  in  com- 
mon, that  they  increase  to  an  enormous,  though  uncalculable, 
extent  the  sum  total  of  misery  which  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren have  to  bear;  they  prevent  that  enjoyment  of  the  good 
things  of  life  to  which  we  are  fully  entitled  for  the  extra- 
ordinary amount  of  hard  work  that  we  do,  by  the  bounty  of 
nature  and  the  abundance  of  our  inherited  wealth." 

It  is  a  new  thing  to  have  such  "minor"  sufferings  named 
as  "altogether  undervalued  causes  of  misery."  It  is  a  new 
thing,  too,  to  have  their  importance  squarely  faced,  as 
follows : 

"  I  challenge  the  medical  schools  and  laboratories,  the 
institutions  of  research  and  family  physicians,  as  not  having 
paid  sufficient  attention  to  these  disabilities;  but  beyond 
this,  and  as  a  more  fundamental  diagnosis  of  the  difficulty,  I 
challenge  society  as  having  permitted  here  very  grave  mal- 
adjustments in  not  having  appreciated  the  importance  of 
ailments  of  this  kind,  and  for  this  reason  not  having  been 
willing  to  pay  for  the  service  of  investigating  their  cause, 
their  character  and  their  cure,  or  for  the  service  of  treating 
them  in  time."t 

Our  study  of  fatigue  would  lead  us  to  go  a  step  farther 
than  Dr.  Devine.     He  is  presenting,  with  keen  and  sympa- 

*  Devine,  Edward  T.:    Misery  and  Its  Causes,  p.  84.     New  York, 
The  Macmillan  Company,  1909. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  83. 

ii6 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

thetic  insight,  the  causes  of  misery  for  the  "  out-of-health, 
out-of-work,  out-of-friends."  We  are  concerned  primarily 
with  the  other  end  of  the  industrial  scale — the  overworked,  the 
overstrained,  the  overwhelmed.  We  are  regarding  Work  in  a 
broad  physiological  sense.  In  the  discussion  which  follows 
we  shall  narrow  our  field  further  to  those  for  whom  legisla- 
tion is  today  most  urgent  and  practicable,  the  working 
women  and  children  in  need  of  state  protection.  But  at  this 
point,  in  behalf  of  all  human  workers — just  because  they 
are  human! — we  would  paraphrase  Dr.  Devine's  words  and 
challenge  the  medical  schools  and  laboratories,  the  institutes 
of  research  and  family  physicians,  as  not  having  paid  suffi- 
cient attention  to  industrial  overstrain  and  the  intolerably 
long  hours  of  labor,  which,  through  the  actual  poisons  of 
fatigue,  must  be  regarded  as  breeding  and  augmenting  the 
so-called  minor  ailments  of  working  people. 

And  beyond  this,  and  as  a  more  fundamental  diagnosis 
of  the  difficulty  (to  paraphrase  Dr.  Devine  further)  we  chal- 
lenge society  as  not  having  appreciated  the  importance  of 
industrial  overwork  and  exhaustion,  and  for  this  reason  hav- 
ing allowed  them  to  persist  from  generation  to  generation 
without  study  of  their  effects  or  of  the  violence  done  to  man's 
natural  endowment — his  physiologic  mechanism. 

Abroad,  a  new  correlation  of  such  scientific  study  and  the 
industrial  regime  has  at  least  begun.  It  has  not  yet  gone  as 
far  as  has  the  scientific  scrutiny  of  overwork  in  school  chil- 
dren. Such  observation  of  school  children — their  capacities, 
attentions,  fatigues — has  in  the  last  few  years  become  a 
favorite  theme  of  both  pedagogues  and  physiologists.  It  is 
concerned  chiefly  with  the  fatigue  of  attention  due  to  long 
school  hours,  and  the  reaction  of  such  fatigue  upon  the  child's 
total  health.  Scientific  tests  and  measurements  of  fatigue 
in  school  children  have  accordingly  been  carried  on  for  some 
years  past  with  more  or  less  success,  and  a  vast  amount  of 
literature  on  the  subject  exists  today. 

For  effective  prevention,  we  need  precisely  a  new  study 
cf  undue  fatigue  in  industry.     Both  for  a  more  rational  or- 

117 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ganization  of  business  and  for  intelligent  legislation  we  need 
definite  knowledge  of  the  effects  of  such  industrial  facts  as 
those  which  we  have  briefly  reviewed.  We  need  to  know, 
from  systematic  and  continuous  study,  what  are  the  actual 
results  of  speeding,  and  piece-work,  monotony  and  mechan- 
ical rhythms,  and  the  rest.  The  workday,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  too  long  when  it  goes  beyond  physiological  limits;  in  other 
words,  when  no  adequate  margin  of  rest  is  allowed  for  tissue 
repair.  We  need  to  know  for  the  various  trades,  and  for  the 
various  operations  in  those  trades,  what  is  an  adequate 
margin  of  rest.  We  need  to  know  whether  nervous  diseases 
are  on  the  increase  among  industrial  workers  in  this  country 
as  they  are  reported  to  be  abroad.  We  need  to  transfer  into 
the  factory  and  workshop  the  investigations  into  fatigue 
which  have  yielded  so  rich  a  harvest  in  the  laboratories.  We 
need,  above  all,  men  of  the  highest  caliber  and  professional 
standing  to  plan  such  investigations  along  broad  inclusive 
lines,  so  as  to  discount  what  is  transient  and  temporary,  and 
to  obtain  the  underlying  facts,  for  the  conservation  of  health 
and  efficiency. 

Many  enlightened  employers  already  provide  medical 
supervision  of  the  hygiene  of  their  employes,  in  the  interests 
of  efficiency.  These  agencies  could  well  be  used  for  such 
systematic  and  continuous  study  as  we  have  advocated. 
Once  the  importance  of  the  subject  is  realized,  once  over- 
strain is  recognized  as  itself  a  danger  of  occupation,  study  of 
overwork  and  its  sequelae  must  follow. 

Another  source  of  information  on  the  effects  of  industrial 
overpressure  has  been  hitherto  unused.  This  is  in  the  records 
of  the  clinics  and  hospitals  where  working  people  are  treated. 
In  this  country  we  have  not  the  opportunities  afforded  by  the 
foreign  insurance  systems  to  study  sick  and  convalescent 
wage-earners.  But  from  the  thousands  of  working  men  and 
women  to  whom  the  hospitals  minister  yearly,  could  they 
not  learn  those  antecedent  facts  as  to  the  strain  of  employ- 
ment to  which,  as  we  have  seen,  foreign  insurance  physicians 
have  been  forced  to  turn  in  the  interests  of  prevention? 

ii8 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

The  social  service  work  established  in  connection  with  vari- 
ous hospitals,  precisely  for  prevention,  is  a  first  step  in  this 
direction.  The  out-patient  department  in  many  hospitals 
follows  patients  into  their  homes  in  order  to  make  sure  that 
the  benefits  of  hospital  treatment  are  not  immediately  un- 
done by  unhygienic  living.  This  work  could  well  be  supple- 
mented by  obtaining  and  keeping  accurate  records  of  the 
industrial  as  well  as  the  medical  history  of  patients.  No 
better  work  for  prevention  could  be  done  than  by  attempt- 
ing to  discover  those  elements  in  industry  which  contribute 
directly  to  the  illnesses  of  thousands  of  workers  and  carry 
them  year  by  year  in  throngs  to  the  hospitals. 

Through  the  nurses  who  visit  patients  in  their  homes  and 
establish  confidential  relations  with  them,  the  machinery  for 
such  an  additional  inquiry  is  available.  The  medical  ex- 
amination and  record  of  patients  at  the  hospitals  give  their 
physical  histories  in  full.  An  invaluable  additional  body  of 
information  could  be  secured  if  detailed  records  were  system- 
atically kept  during  a  series  of  years  showing  the  previous 
trade  history  of  patients:  their  previous  hours  of  work,  the 
length  of  overtime  work  at  rush  seasons,  their  night  work  if 
any,  the  machinery  or  processes  at  which  they  were  employed 
before  illness,  and  many  similar  questions.  These  histories, 
to  be  accurate,  would  have  to  be  corroborated  by  a  separate 
industrial  investigation  of  previous  places  of  employment, 
to  confirm  the  workers'  accounts  of  themselves.  Such  an 
investigation  could  be  kept  within  manageable  limits  by 
confining  it  to  the  year  or  two  years  previous  to  the  workers' 
illness. 

To  learn  and  to  accumulate  the  histories  of  patients  suffer- 
ing from  specific  trade  diseases  would  obviously  throw  light 
upon  many  dangerous  occupations  and  dangerous  processes 
of  manufacture  as  yet  unstudied  in  this  country.  To  learn 
and  accumulate  the  histories  of  those  who  have  been  the 
victims  of  industrial  overpressure  would  be  a  no  less  valu- 
able contribution  to  the  complex  study  of  industrial  fatigue. 
This  can  never  be  done  by  collecting  a  few  cases.     The 

1 19 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

value  of  such  an  investigation  would  be  cumulative,  if  it 
could  prove,  after  a  series  of  years,  by  large  numbers  of  indi- 
vidual and  well  authenticated  cases,  the  important  part 
played  by  overstrain  in  the  production  of  disease  and  ill- 
health  among  wage-earners.* 

Such  case  study  of  wage-earners  who  have  succumbed 
to  illness  has  a  marked  advantage  over  the  more  general  study 
of  wage-earners  at  work.  What  we  seek  to  know  is  precisely 
what  is  implied  in  the  Italian  phrase  "  the  pathology  of  labor." 
Just  as  in  medicine  the  study  of  pathology  goes  hand  in  hand 
with  the  study  of  physiology — the  morbid  as  well  as  the 
normal  reactions  often  yielding  most  suggestive  clues — so  in 
industry,  not  only  the  physiological  but  the  pathological 
aspects  must  be  scrutinized:  the  infections,  anaemias,  nervous 
disorders,  pelvic  derangements  in  women,  and  the  rest. 

It  is,  in  the  last  resort,  those  who  succumb  who  must  de- 
termine the  dangerousness  of  any  trade.  Thus,  for  instance, 
many  men  no  doubt  can  and  do  work  in  caissons,  without 
contracting  the  dreaded  "bends."  Yet  the  legislation  which 
prescribes  special  rules  of  hygiene  for  caisson  work  is  based 
on  the  victims,  not  the  survivors.  Hence  it  is  essential  to 
learn  from  a  scientific  observation  of  the  victims  of  industry 
— possibly  in  hospitals  and  clinics  as  suggested  above — those 
unhealthful  and  dangerous  processes  of  industry  which  lead 
to  physical  disaster. 

*  The  beginnings  of  such  an  investigation  into  the  trade  history  as 
well  as  the  home  life  of  clinic  patients  is  related  in  the  last  report  of  the  Social 
Service  Department  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital  (Jan.  1,  1911- 
Jan.  1,  19i2).  Eighty  working  girls  who  had  applied  for  medical  relief 
during  eight  months,  were  studied. 


120 


V 

ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF   REGULATION:    FATIGUE 
AND  OUTPUT 

IN  the  previous  chapters  we  have  found  in  the  laws  of 
fatigue  a  scientific  basis  for  legislation,  and  an  explanation 
of  the  effects  of  overwork  on  health.  We  may  proceed 
now  to  seek  in  the  same  physiological  laws  an  explanation  of 
the  effects  of  overwork  on  output  and  production.  To  under- 
stand the  economic  as  well  as  the  physical  effects  of  regula- 
tion, we  must  turn  back  to  those  physiological  truths  on  which 
both  alike  are  based. 

We  have  sought  to  bridge  the  gap  between  laboratory 
and  factory,  and  to  show  how  work,  whether  it  be  the  leg 
jerk  of  the  frog  in  scientific  experiments,  or  the  contractions 
of  our  human  muscles  in  industrial  processes,  results  in 
chemical  reactions  within  the  workers'  tissues.  Now  we 
must  turn  from  the  person  of  the  worker  to  his  accomplish- 
ment, from  study  of  the  performer  to  a  scrutiny  of  his  per- 
formance. 

Just  as  the  methods  of  the  laboratory  have  yielded  sug- 
gestive analogies  in  estimating  the  subjective  fatigue  of  the 
worker,  so  they  help  to  estimate  the  objective  value  of  work 
accomplished.  The  diagrams,  or  curves  of  work,  recorded 
upon  the  sooty  drum  at  the  laboratory,  represent  not  exactly 
but  symbolically  the  fluctuations  of  what  is  known  in  industry 
as  output,  or  production.  They  explain  why  long  and  late 
hours  of  labor  must  physiologically  result  in  lessened  output. 

This  is  the  more  important  because  regulation  of  the 
length  of  working  hours  has  been  so  bitterly  contested  by 
those  who  feared  that  any  lessening  of  the  hours  of  labor 
meant  a  corresponding  economic  loss.     From  the  first  dawn 

121 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

of  protective  legislation  in  England  over  a  century  ago  to  the 
present  day,  the  rallying  cry  for  the  most  diverse-minded 
opponents  of  legislation  has  been  the  threatened  ruin  of  in- 
dustry and  manufactures.  Solemn  or  hysterical,  an  honest 
conviction,  hypocritical,  pseudo-scientific,  this  cry  has  been 
more  or  less  successfully  invoked  in  every  country,  at  every 
attempted  advance,  bringing  with  it  all  the  rancors  and  bit- 
ternesses through  which  the  cause  of  legislation  has  been 
dragged.  Yet  the  unconscious  consensus  of  testimony  from 
various  states  and  countries  on  the  economic  benefits  of 
the  short  day,  recorded  in  official  and  unofficial  documents, 
is  in  its  turn  as  impressive  as  we  found  the  unanimity  of 
evidence  on  the  physical  effects  of  the  long  day. 

For  the  most  part,  however,  all  this  body  of  information 
is  ignored  and  allowed  to  fade  into  the  limbo  of  forgotten 
things,  in  our  practical  efforts  at  legislation.  We  must  keep 
reiterating  that  the  unsolved  questions  and  difficulties  are  of 
fundamentally  the  same  general  character  today  as  in  the 
past.  Practically  the  world  over,  the  state  of  the  sweated 
trades  in  1912  is  "closely  parallel  to  that  of  the  Lancashire 
cotton  mills  in  1802."  To  come  nearer  home,  factory  legis- 
lation in  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  other  American  states 
has  not  yet  reached  the  stage  of  British  textile  legislation  of 
more  than  sixty  years  ago.  And  most  significant  of  all,  it  is 
still  the  cry  that  industry  will  be  ruined  by  protecting  the 
workers,  which  most  hampers  our  advance. 

It  is  the  cotton  lobby  which  throws  its  great  influence 
against  the  workers  in  the  cotton  states,  the  glass  lobby  in 
the  glass  states,  the  laundrymen's  association  wherever  legis- 
lation for  laundry  workers  is  proposed,  the  retail  dealers'  as- 
sociation against  any  relief  for  shop  girls.  Individual  em- 
ployers, it  goes  without  saying,  are  humane  and  enlightened, 
but  their  official  organizations  and  representatives  have  won 
a  sinister  distinction  in  opposing  labor  legislation.  Such 
associations  of  employers  as  those  named  above,  are  found 
officially  in  the  field  at  every  session  of  the  state  legislatures. 
It  was,  for  instance,  the  Illinois  Manufacturers'  Association 

122 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

which  officially  combatted  any  restriction  whatsoever  of 
women's  hours  in  Illinois,  and,  failing  to  defeat  the  passage 
of  the  ten-hour  law  in  1909,  bent  all  their  energies  to  have 
the  law  annulled  by  the  courts.  It  was  the  laundrymen's 
associations  which  played  the  same  part  in  Oregon  in  1907, 
and  even  carried  a  case  against  the  Oregon  ten-hour  law  to 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  It  is  the  Retail  Dry  Goods 
Merchants  Association  of  New  York  City  which  by  varied 
means  has  succeeded  in  stifling  all  limitation  of  hours  for  adult 
women  employed  in  department  stores.  It  was  the  official 
Manufacturers'  Association  of  Colorado  which  issued  a 
statement  to  the  legislature  in  1911,  pointing  out  the  dangers 
of  the  proposed  eight-hour  law,  and  denying  its  need  by  re- 
counting the  contributions  of  Colorado  manufacturers  to 
various  charities.  The  universal  argument  which  has  so  often 
crowned  their  official  efforts  with  success  is  the  abject  money- 
makers' plea,  the  fear  of  loss — "  Save  us  lest  we  perish." 

As  the  authors  of  the  standard  history  of  factory  legis- 
lation have  said,  writing  with  what  Mr.  Sidney  Webb  calls 
"commendable  restraint,"  as  "historical  students":* 

"  In  the  beginning,  the  proposal  to  restrict  children  to  a 
working  day  about  30  per  cent  longer  than  strong  men  now 
think  good  for  themselves,  was  greeted  almost  hysterically, 
and  the  ruin  of  trade  and  commercial  collapse  of  the  country 
were  freely  prophesied  as  the  necessary  result.  Inquiry  after 
inquiry,  commission  after  commission,  have  demonstrated 
the  groundlessness  of  these  rather  unmanly  terrors,  yet  the 
Factory  Code  is  still  the  barest  minimum  and  scarcely  ever  is 
there  a  discussion  in  Parliament  on  the  subject  that  does  not 
reveal  that  the  masses  of  information  and  material  that  exist 
for  the  full  economic  justification  of  further  measures  are 
practically  unknown  to  all  but  a  select  few  of  our  legislators." 

1.  GENERAL  EXPERIENCE  IN  ENGLAND 

As  far  as  our  immediate  subject  is  concerned, — the  re- 
lation between  fatigue  and  output, — the  testimony  of  history 

*  Hutchins,  B.  L.,  and  Harrison,  A.:  History  of  Factory  Legislation, 
p.  253.     London,  P.  S.  King  and  Son,  1903. 

123 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

is  continuous  and  impressive.  In  England,  for  instance, 
whose  industrial  experience  is  longest  and  most  fully  re- 
corded, the  cry  that  legislation  would  ruin  the  country  united 
men  of  the  most  scattered  beliefs  and  parties  to  oppose  the 
Ten  Hours  Movement.  The  long  file  of  Parliamentary  De- 
bates from  1832  onward  gives  vivid  glimpses  of  the  conflict 
that  raged,  while  industrialism  was  bursting  into  life,  after 
the  long  Eiiropean  wars.  The  Napoleonic  bogie  had  been 
laid.  The  ports  of  Europe  were  open  again  to  British  com- 
merce. Watt's  steam  engine,  patented  in  1769,  had  ad- 
vanced into  general  use.  The  day  of  industrialism  had  come. 
Terrible  as  is  some  of  the  testimony  in  the  Debates,  showing 
the  ugly  domination  of  men's  humaner  instincts  by  greed, 
and  the  almost  intolerable  slowness  with  which  nineteenth 
century  empiricism  treated  each  separate  abuse  as  a  single 
issue,  unrelated  to  any  general  principles  of  protection,  yet 
these  debates  are  seldom  remote  or  academic.  They  are 
vivid  cross-sections  of  British  history,  pulsing  with  life. 

We  see  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  then  Lord  Ashley,  stand- 
ard-bearer of  the  cause,  in  the  great  debate  of  1844  stung 
from  the  lofty  tone  habitual  to  him  in  combatting  oppression. 
Once  too  often  his  opponents  had  flung  the  foolish  taunt  that 
he  was  attacking  commercial  interests  merely  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  a  different  social  class,  a  taunt  not  unknown  to 
reformers  today.  "  Most  solemnly  do  I  deny  the  charge," 
began  Lord  Ashley,  and  breaking  into  anger: 

"  If  you  think  me  wicked  enough,  do  you  think  me  fool 
enough  for  such  a  hateful  policy?  Can  any  man  in  his  senses 
now  hesitate  to  believe  that  the  permanent  prosperity  of  the 
manufacturing  body  ...  is  essential,  not  only  to  the 
welfare,  but  absolutely  to  the  existence  of  the  British  Em- 
pire?"* 

We  see  Bright  and  Hume  and  Cobden,  leaders  of  the 
Manchester  School,  opposing  what  they  called  the  "inter- 
ference" of  the  government  (a  still  familiar  cry!)  as  certain 
to  bring  ruin  upon  manufacture.     These  men  were  fighting, 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  3rd  Series,  Mar.  15,  1844. 
124 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

we  must  remember,  the  battles  of  free  trade.  The  struggles 
for  the  Factory  Acts  and  for  free  trade  were  practically 
synchronous.  The  Corn  Laws  were  repealed  only  a  year 
before  the  final  passage  of  the  Ten  Hours  Bill  (1847),  and 
the  political  economists  denounced  in  one  breath  govern- 
ment regulation  of  working  hours  and  government  monopoly 
of  trade,  on  philosophic  grounds  of  laisseifaire. 

"The  people  ask  for  freedom  in  their  industry,"  cries 
John  Bright  in  1844,*  "for  the  removal  of  shackles  on  their 
trade;  you  deny  it  to  them  and  then  forbid  them  to  labor  as 
if  working  less  would  give  them  more  food  whilst  your  monop- 
oly laws  make  food  scarce  and  dear.  Give  them  liberty  to 
work,  give  them  the  market  of  the  world  for  their  products." 

Yet,  on  the  whole,  this  opposition  to  the  ten-hour 
movement  did  not  center  on  abstract  ideas  of  freedom  or 
philosophy.  It  was  much  more  practical  and  modern. 
Men  did  not  vote  on  any  party  lines — Whigs,  Tories,  and 
Radicals  were  all  intermingled.!  As  has  been  well  said,  the 
issue  resolved  itself  into  what  we  may  term  the  optimistic 
argument,  asserting  that  the  alleged  overwork  was  grossly 
exaggerated  (again,  how  familiar  a  defense!)  and  the  com- 
mercial argument  which  pleaded  that  the  manufacturing  in- 
terests would  be  bankrupted  by  the  proposed  restriction  to 
ten  hours. I 

This  was  indeed  long  held  to  be  the  vantage  ground  of  the 
opponents  of  restriction, — the  dire  consequences  which  must 
follow  the  curtailment  of  the  last  two  hours  of  the  twelve- 
hour  day. 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  3rd  Series.     March  15,  1844. 

t  A  wellknown  passage  in  Greville's  Memoirs  describes  the  confusion: 
"  I  never  remember  so  much  excitement  as  has  been  caused  by  Ashley's 
Ten  Hours  Bill,  nor  a  more  curious  political  state  of  things,  such  intermin- 
gling of  parties,  such  a  confusion  of  opposition.  .  .  So  much  zeal,  asperity, 
and  animosity,  so  many  reproaches  hurled  backwards  and  forwards.  .  . 
John  Russell,  voting  for  '10  hours'  after  all  he  professed  last  year,  has  filled 
the  world  with  amazement.  .  .  The  opposition  was  divided,  Paimerston 
and  Lord  John  one  way.  Baring  and  Labouchere  the  other.  It  has  been 
a  very  queer  affair."  Memoirs,  Vol.  II,  pp.  236-237.  Longmans,  Green 
and  Co.,  London,  1885. 

X  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  op.  cit.,  p.  88.     Second  Edition.     1911. 
125 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

No  one  issue  in  labor  legislation  has  been  more  befogged 
by  prejudice  and  passion  than  this  relative  productivity  of 
late  working  hours.  The  question  arose  at  the  very  outset 
of  the  industrial  era  in  1837,  when  the  economist  Senior  put 
forth  his  long-lived  economic  fallacy  that  profit  depends  on 
the  output  of  the  last  hours  of  work,  and  that,  consequently, 
profits  would  be  destroyed  if  the  eleventh  or  even  the  twelfth 
hour  of  work  were  curtailed.* 

This  superstition  has  died  hard.  No  contention  did 
more  to  retard  the  reduction  of  the  twelve-hour  day  in  Eng- 
land. It  seemed  plausible  enough  to  men,  in  the  first  flush  of 
invention  and  industrial  expansion,  who  looked  on  human 
labor  as  a  mere  adjunct  to  the  machine.  For  obviously,  with 
machines  every  additional  hour  of  operation  means  addi- 
tional profit.  The  fixed  charges  of  installation  and  operation 
— rent,  taxes,  and  the  like — are  not  increased  proportionally 
by  added  hours  of  operation;  hence  the  last  hours  were  sup- 
posed to  represent  clear  profit  after  expenses  had  been  met 
by  the  earlier  hours  of  work.  It  was  passionately  asserted 
that  the  commercial  supremacy  of  England  hung  on  the  last 
one  or  two  hours  of  work,  which  gave  the  profits.! 

Senior's  extraordinary  argument  was  introduced  verba- 
tim in  Parliament  by  Mr.  Milner  Gibson  in  1844,  as  "sound 
and  indisputable."  If  the  manufacturer's  profits  were  de- 
stroyed by  cutting  off  the  last  two  hours  of  work,  he  said, 
the  laborer  was  in  effect  deprived  of  earning  his  means  of 
subsistence.     Articles  and  arguments  for  and  against  Senior 

*  Senior,  Nassau:    Letters  on  the  Factory  Act.     London,  1837. 

t  "The  following  analysis  will  show  that  in  a  mill  so  worked  (twelve 
hours  a  day  and  nine  on  Saturday,  according  to  the  Act  of  1833)  the 
whole  profit  is  derived  from  the  last  hour.  I  will  suppose  a  manufacturer 
to  invest  £100,000— £80,000  in  his  mill  and  machinery  and  £20,000  in  raw 
material  and  wages.  The  annual  return  of  that  mill,  supposing  the  capital 
to  be  turned  once  a  year,  and  gross  profits  to  be  15  per  cent,  ought  to  be 
goods  worth  £115,000,  produced  by  the  constant  conversion  and  reconver- 
sion of  the  £20,000  circulating  capital  from  money  into  goods  and  from  goods 
into  money  in  periods  of  rather  more  than  two  months.  Of  this  £115,000 
each  of  the  twenty-three  half-hours  of  work  produced  5/115ths  of  l/23rd. 
Of  these  23/23rds  (constituting  the  whole  £115,000),  20,  that  is  to  say, 
£100,000  out  of  the  £115,000,  simply  replace  the  capital;  l/23rd  (or 
£5,000)  out  of  the  £115,000  makes  up  for  the  deterioration  of  the  mill  and 

126 


ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF  REGULATION 

raged  in  the  daily  and  weekly  press  as  well  as  in  Parliament. 
Even  ten  years  later,  just  before  the  ten  hours  bill  was  to 
pass  in  1847,  we  find  Joseph  Hume  making  an  impassioned 
appeal  still  based  on  Senior  against  interference  with  "fixed 
capital."  He  concurred  in  the  clear  and  satisfactory  argu- 
ments of  one  whom  "  he  was  proud  to  call  his  friend,"  that 

"ten  hours  paid  only  the  expenses  of  the  'plant'  and  the 
wages  of  labor,  and  that  if  work  stopped  at  ten  hours,  there 
would  be  no  profit  on  the  capital  invested.  .  .  .  The 
surplus,  then,  whether  it  was  one,  one  and  a  half  or  two  hours 
beyond  ten  hours,  was  the  only  time  from  which  a  remunera- 
tive return  for  capital  could  be  made,  without  which  it  could 
not  be  expected  that  men  would  carry  on  business."* 

But  the  irresistible  logic  of  events  was  already  beginning 
to  overcome  these  specious  arguments.  Senior's  theory  was 
not,  in  the  long  run,  borne  out  by  practice.  The  human  ele- 
ment, ignored  in  the  theory,  asserted  itself  practically,  and 
the  "spoiled  work"  which  had  to  be  thrown  away,  or  done 
over  again  the  next  morning,  increased  rapidly  during  the 
late  exhausting  hours  of  the  twelve-hour  day.  As  early  as 
1843  an  inquiry  made  for  the  second  Children's  Employment 
Commission  by  Mr.  J.  L.  Kennedy  as  to  the  cloth  print  works 
in  Lancashire,  Cheshire,  and  Derbyshire,  showed  how  the 
system  of  long  hours  resulted  in  deteriorated  output.  One 
firm,  for  instance,  tried  to  run  their  mill  fifteen  hours  per  day 
and  found  that  after  the  first  month  output  began  to  fall 
off  in  both  quantity  and  quality.  By  the  fourth  month  of 
the  trial,  the  spoiled  work  had  doubled,  and  production  had 

the  machinery.  The  remaining  2/23rds,  the  last  two  of  the  twenty-three 
half-hours  of  every  day,  produce  the  net  profits  of  10  per  cent.  If  therefore 
(prices  remaining  the  same)  the  factory  could  be  kept  at  work  thirteen  hours 
instead  of  eleven  and  one-half,  by  an  addition  of  about  £2,600  to  the  cir- 
culating capital,  the  net  profit  would  be  more  than  doubled.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  hours  of  working  were  reduced  by  one  hour  per  day  (prices 
remaining  the  same)  net  profits  would  be  destroyed;  if  they  were  reduced 
by  an  hour  and  a  half,  even  gross  profit  would  be  destroyed.  The  circulat- 
ing capital  would  be  replaced,  but  there  would  be  no  fund  to  compensate 
the  progressive  deterioration  of  the  fixed  capital."  Senior,  op.  cit.  Quoted 
in  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  p.  88. 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  3rd  Series,  Feb.  10,  1847. 
127 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

fallen  from  100  per  cent  to  90  per  cent.  This  they  attributed 
to  the  gradual  exhaustion  of  the  workers. 

"The  amount  of  spoiled  work  increased  to  such  an 
alarming  degree  that  the  parties  referred  to  felt  themselves 
compelled  to  shorten  the  hours  of  labor  to  avoid  loss."* 

Upon  reducing  the  hours  of  labor,  the  proportion  of 
spoiled  work  promptly  fell  and  output  rose  again.  This  was 
indeed  Lord  Shaftesbury's  great  argument,  and  the  argument 
of  Robert  Owen  and  others  of  practical  experience:  not 
only  that  production  deteriorated  in  amount  and  quality 
during  the  last  two  exhausting  hours  of  the  twelve-hour  day, 
but  that  the  workers'  total  efficiency,  their  physical  and  moral 
powers,  all  were  gradually  impaired.  The  shorter  day,  on 
the  contrary,  released  them  before  exhaustion  arrived,  and 
in  the  long  run  tended  to  preserve  working  capacity  at  a 
higher  level. 

Between  1844  and  1860  more  and  more  evidence  of  this 
kind  was  accumulating.  By  1861,  the  president  of  the 
economic  section  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  could  write  of  the  general  agreement  through- 
out the  country  that 

"if  there  has  been  one  change  which  more  than  another  has 
.  .  .  placed  the  manufacturing  enterprise  of  the  country 
on  a  safe  basis  and  has  conferred  upon  us  resources  against 
the  effects  of  foreign  competition  which  can  scarcely  be  over- 
valued, it  is  precisely  the  changes  which  have  been  brought 
about  by  the  .  .  .  efforts  to  establish  in  manufacturing 
occupations  a  sound  system  of  legal  interference  with  the 
hours  of  labour."t 

During  this  period  many  wellknown  opponents  of  legis- 
lation who  had  foretold  the  destruction  of  British  industry, 
such  as  Cobden,  Mr.  Roebuck,  the  Home  Secretary  Sir 
James  Graham,  and  others,  became  converted.     Mr.  Roe- 

*  British  Sessional  Papers,  1843,  Vol.  XIII,  p.  72. 
t  Reprinted  in  Journal  of  the  Statistical  Society,  Vol.  XXIV.  1861, 
p.  463. 

128 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

buck's  recantation  is  so  vivacious  and  made  so  great  an  im- 
pression at  the  time  that  it  ought  in  part  to  be  quoted: 

"Very  early  in  my  Parliamentary  career,  Lord  Ashley, 
now  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  introduced  a  bill  of  this  descrip- 
tion, I  being  an  ardent  political  economist,  as  I  am  now, 
opposed  the  measure  .  .  .  and  was  very  much  influenced 
in  my  opposition  by  what  the  gentlemen  of  Lancashire  said. 
They  declared  that  it  was  the  last  half  hour  of  the  work  per- 
formed by  their  operatives  which  made  all  their  profits,  and 
that  if  we  took  away  that  last  half  hour  we  should  ruin  the 
manufacturers  of  England.  I  listened  to  that  statement  and 
trembled  for  the  manufacturers  of  England,  but  Lord  Ashley 
persevered.  Parliament  passed  the  bill  which  he  brought  in. 
From  that  time  down  to  the  present,  the  factories  of  this 
country  have  been  under  state  control,  and  I  appeal  to  this 
house  whether  the  manufacturers  of  England  have  suffered 
by  this  legislation.  But  the  Honourable  member  for  Man- 
chester (John  Bright)  still,  1  find,  makes  the  same  objection. 
He  gets  up  and  prophesies  all  sorts  of  evil  if  we  interfere  now; 
but  he  has  kept  out  of  view  the  evils  for  the  prevention  of 
which  we  are  now  about  to  interfere  .  .  .  Having  pre- 
vented this  misery  in  the  one  case,  let  us  interfere  to  prevent 
it  in  the  other."* 

The  chief  agencies  by  which  these  real  results  of  the  acts 
were  becoming  known,  were  the  reports  of  the  factory  in- 
spectors. It  was  a  step  of  quite  unappreciated  importance 
when  in  1833  the  first  inspectors  were  appointed  to  enforce 
the  act.  Supervision  by  the  local  justices,  as  first  enacted, 
had  failed.  The  appointment  of  inspectors  by  the  central 
government  for  the  express  purpose  of  enforcement  has  been 
well  called  "the  turning  point  of  legislation,"  a  step  "whose 
importance  cannot  be  exaggerated."!  It  was  one  of  the 
first  instances  of  creating  a  special  department  of  the  central 
government  to  administer  a  particular  act.  The  inspectors 
were  also  to  keep  the  government  informed  of  the  condition 
of  the  factory  population,  the  degree  to  which  the  laws  were 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  3rd  Series,  Mar.  21,  1860. 
t  Webb,  Sidney,  and  Cox,  H.:  Tlie  Eight  Hours  Day,  p.  199.     London, 
W.  Scott,  1891. 

9  129 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

meeting  the  existing  evils,  and  the  hke  questions.  Their 
reports  were  sent  in  to  one  of  the  secretaries  of  state  twice  a 
year  or  oftener.  Hence  it  came  about  that  there  gradually 
became  available  a  body  of  unprejudiced  information, — an 
"invaluable  continuous  record  of  industrial  conditions  by 
trained  observers,  free  from  local  bias  and  partiality,  whose 
business  it  was  to  renew  their  visits  at  stated  periods  and 
note  what  changes  took  place  within  their  view."* 

This  has  been  one  of  the  most  important  services  of 
the  inspection  force  in  England  and  on  the  continent.  How- 
ever short  they  may  have  fallen  in  the  actual  enforcement 
of  the  laws,  owing  to  the  great  odds  against  them, — the 
hostility  of  employers  and  parents,  the  inadequacy  of  the 
laws  and  their  own  entirely  inadequate  numbers, — they  have, 
at  any  rate,  bequeathed  to  us  an  invaluable  record  of  the 
actual  effects  of  legislation.  Those  who  favored  the  exten- 
sion of  the  Act  of  1847  and  the  inclusion  of  other  trades,  could 
at  least  point  to  the  written  accounts  of  what  had  been  ac- 
complished in  one  regulated  industry.  As  other  trades  were 
gradually  included  by  subsequent  legislation, — print  works, 
bleacheries,  lace  factories,  hosiery,  hardware,  and  so  forth, — 
the  factory  inspectors  continued  to  show  how  manufacture 
in  the  long  run  profited  instead  of  suffering  by  regulation. 

Human  nature  is  such,  however,  that  immediate  profits 
tend  to  outweigh  future  benefits,  which  can  be  proved  only  in 
the  long  run.  Immediate  profits  make  a  much  more  popular 
appeal,  and  have  distorted  the  issue,  time  and  again,  in  suc- 
cessive campaigns  for  the  short  day,  in  each  industrial  coun- 
try in  turn.  It  was  no  peculiarity  of  the  English  that  they  so 
often  preferred  the  immediate  returns  of  the  long  working 
day,  so  that  after  more  than  one  hundred  years  of  legislation 
the  Factory  Code  must  still  be  called  a  minimum  of  pro- 
tection. The  same  higgling  and  the  same  specious  argu- 
ments have  been  effective  in  Germany,  in  France,  in  Belgium, 
in  the  United  States,  and  wherever  legislation  on  working 
hours  has  been  undertaken.     Only  repeated  demonstrations 

*  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  op.  cit.,  p.  72. 
130 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

and  restatements  of  the  true  economic  effects  of  short  hours, 
by  enhghtened  employers,  factory  inspectors,  economists, 
and  laboring  men  have  at  all  offset  the  illusory  immediate 
profits  of  the  long  day.  England  has  the  longest  and  most 
fully  recorded  industrial  history;  but  the  same  sequence  could 
be  traced  in  the  other  industrial  countries. 


2.    GENERAL  EXPERIENCE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

In  the  United  States  the  seeming  paradox  of  larger  out- 
put in  shorter  hours  was  clearly  stated  by  the  now  classic 
report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  in 
1881.  Agitation  for  some  sort  of  legislative  protection  for 
working  children  began  as  early  as  1825  in  Massachusetts.* 
The  first  law  applying  to  adult  women  was  not  passed  until 
1874.  Six  years  after  the  Massachusetts  ten-hour  law 
went  into  effect,  a  full  investigation  under  Carroll  D.  Wright 
showed  that  the  cost  of  production  had  not  been  increased, 
nor  had  wages  been  lowered  under  the  Massachusetts  ten- 
hour  day,  as  compared  with  the  system  of  eleven  hours  and 
longer  in  neighboring  states.  The  worker's  increased  effi- 
ciency more  than  balanced  the  curtailment  of  working  time. 
Massachusetts  with  ten  hours  produced  "as  much  per  man, 
or  per  loom  or  per  spindle,  equal  grades  being  considered,  as 
other  states  with  eleven  and  more  hours,  and  also  .  .  . 
wages  here  rule  as  high,  if  not  higher  than  in  the  states  where 
the  mills  run  longer  time."t 

Even  before  the  passage  of  the  Massachusetts  act  in 
1874,  experiments  in  single  mills  proved  the  same  result.  In 
1867  the  Atlantic  Mills  at  Lawrence  cut  down  their  working 
day  from  ten  and  three-quarters  to  ten  hours.  The  wages 
were  kept  the  same.  Cost  of  production  increased  2%  per 
cent,  and  the  output  at  first  was  reduced  4  to  5  per  cent; 
yet  the  treasurer  of  the  company  testified  before  the  Massa- 

*  Labor  Laws  and  Their  Enforcement,  with  special  reference  to 
Massachusetts,  p.  4.  Edited  by  Susan  M.  Kingsbury.  New  York,  Long- 
mans, Green  and  Co.,  \9\\. 

t  Report  of  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  1881,  p.  457. 
131 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

chusetts  Committee  on  Labor  in  1873  that  after  three  and  a 
half  years  with  no  change  in  machinery  or  in  wages,  the  out- 
put of  ten  hours  was  "fully  equal"  to  the  output  of  the  pre- 
vious ten  and  three-quarters  hours;  the  immediate  improve- 
ment in  the  workers  was  such  that  the  firm  considered  them 
the  "best  that  have  been  in  the  mill  for  fifteen  years,"  and 
work  was  more  continuous  and  less  interrupted  throughout 
the  year  than  ever  before.* 

The  favorable  operation  of  the  Massachusetts  law,  re- 
ported in  1881,  led  to  the  passage  between  1885  and  1887, 
of  similar  laws  in  other  New  England  states, — Rhode  Island, 
Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Connecticut, — and  greatly  in- 
fluenced the  trend  of  legislation  in  other  states. 

During  more  than  a  generation  which  has  elapsed  since 
Massachusetts  took  the  first  step,  the  well  worn  argument 
that  industry  would  be  ruined  or  must  leave  the  state,  has 
accompanied  each  advance  in  American  legislation,  yet  in 
only  one  case  has  any  law  limiting  women's  hours  of  work 
been  repealed. f  Almost  every  amendment  has  been  by  way 
of  strengthening  the  laws  and  further  reducing  the  workday. t 

This  fact  is  in  itself  presumptive  proof  of  the  economic 
success  of  these  statutes.  No  one  can  suppose  that  indus- 
trial communities,  all  in  comparatively  close  touch  with  one 
another  and  able  to  observe  how  the  laws  were  affecting 
"business"  in  neighboring  states,  would  deliberately  con- 
tinue, during  more  than  thirty-six  years,  to  undo  their  own 
commercial  welfare  by  legislative  enactments.  Common 
sense  refutes  the  thought.  Rather  have  the  opponents  of 
legislation  tried  year  by  year  to  minimize  and  ridicule  the 
economic  benefits  of  the  shortened  day;  but  in  spite  of  their 
misrepresentation  and  ridicule,  the  truth  has  prevailed. 

*  Argument  of  Hon.  Wm.  Gray  on  Petitions  for  Ten-Hour  Law  before 
the  Massachusetts  Committee  on  Labor,  Feb.  13,  1873. 

t  The  New  Jersey  law  of  1892  providing  a  ten-hour  day  and  fifty-five- 
hour  week  for  women,  was  held  repealed  by  the  repealing  act  of  1904,  which 
reorganized  the  New  Jersey  Department  of  Labor. 

t  The  only  retrograde  action  has  been  the  decisions  of  certain  courts 
concerning  the  constitutionality  of  laws  limiting  hours  of  labor.  These  are 
discussed  in  Chap.  VHL 

132 


ECONOMIC   ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

In  a  general  way  it  has  gradually  become  recognized 
that  shorter  hours  improve  health,  and  that  improved  health 
and  efficiency  under  the  short-hour  system  is  the  basis  of 
higher  output.*  The  greater  zest  and  generally  increased 
capacity  of  the  short-hour  worker  have  been  contrasted  with 
the  physical  and  moral  exhaustion  of  the  long-hour  worker. 

Can  we  now  learn  something  more  accurate  about  the 
effects  of  regulation  upon  industry  today?  Can  physiology 
interpret  for  us  the  relative  productivity  of  long  and  short 
days,  as  it  has  clarified  the  new  strain  of  manufacture  and 
commerce?  What  has  physiology  to  do  with  production, 
fatigue  with  output,  today,  since  the  examples  of  thirty  and 
forty  years  ago  are  now  valuable  chiefly  for  their  confirma- 
tion of  European  experience  and  the  influence  which  they 
have  had  upon  past  legislation? 


3.    AN  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDY  OF  OUTPUT 

Before  taking  up  the  question  of  output  in  industrial 
establishments,  we  may  gain  some  insight  from  a  suggestive 
little  investigation  made  by  an  Italian  physiologist.  Professor 
G.  Pieraccini  of  Florence. f  This  study  of  output  is  not  at  all 
conclusive,  since  it  deals  with  a  very  small  number  of  experi- 
ments and  workers.  It  is  valuable  chiefly  in  pointing  out 
one  method  for  future  investigations.  No  generalizations 
can  be  based  upon  a  few  observations,  and  the  ever  variable 
human  factor  in  production  makes  it  a  vastly  subtle  and 
complex  question.  Indeed,  in  a  certain  factory,  the  mere 
knowledge  that  they  were  being  examined  caused  marked 
variations  in  the  output  of  working  girls  under  observation. 
But  Dr.  Pieraccini's  study  is  at  least  an  interesting  attempt 
to  find  the  relative  productivity  of  the  various  hours  of  the 
day  in  selected  employments,  and  it  may  well  precede  our 

*  See  Part  II  of  this  volume,  pp.  339-384. 

t  Proceedings  of  the  First  International  Congress  on  Industrial  Dis- 
eases, Milan,  1906.  Pieraccini,  G.  (Arcispedale  di  S.  M.  Nuova,  Firenze): 
La  Curva  della  Produzione  Utile  Esterna  Raccolta  Negli  Operai  Manuali 
ed  Intellettuali  Sul  Campo  del  Lavoro. 

133 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

discussion  of  such  statistics  as  exist,  on  the  productivity  of 
the  long  and  the  short  day  in  industry. 

Professor  Pieraccini  did  not  use  any  laboratory  appara- 
tus to  measure  the  output  of  his  workers,  but  compared  its 
actual  amount  and  quality  at  different  hours  of  the  day.  He 
studied  the  output  of  five  different  kinds  of  manual  workers, 
namely,  a  copyist,  six  diggers,  four  stone-cutters,  two  bullet 
makers,  two  nail  makers,  and  ten  compositors.  The  small 
number  of  experiments  reported  is  somewhat  compensated 
by  the  similarity  of  their  results  and  their  general  harmony 
with  the  knowledge  derived  from  laboratory  experiments. 

For  just  as  we  have  seen  diagrammatically  in  the  labora- 
tory, the  sequence  of  treppe,  maximum  effort,  fatigue,  and 
exhaustion,  so  in  these  experiments  we  see  how  working 
capacity  increases  during  the  second  and  third  hours  of  work, 
falling  as  fatigue  gains  towards  the  noon  hour,  rising  again 
slightly  after  food  and  rest  at  noon,  to  decline  more  rapidly 
to  a  minimum  in  the  afternoon. 

The  most  interesting  figures  are  those  given  for  the 
compositors  or  typesetters.  The  amount  of  their  output  was 
determined  by  the  number  of  lines  set  per  hour,  while  the 
number  of  typographical  errors  served  to  determine  the 
quality  of  their  work.  The  first  experiment  was  made  on 
six  members  of  the  Typographical  Co-operative  Society  of 
Florence,  experienced  men  working  at  piece-rates,  for  seven 
hours  in  the  day.    Their  output  was  as  follows:* 


OUTPUT    OF     SIX 


TYPESETTERS      WORKING 
SEVEN    HOURS    A    DAY 


AT       PIECE-RATES 


Hours 

8-9 

9-10 

10-11 

11-lS 

12-2 

2-3 

3-4 

4-5 

Total 

121 

151 

130 

125 

Rest 

and 

Lunch 

142 

124 

96 

Average 

20.2 

25.3 

21.6 

20.8 

23.6 

20.8 

16 

*  Pieraccini,  op.  cit.,  p.  122. 

134 


ECONOxMIC    ASPECT    OF    REGULATION 

Plotted,  the  curve  is  as  follows:* 


160 


ISO 


130 


IQD 


SO 


1 

i 

1 

\ 

\ 

\ 

V 

1 

1 

^ 

."' 

\l 

! 

/ 

'" 

^ 

K  i 

/, 

^ 

-N 

\ 

X 

^ 

' 

'N 

'"v 

-*  , 

h 

\J 

_ 

-t-K- 

-■ 

-    - 

" 

X 

\ 

\ 

** 

j 

\\ 

\ 

\ 

i 

* 

3  ■^  5  6 


Similar  is  the  showing  made  by  four  typesetters  of  the 
Niccolai  Printing  House  at  Florence.  The  errors  made  in- 
crease as  work  (i.  e.,  the  number  of  lines  set)  decreases. 
That  is,  the  quality  of  the  work  falls  just  as  the  amount  falls, 
with  the  increase  of  fatigue. 


OUTPUT  OF  FOUR  TYPESETTERS,  SHOWING  INCREASE  OF  ERRORS 
WITH    INCREASE    OF    FATIGUE 


Hours 

8-9 

9-10 

10-11 

11-12 

12-2 

2-3 

3-4 

4-5 

No.  of  lines  set 

Total 

84 

104 

92 

86 

Rest 

99 

82 

64 

Average .... 

21 

26 

23 

21.5 

a 

24.7 

20.5 

16 

Errors 

Total 

17 

10 

18.28     28 

e< 

5.5 

22.6 

30 

Average .... 

4.25 

2.5 

4.57 

/ 

" 

1.37 

5.45 

7.5 

output. 


Plotted,  the  curve  is  as  shown  in  the  following  chart. 

In  this  chart  and  the  following  one  .A.  =  total  output;   B  =  average 


135 


F^^TTTGCB  /W^NT  5fnF«nis«r» 


-r— rst-T 


*----'*   ;i 


ra 


Tbe  other  e^Tenrrrerts  upoir:  tdte  cnpY^H*^  diggtfm>.  sanns 
cuttEra,  naiL  ami  builet  irrakeis,  5hcw«i  tiie  waat  fgrngmil 
results  The  prat:tiKg,  oir  "  ImiheniTg  iip^. '  gameffirftminigtfflg 
first  hour  of  work,  makes  the  aBGond:  amdi  aonTenmes^  uSk 
third  hour  aiso  the  preadDif  of  irrauimunT  jirniiictiirrr.  lin 
all  cases  the  Icw«t  oucput  of  the  rrrcrmirg:  is  neadietf  iiimi]g 
the  h£3iir  before  the  ncoit  oest.  Output  rises  .Tgriir  nTHiitesfl^ 
in  the  first  hour  of  work;  ^tsr  the  ncfiir  nest,  hue  iit  GfedhiBs 
much  more  lapitfly  ht  the  ^ltE3!irc«3ir  thar  ht  Che?  mrnnring,. 
LH:  no  case  does  the  aCtienmoir  (mtput  sogiai]  tihe  miiinmi^'s; 
output  iir  amoimt. 

Lncondusive  as  these  few  ffgures  are.  anf  mi^tifiaauDuinvi- 
ui  th^  they  report  tctal  sad.  arweraae  am^ouni3  of.  work.  inHtaacfl 
of  separate,  mdi vidua!  anrcunts  per  vcrner  they  it  nrx  natt 
point  dearly  to  the  dose  camiKXiGn.  iierAsesar  the  wirkfiar's; 

136 


ECONOMIC   ASPECT    OF    REGULATION 

physical  condition  and  his  output.  The  rise  in  production  in 
the  first  hour  after  noon  marks  the  recuperative  effect  of  food 
and  rest.  The  lower  productivity  of  the  afternoon  is  the 
perfectly  normal  result  of  the  worker's  physiological  fatigue, 
stemmed  for  a  while  by  the  noon  break,  but  growing  naturally 
through  the  functioning  of  his  tissues,  until  quitting  time  and 
the  night's  rest  restore  the  metabolic  losses. 

Through  all  the  myriad  variations  of  men's  individual 
endowments,  these  general  tendencies  persist.  Working 
capacity,  like  all  human  capacities,  eludes  perfectly  fixed 
rules  and  measurements.  Man's  way  of  working  is  almost  as 
individual  as  his  thumb-print,  fast  or  slow,  steady  or  variable, 
tiring  easily  or  tiring  late,  with  as  varying  reserves  of  quite 
unmeasured  strength.  But  all  alike  are  subject  to  the  physio- 
logic laws,  and  this  likeness  which  links  all  humankind  is 
more  fundamental,  more  important  in  our  industrial  inquiry, 
than  all  the  peculiarities  which  differentiate. 

So  much  for  the  underlying  principles,  and  the  very 
palpable  connection  betw^een  fatigue  and  output.  As  in 
sports  the  player's  game  shows  whether  he  is  "in  form,"  "in 
trim,"  "  in  training,"  so  in  a  sense,  production  is  no  more  than 
a  measure  of  the  worker's  fatigue  or  equilibrium.  Work  is 
still  conditioned  on  the  worker,  in  spite  of  all  the  marvels  of 
modern  machinery,  planning,  equipment,  and  the  rest.  And 
as  a  corollary,  work,  output,  production,  must  rise  or  fall 
with  the  worker's  physical  fitness  for  his  task.  This  is  what 
we  have  seen  repeatedly  illustrated  in  the  laborator>%  and 
also  in  Professor  Pieraccini's  study  analyzed  above — a  labo- 
ratory experiment  transferred,  as  it  were,  into  the  factory. 

Can  we  not  find  further  confirmation  in  the  actual 
operation  of  modem  industries?  Can  we  point  to  the  rela- 
tive productivity  of  the  long  and  the  short  day  in  actual 
practice — their  cash  values  in  dollars  and  cents? 

Unfortunately,  exact  data  on  this  subject  are  meager  and 
difficult  to  get.  In  this  country  few  reliable  and  definite 
statistics  are  to  be  found.     Many  experiments  in  shortening 

137 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  hours  of  labor  in  various  trades  have  yielded  impressive 
results  but  have  not  been  made  public. 

The  increasing  use  of  the  stop-watch — a  symbol  of  the 
new  planning  in  industry,  its  infinitesimal  accounting  and 
record-keeping — is  bound  to  show  more  and  more  new  facts 
about  men's  diurnal  efficiencies  and  the  resultant  individual 
and  total  records  of  output.  But  these  studies,  charts,  and 
observations  are  so  comparatively  new  (dating  from  approxi- 
mately the  last  decade),  and  the  nature  of  the  results  is  held 
so  confidential,  that  they  have  for  the  most  part  been  kept 
private.  Manufacturers  are  apt  to  hesitate  or  entirely  re- 
fuse to  publish  the  new  saving  in  time,  labor  cost,  and  ma- 
terials which  result  from  new  methods  of  organization. 
They  regard  them  as  business  secrets,  and  fear  competitors. 
Let  us,  then,  first  undertake  to  examine  three  wellknown 
and  important  foreign  studies  of  efficiency  which  deal  with 
conditions  sufficiently  like  our  own  to  be  convincing  and 
which  throw  considerable  light  on  the  economic  effects  of 
reducing  the  length  of  the  workday. 


4.     THE    EXPERIENCE    OF    THE    SALFORD    IRON    WORKS   AT 
MANCHESTER,  ENGLAND 

One  of  the  most  conclusive  and  influential  of  these  ex- 
periments in  shortening  the  day's  work  was  made  by  the 
firm  of  Mather  and  Piatt  in  1893  at  the  Salford  Iron  Works 
at  Manchester,  England.  This  experiment  is  of  particular 
interest  because  it  was  carried  on  during  an  entire  year  for 
the  express  purpose  of  measuring  the  effects  of  reduced  hours, 
"to  prove  how  far  the  widespread  desire  for  shorter  hours 
might  be  met  without  danger  to  the  mechanical  trades."* 

The  full  complement  of  men  at  the  Salford  Iron  Works 
during  the  trial  year  (March  1,  1893,  to  Feb.  28,  1894)  was 
1,200.  The  character  of  the  work  turned  out  was  similar  to 
that  of  the  preceding  six  years;   that  is,  general  engineering 

*  Mather,  \Vm.,  M.  P.:  The  Forty-eight  Hours  Week:  A  Year's 
Experiment  and  its  Results  at  the  Salford  Iron  Works,  Manchester.  Man- 
chester,   1894. 

138 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

work.*  Since  the  firm  was  subject  to  keen  competition  in 
home  and  foreign  markets,  a  detailed  study  was  made  of  the 
effect  of  shorter  hours  on  the  cost  of  labor.  In  order  to  carry 
out  the  trial  with  scientific  precision  and  care,  extremely  ac- 
curate comparisons  were  made  by  expert  accountants.  Mr. 
Mather  vouches  for  the  absolutely  correct  and  trustworthy 
nature  of  the  results,  while  he  states  that  their  confidential 
nature  makes  it  impossible  to  publish  all  of  the  figures  which 
were  later  given  to  the  government  officials.  Previous  to 
the  trial  year,  the  week's  work  was  first  fifty-four  and  then 
fifty-three  hours,  and  the  figures  taken  as  standards  with 
which  to  compare  results  are  the  averages,  per  year,  of  the 
previous  six  years. 

The  most  noteworthy  statement  in  the  report  is  that 
under  the  forty-eight-hour  week  production  increased. f 
Selling  prices,  moreover,  were  lower  than  in  the  previous 
years,  so  that  during  the  trial  year  the  cost  of  wages  in  pro- 
portion to  "turnover"  rose  0.4  per  cent.  Had  selling  prices 
remained  the  same,  the  cost  of  wages  would  have  shown  a 
decided  decrease,  instead  of  an  increase  of  0.4  per  cent. 

This  debit  against  the  trial  year,  however,  Mr.  Mather 
considers  balanced  by  a  saving  of  0.4  per  cent  secured  as  a 
direct  consequence  of  the  shorter  hours.  The  greater  econ- 
omy in  consumables  (gas,  electric  lighting,  wear  and  tear,  etc.) 
was  closely  figured  and  set  against  the  increased  fixed  charges 
due  to  interest  on  plant  and  machinery,  rent,  taxes,  etc.  The 
balance  of  these  two  accounts  was  clearly  in  favor  of  the  trial 
year.  "  By  a  remarkable  coincidence,"  it  showed  a  saving  of 
0.4  per  cent  on  these  items,  which  exactly  counter-balances 
the  debit  of  0.4  per  cent  from  the  increased  cost  of  wages. 

Another  item  of  interest  to  our  special  inquiry  concerns 

*  This  "comprised  steam  engines,  pumping  machinery,  boiler  work, 
etc.;  all  machinery  used  in  those  textile  trades  (other  than  spinning  and 
weaving)  for  the  bleaching,  printing  and  finishing  of  cotton,  linen,  silk,  and 
other  fabrics;  electrical  machinery  of  every  variety  for  lighting,  trans- 
mission of  power,  electric  traction,  electro-depositing,  electro-chemical 
processes,  etc."     Op.  cit.,  p.  5. 

t  Op.  cit.,  pp.  17  and  20.     (Figures  not  given.) 

139 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  effect  of  shorter  hours  on  piece-rates.  It  was  assumed, 
at  the  outset,  that  the  men  on  piece-work  were  doing  their 
best,  and  that  their  earnings  must  be  lessened  by  any  reduc- 
tion in  hours.  But  though  the  piece-workers  lost  shghtly 
during  the  year,  their  falhng  off  diminished  as  the  year  ad- 
vanced, showing  a  steady  adaptation  to  the  altered  condi- 
tions of  work.  In  order  to  judge  the  effects  of  the  new  sys- 
tem on  piece-work,  the  year  was  divided  into  three  approxi- 
mately equal  periods.  In  the  first  period,  the  surplus  earned 
by  piece-workers  over  day-work  rates  was  1.76  per  cent  less 
than  the  standard  piece-work  wages;  in  the  second  period  it 
was  1.58  per  cent  less,  and  in  the  third  it  was  0.78  per  cent 
less  than  the  standard.  This  steadily  diminishing  loss  made 
it  reasonable  to  expect  that  at  the  end  of  the  year  the  differ- 
ence would  entirely  disappear,  and  that  under  reduced  hours 
the  piece-workers  would  earn  exactly  as  much,  hence  produce 
as  much,  as  in  the  longer  day's  work.  Moreover,  as  the 
total  output  of  the  works  was  greater  during  the  trial  year 
than  previously,  the  slight  diminution  in  the  piece-worker's 
production  was  more  than  compensated  by  increased  produc- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  day-workers. 

In  the  light  of  our  previous  studies  of  fatigue  and  the 
strain  upon  men's  energies  in  overwork,  it  is  extremely  signifi- 
cant that  the  management  of  the  Salford  Iron  Works  at- 
tributed the  maintenance  of  full  production  during  the  trial 
year  "solely  to  the  unimpaired  and  cheerful  energy  on  the 
part  of  every  man  and  boy  throughout  the  day."* 

"We  seem,"  says  the  report  (and  the  statement  is  the 
more  impressive  because  this  investigation  was  not  primarily 
concerned  with  the  workers  at  all,  but  with  the  effect  of 
shorter  hours  upon  the  output  of  "one  of  the  great  staple 
trades  of  the  country"  centering  in  Lancashire  and  York- 
shire), "we  seem  to  have  been  working  in  harmony  with  a 
natural  law,  instead  of  against  it.  .  .  .  The  most  econom- 
ical production  is  attained  by  employing  men  only  so  long 
as  they  are  at  their  best.  When  this  stage  is  passed,  there 
is  no  true  economy  in  their  continued  work."t 

*  Italics  added.  t  Op-  cit.,  pp.  25  and  26. 

140 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

As  one  result  of  the  "unimpaired  and  cheerful  energy"  of 
the  workers  under  the  forty-eight-hour  system,  the  improve- 
ment in  respect  to  "time  lost  without  leave"  is  an  important 
item.  Under  the  fift\-three-hour  system,  the  proportion  of 
such  "time  lost"  to  the  total  time  worked  averaged  2.46  per 
cent,  while  under  the  new  arrangement  it  was  only  0.46  per 
cent.  This  loss  of  time  meant,  of  course,  a  serious  inroad 
upon  production,  and  the  greater  "promptitude,"  "steadi- 
ness," "life  and  spirit  about  commencing  work,"  reported 
by  the  foremen  of  various  departments*  aided  in  bringing 
about  the  success  of  the  forty-eight-hour  week. 

Eleven  years  after  this  experiment  was  tried,  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  inquired  of  Messrs.  Mather  and  Piatt 
whether  their  works  were  still  upon  an  eight-hour  basis,  and 
received  a  reply  dated  May  24,  1904,  stating  that  "our  ex- 
perience since  the  first  year  in  which  it  (the  eight-hour  system) 
was  tried  has  fully  borne  out  the  conclusions  then  arrived  at, 
and  we  are  fully  satisfied  that  as  regards  the  comparison  be- 
tween eight  and  nine  hours  per  day,  the  balance  of  advantage 
is  in  favor  of  the  shorter  period. "f 

An  interesting  sequel  to  the  success  of  the  forty-eight- 
hour  week  at  the  Salford  Iron  Works  was  Mr.  Mather's  de- 
termination, as  a  matter  of  public  duty,  to  lay  the  results 
before  the  heads  of  various  government  departments.  The 
then  secretary  of  state  for  war,  Mr.  Campbell-Bannerman, 
the  first  lord  of  the  admiralty.  Earl  Spencer,  and  the  post- 
master general,  Mr.  Arnold  Morley,  invited  Mr.  Mather  to 
explain  the  workings  of  the  forty-eight-hour  week  to  the 
chiefs  of  construction  from  the  Woolwich  Arsenal  Works,  and 
to  the  officials  of  the  dockyards  and  the  post  office. 

Subsequently,  in  1894,  the  hours  of  labor  of  about  43,000 
work  people  in  government  factories  and  workshops  were 
reduced  to  an  average  of  forty-eight  hours  in  the  week.J    Of 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  79. 

t  Bulletin  of  the  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor.  No.  25, 
June,  1905,  p.  240. 

I  British  Board  of  Trade  Labor  Gazette,  July,  1905. 

HI 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

these,  18,641  workers  in  war  office  establishments  had  their 
working  time  shortened  by  five  and  three-quarters  hours  per 
week.* 

In  1905,  eleven  years  later,  the  war  office  stated  that 
when  the  forty-eight-hour  week  was  first  introduced,  the 
results  of  experiments  tried  out  in  private  factories  had  led 
them  to  expect  a  saving  in  time  through  the  greater  prompt- 
ness of  men  in  stopping  and  re-starting  work,  a  greater  regu- 
larity of  attendance,  and  an  improvement  in  the  men's 
physical  condition,  with  a  consequent  increase  in  working 
capacity.     The  communication  states  that 

"these  anticipations  have  been  justified  and  it  is  clear  that 
no  extra  cost  has  been  incurred  by  the  public  on  account  of 
the  reduction  of  hours,  nor  has  the  output  of  work  been 
diminished.  On  the  other  hand,  the  majority  of  the  work- 
men being  on  piece-work,  the  average  weekly  earnings  per 
man  have  not  been  sensibly  altered,  although  piece-work 
prices  have  not  been  increased.  The  day-workers  received 
an  increased  hourly  rate  of  pay  to  make  their  earnings  per 
week  of  forty-eight  hours  equal  to  those  per  week  of  fifty-four 
hours.  It  was  not  found  necessary  to  increase  the  number 
of  day-workers." 

So  much  for  the  economic  results  of  the  shorter  week  in 
the  army  establishments.  The  testimony  from  the  admiralty 
is  less  specific  and  definite.  In  1894,  24,263  workers  in  the 
royal  dockyards,  the  royal  naval  ordnance  department,  and 
H.  M.  victualling  yard  had  their  hours  reduced  to  forty-eight 
in  the  week.  In  1905  the  admiralty  stated  that  the  cost  of 
production  at  the  dockyards  where  most  of  the  workers 
affected  by  the  change  were  employed,  compared  favorably 
with  the  cost  previous  to  the  introduction  of  the  forty-eight- 
hour  week.  But  they  were  unable  to  state  to  what  extent 
the  cost  had  been  affected  by  the  reduction  in  hours,  on  ac- 
count of  improvements  in  machinery,  changes  in  the  methods 

*  This  includes  the  Ordnance  Factories,  Ordnance  Store  Dept., 
Inspection  Dept.,  Small  Arms  Inspection  Dept.,  and  Royal  Army  Clothing 
Dept. 

142 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

of  conveying  stores  within  the  dockyards,  increases  of  pay  in 
certain  trades,  and  the  Hke. 

Such,  then,  was  the  result  of  one  specific  inquiry,  frag- 
mentary as  it  is,  at  the  Salford  Works,  into  the  economic 
effects  of  the  shorter  workday.  The  later  fruits  of  the  experi- 
ment in  shortening  the  hours  of  man\'  thousand  workers  in 
government  employ,  give  it  an  importance  beyond  its  own 
narrower  limits. 

The  Salford  Iron  Works  and  the  government  depart- 
ments which  followed  its  lead,  settled  on  the  forty-eight-hour 
week  as  the  most  profitable  working  period.  Here  we  should 
state  that,  in  this  study  of  fatigue,  we  do  not  hold  a  brief  for 
the  eight-hour  day,  or  for  a  day  of  any  specified  number  of 
hours.  Physiologically  considered,  even  the  eight-hour  day 
is  too  long  a  period  of  work  in  some  dangerous  occupa- 
tions. Sir  Thomas  Oliver,  the  leading  expert  on  industrial 
poisoning,  has  recently  reported  that  "  a  change  from  six-  to 
eight-hour  shifts  of  employment  was  in  a  Scotch  factory 
found  to  be  the  only  explanation  of  an  outbreak  of  plumbism 
in  a  works  which  had  hitherto  been  free."*  Moreover,  the 
eight-hour  day,  involving  with  the  noon  hour  and  time  taken 
in  traveling  to  and  from  home  usually  ten  or  eleven  hours' 
employment,  does  not  leave  too  great  a  margin  of  leisure  for 
any  persons  who  are  to  be  citizens  of  value  to  the  state. 

But  for  the  moment  we  are  not  concerned  with  the  claims 
of  this  or  that  specified  number  of  working  hours.  We  aim 
merely  to  answer  the  questions  we  have  set  ourselves  in  this 
chapter:  What  has  physiology  to  do  with  production,  fatigue 
with  output?  Can  we  learn  the  relative  productivity  of  the 
long  and  the  short  day  in  operation — their  market  value? 
The  Salford  Iron  Works  and  the  reduced  hours  of  43,000 
workers  in  English  government  employment  have  given  us 
our  first  reply.  For  the  next,  we  turn  to  a  careful  Belgian 
investigation  of  efficiency. 

*  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  95,  July,  1911. 
Oliver,  Sir  Thomas,  M.D.,  F.  R.  C.  P.:  Industrial  Lead  Poisoning  in 
Europe,  p.  9. 

143 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


5.     THE  EXPERIENCE  OF  THE  ENGIS  CHEMICAL  WORKS  NEAR 
LIEGE,  BELGIUM 

In  the  year  1888  a  joint  stock  company  was  formed  in 
the  Province  of  Liege,  by  a  group  of  Belgian  manufacturers  of 
chemical  products.  The  name  of  the  company  was  La 
Societe  Anonyme  des  Produits  Chimiques  d'Engis.  Its 
objects  were  two-fold:  the  reduction  of  zinc  blend,  and  the 
simultaneous  transformation  of  the  liberated  gases  into  sul- 
phuric acid.  The  company's  plant  was  located  near  a  zinc 
works,  and  was  designed  to  replace  the  latter's  open  air 
furnaces  for  the  reduction  of  the  blend,  by  a  new  system  of 
muifled  ovens.  The  old  means  of  reduction  (known  as 
Freiburg  ovens)  allowed  large  volumes  of  anhydride  of  sulphur 
to  escape,  a  gas  peculiarly  destructive  to  vegetation.  The 
Engis  Company  installed  the  new  system  to  save  the  pay- 
ment of  heavy  damages  to  the  vicinity  and  the  waste  of  the 
gases  liberated  in  the  roasting  process. 

Originally,  under  the  old  system,  work  was  carried  on  in 
twenty-four-hour  shifts.  Workmen  were  required  to  remain 
at  their  ovens  from  6  a.  m.  to  6  a.  m.  on  alternating  days. 
Work  was  intermittent,  and  during  the  twenty-four  hours  on 
duty  each  man  had  time-off  at  irregular  intervals,  amounting 
to  about  seven  hours  in  the  twenty-four.  This  organization 
of  work  was  naturally  found  intolerable,  leading  to  ineificiency, 
exhaustion,  and  drunkenness  among  the  workmen. 

When  the  new  stock  company  was  formed,  a  twelve- 
hour  workday  was  introduced.  Each  week  the  day  shifts 
and  night  shifts  alternated,  thus  providing  a  twenty-four- 
hour  workday  and  a  twenty-four-hour  day  of  rest  on  alternate 
Sundays.  But  this  schedule  of  work  was  also  found  un- 
satisfactory and  inhumane,  and  after  four  years  a  funda- 
mental change  was  determined  upon.  L.  G.  Fromont,  the 
engineer  who  founded  the  Engis  works  and  was  its  manager 
for  more  than  a  dozen  years,  has  described  in  detail  the  final 
reorganization  of  his  labor  force  from  a  two-shift  to  a  three- 


144 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

shift  basis.*  This  meant  the  reduction  of  the  workday  from 
ten  to  eight  hours — a  change  owing  not  to  the  demands  of 
labor,  but  to  M.  Fromont's  observation  of  the  exhaustion 
(surmenage)  of  his  workmen. 

The  special  interest  of  this  account  Hes  in  its  statistical 
exactness  and  detail.  Manifestly,  in  a  dangerous  occupation 
involving  poisonous  gases  and  extremest  heat,  the  danger  to 
health  arises  chiefly  from  the  character  of  the  work.  But  the 
statistics  of  output,  wages,  sick  benefits,  etc.,  under  the 
twelve-hour  and  the  eight-hour  day  show  convincingly  the 
part  played  by  the  reduction  of  hours. 

The  constant  deficits  of  the  sick  benefit  fund  had  become 
alarming.  A  mutual  association  had  been  formed  at  the 
first  foundation  of  the  company.  It  not  only  paid  for  medi- 
cal attendance  and  drugs,  but  also  a  part  of  the  salaries  of 
sick  workmen  during  non-employment.  Accidents  were  not 
charged  to  this  fund,  as  the  company  had  from  the  beginning 
itself  insured  its  workers  against  such  hazards.  But  alarm- 
ing as  were  the  deficits  of  the  sick  benefit  fund,  the  manage- 
ment was  even  more  concerned  by  the  manifest  and  daily  in- 
creasing physical  debility  of  their  workers.  (Nous  fumes 
bien  plus  alarme  encore  de  devoir  constater,  chaque  jour,  la 
decroissance  manifeste  de  la  resistance  et  de  la  vaillance  de 
nos  hommes.)  During  the  heat  of  the  summer  a  permanent 
relief  shift  was  found  necessary,  to  assist  or  relieve  men  over- 
come by  exhaustion  at  the  furnaces  and  incapable  of  con- 
tinuing their  work. 

The  chemical  works  had  had  considerable  difficulty  in 
recruiting  their  force.  They  needed  the  strongest  and  most 
robust  of  workmen.  But  in  that  part  of  Belgium  where  the 
Engis  plant  was  situated,  the  traditional  strong  man's  trade 
was  brickmaking.  It  was  a  trade  bred  in  the  bone  of  the 
countryside.  During  the  inclemency  of  winter,  the  brick- 
makers  would  betake  themselves  to  other  work  in  mines  or 

*  Fromont,  L.  G.:  Une  Experience  Industrielle  de  Reduction  de  la 
Journee  de  Travail.  Instituts  Solvay.  Brussels  et  Leipzig,  Misch  et 
Thron,  1906. 

10  145 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

mills;  but  with  the  first  harbingers  of  spring  (des  que  les 
premieres  hirondelles  ont  faits  leur  apparition)  they  were  seized 
with  a  longing  for  their  own  trade  (la  nostalgie  du  metier) 
and  despite  promises  and  good  intentions,  they  were  off  to 
work  in  the  sun  and  open  air. 

Notwithstanding  their  superior  strength,  therefore,  the 
Engis  Company  was  compelled  to  accept  workers  of  inferior 
physique  but  of  steadier  working  habits  than  the  brickmakers. 
When  after  four  years  their  labor  force  showed  unmistakable 
signs  of  failing  and  breakage,  the  company  considered  the 
feasibility  of  importing  a  sturdier  race  of  foreign  workmen. 
But  unlike  less  scrupulous  employers,  the  suggestion  did 
not  meet  with  favor  amongst  them.  It  seemed  to  the  man- 
agement unjust  to  their  well-intentioned  laborers,  as  well  as 
an  unintelligent  effort  to  dodge  the  difficulty.  The  true  solu- 
tion, M.  Fromont  felt,  lay  in  imitating  the  almost  incredible 
feats  of  science  (des  vertigineux  progres  de  la  science)  which 
have  transformed  into  servants  of  the  human  will  the  most 
formidable  energies  and  forces  of  destruction.  The  com- 
pany's difficulties  could  not  be  solved  by  systematically 
locking  out  the  natural  labor  supply  (le  rejet  systematique 
de  la  main-d'oeuvre  qui  s'offrait  a  nous),  but  by  attempting 
to  modify  the  hardships  of  the  trade  (en  essayant  d'assouplir 
aux  circonstances,  les  exigences  de  notre  Industrie). 

It  was  for  this  purpose  that  the  three-shift  system  was 
introduced  and  the  workday  curtailed  to  eight  hours. 

Professor  Ernest  Mahaim  of  the  University  of  Liege,  a 
prominent  Belgian  economist,  summarizes  the  results  of  the 
changes  as  follows : 

"  In  the  eight-hour  day,  representing  seven  and  one-half 
hours  of  actual  work,  the  same  workman  at  the  same  ovens, 
with  the  same  implements  and  raw  material,  produced  as 
much  as  previously  in  twelve  hours,  representing  ten  hours 
of  actual  work." 

How,  now,  were  these  results  ascertained?  They  are 
described  by  M.  Fromont  with  scientific  accuracy  and  con- 

146 


ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF  REGULATION 

ciseness  in  a  series  of  extremely  interesting  charts  (see 
pages  150-154),  first  communicated  in  1897  to  the  Belgian 
Chemical  Society  and  the  Association  of  Engineers  of  the 
Liege  School.*  The  probable  effect  of  the  reduction  of  hours 
upon  output,  wages,  etc.,  was  first  plotted  in  advance,  and 
then  compared  with  the  actual  effects  of  the  shortened  day. 

The  interest  of  the  experiment,  says  M.  Fromont,  was 
all  the  greater  because  the  results  of  the  change  could  be 
graphically  and  exactly  demonstrated.  The  output  was  of  a 
kind  which  could  be  measured  by  weight,  and  the  same  unit 
of  measurement  showed  the  variation  of  wages,  since  they 
were  fixed  by  the  amount  of  metal  extracted. 

Under  the  old  regime  the  furnaces  were  in  operation 
twenty  hours  in  the  twenty-four  and  empty  four  hours,  while 
under  the  new  they  were  in  operation  twenty-two  and  one- 
half  hours  and  empty  only  one  and  one-half  hours.  A  gain  of 
two  and  one-half  hours'  time  in  twenty-four,  or  10.5  per  cent, 
was  thus  achieved.  In  seven  and  one-half  hours'  work  the 
increase  was  therefore 

—  100      ^0-7875  hours  =  48  minutes. 

What  increase  of  output  per  man  might  now  be  expected 
as  a  result  of  this  gain  in  working  time? 

While  the  work  was  carried  on  in  two  shifts,  the  men 
were  on  the  premises  twelve  hours,  representing  ten  hours  of 
actual  work.  Their  daily  output  per  man  was  1000  kilos  of 
roasted  ore  or  100  kilos  per  hour.  Under  the  new  system, 
the  men  were  on  the  premises  eight  hours,  representing 
seven  and  one-half  hours  of  actual  work.  At  the  old  rate  of 
production  their  output  would  thus  be  750  kilos  per  day. 
But  as  we  have  seen,  the  three-shift  system  had  resulted  in  a 
gain  of  two  and  one-half  hours'  work  in  the  twenty-four  hours. 
Hence  it  was  estimated  that  during  the  twenty-four  hours  a 
proportional  increase  of  output  might  be  expected  of 

2.5X100=250  kilos. 

*  Bulletin  de  I'Association  des  Ing^nieurs  sortis  de  I'EcoIe  de  Liege. 
Seance  du  11  juillet,  1897. 

147 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Dividing  this  total  gain  among  the  shifts  gives 

250 

-j-=83  kilos  increase  for  each  shift. 

Hence  each  shift's  work  was  estimated  at  750  +  83  =  833 
kilos  per  seven  and  one-half  hour  day  of  actual  work,  or 

833 


7.5 


111.1  kilos  per  hour. 


In  another  way  a  similar  estimate  was  reached.  The 
new  three-shift  system  had  resulted  in  increasing  the  shaking- 
down  of  the  furnaces  by  20  per  cent.  In  reducing  the  ore, 
any  increase  of  shaking-down  favors  oxidation  and  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  blend.  Hence  a  proportional  increase  of  20  per 
cent  in  the  extraction  of  metal  was  to  be  expected. 

The  amount  of  extracted  metal  had  under  the  old  system 
been  2,000  kilos  per  day.  The  daily  increase  was  therefore 
estimated  at 

2.000X20       ,rtr.i    I 

— 100— =40<^^''°^- 

Again  dividing  this  estimated  daily  increase  among  the 
three  shifts  gives 

-^  =  134  kilos  per  shift. 

Hence  each  shift  might  be  expected  to  produce  750  +  134  =  884 
kilos  of  roasted  mineral.  Taking  the  round  number  of  890 
kilos,  this  would  give 

^^  =  118  kilos  per  hour. 

From  these  and  similar  calculations  it  was  determined 
that  830  kilos  could  easily  be  reached  as  the  daily  minimum, 
and  that  890  kilos  might  reasonably  be  expected. 

Such  were  the  expectations  and  estimates  of  the  manage- 
ment. The  inauguration  of  the  new  system  was  difficult. 
It  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  workers.  They  saw  in  the 
reduction  of  hours  only  a  certain  curtailment  of  production 
and  lowered  wages.  The  estimated  increases  were  received 
with  scornful  (le  plus  meprisant)  scepticism.  At  their  pre- 
vious wage  of  .40  francs  per  hour,  the  men  were  convinced 

148 


ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF  REGULATION 

that  they  would  receive  only  7.5X40  =  3  francs  per  day. 
The  most  energetic  measures,  together  with  incessant  and 
patient  persuasions,  were  needed  to  overcome  the  workers' 
misconceptions  and  ill-will  (eurent  fmalement  raison  du 
mauvais  vouloir  des  ouvriers).  They  finally  yielded  to  the 
evidence  of  fact.  For  little  by  little,  under  the  new  system, 
the  daily  output  increased  and  the  management's  estimates 
were  not  only  realized,  but  surpassed.  In  less  than  six 
months  after  the  experiment  was  inaugurated,  the  workers 
had  equalled  in  seven  and  one-half  hours  the  previous  output 
of  ten  hours,  and  the  daily  wage  for  eight  hours'  work  equalled 
the  wage  previously  earned  in  ten  hours. 

Charts  I  and  II  (page  150)  show  the  estimated  and  actual 
results  of  the  shortened  workday.  The  dotted  lines  represent 
the  estimates,  the  solid  lines  the  actual  achievements.  Since 
the  output  of  seven  and  one-half  hours  equalled  the  output  of 
ten  hours,  or  1000  kilos,  instead  of  890  kilos  as  expected,  we 
obtain  in  Chart  I  the  curve  R  M,  instead  of  the  estimated 
drop  RN.  The  curve  of  earnings  R'M'  in  Chart  1 1  is  iden- 
tical, wages  being  paid  by  the  amount  of  ore  extracted,  or  at 
4  francs  per  thousand  kilos.  In  both  output  and  earnings  the 
increase  over  estimates  accomplished  in  the  eight-hour  day 
was  12.4  per  cent.* 

Under  the  old  system,  the  alternation  of  day  and  night 
shifts  required  a  double  workday  of  twenty  hours  by  each 
shift  on  alternate  Sundays.  The  output  of  this  double  day 
had  never  equalled  twice  the  output  of  the  ordinary  ten-hour 
day  or  2000  kilos,  but  always  fell  to  1600  kilos. 

Under  the  new  system,  the  long  Sunday  fell  to  the  lot  of 
each  shift  only  once  in  three  weeks  instead  of  every  fortnight, 
and  the  double  day  was  fourteen  and  three-quarters  hours 
instead  of  twenty.  It  was  computed  in  advance  that  the 
workers  would  accomplish  twice  their  daily  output  of  890 

*  Fromont,  op.  cit.,  p.  78. 

As  regards  output  iiQX  lOO  ] 

.  ,  ^.xxinn  f  =  12.4  per  cent. 

As   regards    wages    44xioo 

356       J 

149 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


\ 

s 

~"^: 

\           1         ^ 

\    I 

\  j 

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s         f 

s 

o 

e 

u 


3 

MO 


\ 

\ 

z 

Tx 

\ 

1     ^v. 

\ 

\ 

5 

u 


150 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT    OF    REGULATION 

kilos,  or  1780  kilos,  on  the  long  Sunday,  and  accordingly 
would  earn  7.12  francs.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  increased 
their  output  on  Sunday  just  as  on  other  days,  reaching  2000 
kilos  and  earning  8  francs. 

Hence  in  Charts  111  and  IV  (page  152)  we  obtain  the 
curves  5  P  and  S'  P',  instead  of  the  estimated  curves  5  Q 
and  S'  Q' .  These  curves  show  an  increase  of  25  per  cent,  in 
both  output  and  earnings,  over  the  previous  results  of  the 
twelve-hour  day.* 

The  increase  of  output  and  wages  per  hour,  compared  to 
what  had  been  expected  in  advance,  is  even  more  striking* 
Instead  of  producing  118  kilos  per  hour,  the  men  accomplished 
133  kilos,  giving  the  curve  H  K  and  H'  and  K'  instead  of  H  L 
and  H'  L'  in  the  next  two  charts.  (Charts  V  and  VI,  page 
153.)  These  effects  of  the  eight-hour  day  were  12.7  per  cent 
greater  than  had  been  estimated,  and  33.33  per  cent  greater 
than  the  output  of  the  twelve-hour  day.f 

Another  interesting  chart  shows  the  effect  of  the  short- 
ened workday  upon  the  mutual  sick  benefit  fund.  J  As  we 
have  seen,  accidents  were  not  charged  to  this  account;  the 
number  of  contributors  remained  about  the  same.  Hence 
the  progressive  increase  of  receipts  over  expenditures  seemed 
to  M.  Fromont  proof  of  the  beneficial  and  undeniable  (heur- 
euse  et  incontestable)  influence  of  the  eight-hour  day. 

The  abscissas  of  the  chart  represent  the  years  elapsed 
since  the  foundation  of  the  company.  The  ordinates  repre- 
sent the  annual  excess  of  receipts  over  expenditures.  The 
curve  npqroahcdefghikhn  shows  the  fluctuations  of  receipts 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  78. 

As  regards  output  400  x  IQQ  ] 

1600  =  2'    er        t 

As  regards  wages  160  x  lOO  |  ^ 

640         J 

t  Op.  cit.,  p.  79. 

As  regards  production    33.33  x  lOO  1 

As  regards  wages  133.33X108  [  ==  ^^'^^  P^''  ""^• 

400  J 

t  Op.  cit.,  p.  82.     See  Chart  VII,  page  154. 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


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152 


ECONOMIC   ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 


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153 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

and  expenditures  during  a  series  of  years.  That  is,  the  por- 
tion of  the  curve  below  the  Hne  ox  shows  that  between  1889 
and  1892  expenditures  exceeded  receipts;  the  portion  of  the 
curve  above  ox  shows  that  subsequent  to  the  introduction  of 
the  eight-hour  day  in  1893  the  receipts  tended  to  exceed  ex- 
penditures progressively. 

The  pronounced  drop  in  this  line  in  the  years  1895, 1900, 

y 

fRANCS 


9SM 

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v.-- 

n*' 

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3000 

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7S00 

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r\ 

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looe 

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/ 

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800 

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600 

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400 
300 

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I8B9  IS90  1691     1192  IB9S  ieS4    1899  1896    1897    l»9t    1899   1900  1901    I90Z  1*09   190*  VtAM 

Chart  VII 


and  1902  (represented  by  the  peaks,  c,  h,  and  k)  is  ascribed  by 
M.  Fromont  to  the  epidemics  of  influenza  which  raged  during 
those  winters.  He  concludes  that  without  exaggeration 
(sans  pouvoir  etre  taxe  d'exageration)  the  improvement  in 
health  under  the  eight-hour  system  may  be  called  progressive, 
as  represented  by  the  dotted  line  obMefgNlm. 

154 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

In  addition  to  this  graphic  chart,  M.  Fromont  bears 
eloquent  testimony  to  the  new  spirit  of  sobriety  and  self- 
respect  which  accompanied  the  shortened  workday.  Pre- 
viously the  strong  stimulant  of  drink  was  found  a  daily 
necessity.  The  men's  wives  themselves  provided  it  in  the 
mornings  (les  malheureuses  inconscientes)  hoping  to  help 
their  husbands  to  "repair  themselves,"  in  the  picturesque 
language  of  the  countryside  ("se  refaire  des  forces,"  suivant 
I'expression  pittoresque  des  ouvriers).  With  the  shorter 
workday  the  clandestine  drinking  in  the  factory  was  aban- 
doned, and  even  outside  of  working  hours  drunkenness  al- 
most totally  ceased.  The  men  also  acquired  the  habit  of 
invariably  washing  and  changing  their  clothes  before  leaving 
the  factory — signs  of  a  new  personal  self-respect. 

Finally,  M.  Fromont  describes  in  detail  the  effect  of  the 
reduction  of  hours  upon  the  cost  of  production.  Without 
reproducing  his  detailed  statistics,*  it  suffices  to  state  here 
that  the  overhead  charges  per  ton  of  roasted  ore  fell  33.33 
per  cent.  The  total  cost  of  production  fell  20  per  cent.  Thus 
in  the  new  organization  of  work  technical  perfection  was  not 
sacrificed  nor  neglected.  The  amount  and  quality  of  the 
output  improved  progressively,  together  with  the  moral  and 
physical  improvement  of  the  labor  force. 


6.    THE    EXPERIENCE    OF   THE    ZEISS    OPTICAL    WORKS 
AT    JENA,    GERMANY 

We  have  purposely  left  to  the  last,  for  our  fullest  analy- 
sis, Ernst  Abbe's  classic  study  of  the  famous  Zeiss  Optical 
Works  at  Jena,  Germany.  This  is,  for  our  purposes,  the 
most  significant  and  valuable  study  of  efficiency  ever  pub- 
lished, because  Abbe,  himself  a  physicist,  university  pro- 
fessor, and  inventor  of  first  rank,  and  the  owner  of  a  world- 
famous  manufacturing  plant,  found  himself  driven  to  the 
conclusion  almost  naively  stated  by  Mr,  Mather  when  he 
wrote  about  the  shortened  workday:   "We  seem  to  have 

*  Op.  cit.,  pp.  87-96. 
155 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

been  working  in  harmony  with  a  natural  law,  instead  of 
against  it." 

Abbe's  social  contributions  were  unique.  They  have 
received  scant  notice  in  this  country,  but  abroad  they  are 
famous.  Since  his  death  in  1905,  scarcely  a  serious  review  or 
scientific  journal  in  Germany  has  failed  to  publish  an  appre- 
ciation of  him  (als  Sozial  Politiker) ;  of  his  social  schemes  as 
well  as  his  inventions  in  applied  optics;  and  of  his  creation 
and  endowment  of  the  great  Carl  Zeiss  Foundation  at  Jena, 
a  model  industrial  organization. 

Here  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  Abbe's  remarkable 
study  of  industrial  efficiency,  set  forth  in  two  lectures  before 
the  Society  for  Political  Economy  of  Jena  in  1901.*  Abbe 
died  before  he  had  opportunity  to  complete  the  more  thorough 
(griindlich)  study  of  efficiency  which  he  had  planned.  He 
was  certain  that  no  thinking  person  (kein  Denkender)  could 
fail  to  be  convinced  by  the  relentless  logic  which  links  effi- 
ciency and  the  length  of  the  workday.  In  the  two  lectures 
which  he  has  left  on  the  subject  the  reader  is  constantly  im- 
pressed with  this  logical  treatment  of  the  argument.  It  is 
based  on  no  a  priori  judgments,  but  deduced  step  by  step,  by 
a  trained  scientist,  from  thirty  years'  observations  of  a  great 
industrial  plant. 

Abbe  was  born  in  1840,  the  son  of  a  hard  working  Saxon 
spinner.  At  Jena  and  Gottingen  he  managed  to  study  the 
sciences,  chiefly  mathematics  and  physics.  Later  he  be- 
came docent  at  Jena,  and  in  1870  was  appointed  full  pro- 
fessor. He  continued  to  lecture  on  physics  and  astronomy 
and  to  direct  the  astronomical  observatory  until  his  retire- 
ment in  1889. 

Twenty  years  or  more  before  he  retired  from  the  Uni- 
versity, Abbe  had  become  interested  in,  and  had  devoted  his 
best  efforts  to  problems  of  applied  optics  in  the  works  of 
Carl  Zeiss  at  Jena,  where  the  construction  of  microscopes, 

*  Gesammelte  Abhandlungen  von  Ernst  Abbe,  Bd.  Ill,  1906.  Die 
Volkswirtschaftliche  Bedeutung  der  Verkiirzung  des  Industriellen  Arbeits- 
tages,  2  Vortrage  gehalten  in  der  Staatswissenscfiaftlichen  Gesellschaft  zu 
Jena,  1901. 

156 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

telescopes,  and  other  lenses  was  being  technically  perfected. 
In  1875  Abbe  entered  the  firm  of  C.  Zeiss,  and  after  the 
latter's  death  in  1888  conducted  the  business  alone  until 
1896,  when  he  handed  over  the  management  to  his  carefully 
constituted  Carl  Zeiss  Foundation,  remaining  one  of  the 
directors  until  ill  health  forced  him  to  retire  a  year  or  two 
before  his  death. 

These  bare  facts  of  Abbe's  career  indicate  how  he  was 
equipped  to  deal  with  the — to  him — astonishing  results  in 
the  efficiency  of  his  workmen,  when  the  workday  at  the  Zeiss 
Works  was  abruptly  changed  in  1900  from  nine  to  eight  hours, 
a  reduction  of  10  per  cent  at  one  stroke. 

When  Abbe  entered  the  Zeiss  firm  in  1870,  the  workday 
had  been  twelve  hours  long.  It  was  gradually  reduced,  reach- 
ing nine  hours  in  1891.  Nine  years  later  it  was  further 
shortened  to  eight  hours,  for  the  same  purpose  as  at  the 
Salford  Iron  Works  described  above;  that  is,  to  discover  the 
effect  on  output.  The  trial  at  the  Zeiss  Works  was  also 
limited  to  one  year. 

Abbe  was  familiar  with  the  British  experiments  in  re- 
ducing the  length  of  the  workday,  and  had  been  particularly 
impressed  by  the  experience  of  the  Woolwich  Arsenal  in 
changing  from  nine  to  eight  hours  without  loss  or  decrease 
in  output.  The  general  similarity  and  consensus  of  English 
experience  on  the  benefits  of  the  short  day  to  output,  organ- 
ization, and  invention  seemed  to  Abbe  presumptive  evidence 
of  its  truth.  But  he  realized  that  specific  statistical  proofs  of 
increased  efficiency  under  the  eight-hour  regime  were  still 
needed,  and  he  published  the  careful  records  and  statistics  of 
the  Zeiss  Works  precisely  to  corroborate  more  exactly  the 
general  principles  empirically  learned  in  British  mills  and 
factories. 

The  effects  of  the  change  from  nine  to  eight  hours  were 
measured  by  comparing  the  earnings  of  piece-workers  during 
the  year  before  and  the  year  after  the  change.  In  order  to 
make  the  comparison  as  accurate  as  possible  and  to  eliminate 
chance  variations,  great  care  was  taken  to  omit  all  workers 

157 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

whose  output  might  have  been  affected  by  special  individual 
causes.  The  comparison  was  Hmited  to  workers  who  had 
been  in  the  firm's  employ  four  years,  and  who  were  over 
twenty-two  years  old.  All  workers  were  ruled  out  who  had 
lost  more  than  300  hours  during  the  year  on  account  of  sick- 
ness or  other  reasons.  About  20  others  were  not  counted 
because  their  health  seemed  below  par.  This  left  233  work- 
men whose  work  during  the  trial  year  could  fairly  be  com- 
pared with  the  year  before  and  could  be  expected  to  show  the 
effect  of  the  reduction  of  hours.  Thanks  to  the  careful 
system  of  accounting,  showing  for  years  back  the  daily  indi- 
vidual earnings  of  men  at  piece-  and  time-work,  the  follow- 
ing figures  were  available.* 


COMPARISON    OF    HOURLY    EARNINGS    OF    233    PIECE-WORKERS 
IN    THE    ZEISS    OPTICAL   WORKS. 

In  the  last  year  of  the  Nine-Hour  System  (April  1,  1899-ApriI  1, 
1900)  and  in  the  first  year  of  the  Eight-hour  System  (April  1, 
1900-April  1,  1901) 


year 

Total  number  Piece- 
work Hours 

Earnings 
{in  Marks) 

Earnings  per 
Hr.  {in  Pf) 

Ratio  of 
Increase 

1899-1900 
1900-1901 

559.169 
Average  per  man  2400 

509,599 
Average  per  man  2187 

345,899 
366,484 

61.9 
71.9 

100: 116.2 

Now  if  the  men,  in  eight  hours,  had  earned  exactly  the 
same  as  in  nine  hours,  piece  prices  remaining  the  same,  then 
hourly  earnings  would  have  had  to  increase  in  the  ratio  of 
8  :  9  or  100  :  112.5.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  hourly 
earnings  increased  in  the  ratio  of  100  :  116.2.  During  the 
trial  year,  therefore,  wages  were  more  than  equal  to  those  of 
the  previous  year.  There  was  an  increase,  as  shown  above, 
of  3  per  cent.     This  means  that  in  eight  hours  the  daily  out- 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  246. 
158 


ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF  REGULATION 

put  was  one-thirtieth  more  than  in  nine  hours.  In  other 
words,  during  the  trial  year  30  men  did  the  work  that  31  men 
had  done  previously.  Each  man  did  ten  days'  more  work 
during  the  year  of  shorter  hours. 

This  increase  in  efficiency  was  not  confined  to  any  one 
class  of  workers,  nor  was  it  particularly  influenced  by  the 
ages  of  the  workers.  The  following  table  shows  the  ages  of 
the  233  workers  under  discussion,  and  how  nearly  uniform 
was  their  increase  in  efficiency  in  the  shorter  day. 

INCREASE  IN  EFFICIENCY  UNDER  THE  EIGHT-HOUR  DAY  OF  233 

PIECE-WORKERS  AT  THE  ZEISS  OPTICAL  WORKS. — 

CLASSIFIED    BY    AGES 

(Ages  were  reckoned  from  April  1,  1900.  Length  of  service  rec- 
koned according  to  years  spent  in  the  firm's  employ  after  the 
eighteenth  birthday) 


Ages 

No.  of 

fVork- 

men 

Average 
Ages 

Average 
Length 
Service 

Average  Piece- 
Rate  Earnings 
per  Hour  in  Pf. 

Ratio  of 

9Hr. 
Day 

8Hr. 
Day 

22-25  

25-30  

30-35  

35^0 

Over  40. . . . 

34 
69 
69 
40 
21 

23.5 
27.3 
32.2 
37.7 
45.3 

5.5 

7.9 

10.1 

12.7 

15.3 

55.3 
62.2 
65.1 
60.6 
63.3 

65.2 
72.6 
74.8 
70.2 
74.3 

100 
100 
100 
100 
100 

117.9 
116.7 
114.9 
115.8 
117.4 

Total .... 

233 

31.6* 

9.6t 

61.9 

71.9 

100  :  116.2 

Maximum  53,  minimum  22  years.  f  Maximum  ?>d>,  minimum  4  years. 


A  second  classification  divides  the  233  workers  in  ques- 
tion according  to  their  special  kinds  of  work.  It  shows  that 
the  eflficiency  of  all  increased  in  about  the  same  proportion, 
though  the  work  ranged  from  the  most  delicate  and  highly 
skilled  technical  processes  to  the  ordinary  operations  of  wood- 
turning,  polishing,  etc. 

159 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

INCREASE  IN  EFFICIENCY  OF  THE  233  WORKERS. — CLASSIFIED 
BY    OCCUPATION 


Occupation 


Optical  Operations: 

1.  Lense-setters:  Fine  hand 

work 

2.  Microscope  grinders,  etc. 

3.  Other  hand  grinders  and 

centerers,        entirely 
hand  work 

4.  Machine    grinders,    en- 

tirely machine  work  . 
Mechanical    and    Auxiliary 
IVork: 

5.  Adjusting     rooms,     en- 

tirely hand  work.  .  .  . 

6.  Mounting  rooms,  chiefly 

hand  work 

7.  Turning  and  milling,  en- 

tirely machine  work. 

8.  Polishers    and    lacquer- 

ers,     entirely     hand 

work 

*9.  Engraving,    entirely 
hand  work 

10.  Molders,  entirely  hand 

work 

11.  Carpenters,  part    hand, 

part  machine 

12.  Case     makers,     chiefly 

hand  work 


s 

2 

2-g 

Earnings 

PER  Hour 

IN  Pf. 

9Hr. 
Day 

8Hr. 
Day 

21 
20 

31.1 
33.2 

12.7 
13.8 

72.8 
79.1 

84.9 
86.5 

59 

26.1 

7.5 

60.4 

70.5 

19 

32.1 

5.8 

52.2 

62.0 

22 

31.7 

8.2 

65.5 

76.7 

20 

36.9 

11.6 

66.6 

78.5 

23 

35.2 

11.1 

57.6 

68.0 

17 

34.7 

11.2 

53.8 

63.3 

5 

27.2 

6.8 

56.1 

66.9 

6 

36.2 

9.7 

56.4 

64.8 

15 

35.2 

10.5 

52.3 

62.9 

6 

30.4 

6.4 

55.7 

62.8 

233 

31.6 

9.6 

61.9 

71.9 

Ratio  of 
Increase 


100  :  116.6 
100  :  109.4 


100  :  116.7 
100  :  118.8 


100 
100 
100 

100 
100 
100 
100 
100 


117.1 
117.9 
118.1 

117.7 
119.3 
114.9 
120.3 
112.7 


100  :  116.2 


The  most  interesting  fact  that  emerges  from  this  table 
is  that  the  largest  increase  in  efficiency  occurred  in  the  coarser 
kinds  of  work.  Groups  4,  7,  and  11,  which  comprise  almost 
entirely  machine  workers,  showed  the  greatest  improvement. 
Only  one  small  group  of  20  workers,  highly  skilled  hand  grind- 

i6o 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

ers,  did  not  produce  or  earn  as  much  in  eight  hours  as  in 
nine.    They  failed  by  3  per  cent. 

One  more  table  of  figures,  and  we  can  turn  to  the  argu- 
ment which  Abbe  based  upon  his  statistics.  He  sought  for 
corroboration  of  the  astonishing  fact  that  eight  hours'  work 
not  only  equalled  but  exceeded  nine  hours'  work,  and  he 
found  it  in  a  perfectly  objective  standard  of  measurement; 
that  is,  the  amount  of  power  used  during  the  four  weeks  be- 
fore and  four  weeks  after  the  introduction  of  the  eight-hour 
day. 

The  650  different  machines  in  the  Zeiss  Works  were 
driven  by  one  central  dynamo  (not  connected  with  the  light- 
ing). The  amount  of  power  used  was  determined  by  hourly 
readings  of  a  wattmeter.  In  regard  to  the  expenditure  of 
power.  Abbe  makes  a  distinction  between  the  actual  amount 
used,  when  it  is  transmitted  and  the  machines  are  in  operation 
(der  eigentliche  Nutzeffect),  and  the  so-called  "waste"  of 
power,  when  the  plant  is  "running  dead,"  as  it  is  called;  that 
is,  when  power  is  turned  on  and  available  but  the  machines 
are  not  in  use, — as  just  before  work  begins,  etc.  (der  so- 
genannte  Leergang). 

The  wattmeter  readings  showed  that  during  the  last 
four  weeks  of  the  nine-hour  system,  the  average  amount  of 
power  transmitted  per  hour  was  49.2  kilowatts.  By  a  special 
contrivance  it  was  shown  that  during  this  time,  the  hourly 
"waste  of  power"  (the  plant  "running  dead")  was  about 
half  the  total  use,  that  is,  26  k.  w.  Thus  the  actual  amount 
of  power  used  averaged  23.2  k.  w.  per  hour.  After  the 
eight-hour  day  was  introduced  the  amount  of  power  trans- 
mitted rose  from  49.2  k.  w.  to  52  k.  w.  per  hour.  The 
actual  amount  used  rose  from  23.2  k.  w.  to  26.0  k.  w.  per 
hour;  that  is,  in  the  ratio  of  100  :  112.  This  shows  that 
eight  hours'  work  just  equalled  the  previous  nine  hours'  work, 
since,  as  we  have  seen  before,  for  our  mathematical  basis, 
8  :  9  =  110  :  112.5. 

But  in  effect,  in  many  of  the  operations,  the  output  not 
only  equalled  but  exceeded  that  of  the  previous  nine-hour 
II  i6i 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

regime;  and  the  wattmeter  readings  proved  this  also.  For 
the  majority  of  the  machines  in  the  works  (three-fourths  of 
them)  were  not  wholly  automatic.  They  were  machines 
which  the  workers  used  like  tools,  using  more  or  less  power 
according  to  their  intensity  of  application,  by  shortening 
pauses  between  operations,  pressing  more  or  less  heavily  in 
grinding  and  polishing,  and  in  similar  ways. 

Hence  the  increased  amount  of  power  used  in  the  eight- 
hour  day,  as  shown  by  the  hourly  readings,  was  to  be  ascribed 
not  to  all  the  machines,  but  to  three-quarters  of  the  machines 
only.  The  ratio  of  increase  for  these,  where  the  men  regu- 
lated the  amount  of  power  used,  was  larger  than  the  given 
figure  of  100  :  112  which  included  all  the  machines.  For 
three-quarters  of  the  machines,  the  ratio  of  increase  was 
higher;  that  is,  as  100  :  116.  In  other  words,  they  exceeded 
in  eight  hours  by  3  per  cent  the  output  of  the  nine-hour  day, 
confirming  the  conclusion  previously  proved  by  the  earnings 
of  the  piece-workers. 

Such  being  the  evidence  of  cold  statistics,  the  man  of 
science  in  Abbe  began  to  search  for  the  causes.  He  examined 
the  external  conditions  of  work  during  the  trial  year  and  the 
year  before.  They  had  not  markedly  varied.  The  demand 
for  Zeiss  products  and  the  consequent  pressure  at  the  works 
had  been  the  same.  There  had  been  no  extremes  of  heat  or 
cold  in  the  seasons,  which,  as  he  found,  sometimes  affect  the 
output  of  highly  skilled  mechanics.  In  fact,  the  workers  had 
for  the  most  part  been  unconscious  of  their  increased  in- 
tensity of  work.  Many  would  not  believe  that  they  had 
produced  more  in  eight  hours  than  in  nine  until  shown  the 
proof.  The  figures  showing  the  weekly  amount  of  power 
used  confirmed  what  Abbe  learned  direct  from  the  men. 
Some  had  begun  to  work  with  feverish  intensity  when  the 
new  day  was  introduced,  but  had  given  it  up  in  disgust  after 
the  first  week,  finding  the  effort  exhausting.  During  the 
second  week  the  output  of  these  workers  had  consequently 
fallen  below  the  nine-hour  day;  but  by  the  third  or  fourth 
week  they  had  recovered  their  normal  pace,  and  unknown  to 

162 


ECONOMIC   ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

themselves,  were  equalling  and  surpassing  the  work  of  the 
longer  day. 

Abbe  concluded  that  the  adaptation  of  the  worker  to 
the  shorter  day,  his  intensity  of  application,  was  largely 
automatic,  and  did  not  depend  primarily  on  his  good  or  ill 
will.  This  was  proved  also  by  the  firm's  previous  experience 
with  overtime.  Under  the  nine-hour  regime,  the  men  had 
been  required  to  work  one  hour  overtime  at  seasons  of  pres- 
sure. But  it  had  been  found  that  their  efficiency  did  not  keep 
up  for  any  length  of  time.  It  fell  off  in  about  two  weeks,  in 
spite  of  the  men's  evident  desire  to  earn  the  25  per  cent  higher 
wages  of  overtime.  One  November  Abbe  himself  had  tried 
the  experiment,  when  the  men  were  eager  to  earn  more  just 
before  Christmas.  But  the  result  was  the  same.  The  out- 
put of  overtime  deteriorated  in  one  week,  and  by  the  third 
or  fourth  week  it  was  practically  nil. 

Deeper  than  good  or  ill  will,  then,  must  lie  the  causes  for 
men's  variation  of  efficiency  in  the  long  and  the  short  day. 
Some  common  factors  must  explain  it,  common  to  men  as 
widely  diverse  in  capacities  and  nationalities  as  the  machine- 
shop  workers  and  miners  of  Northumberland  and  Durham 
and  the  Thuringian  lense  grinders  and  mechanics. 

These  common  factors  Abbe  found  in  precisely  the  two 
causes  to  which  we  have  devoted  so  much  attention:  the 
laws  governing  man's  physiologic  nature,  and  the  new  strain 
of  industry. 

We  need  not  repeat  here  Abbe's  admirable  physiological 
analysis.  He  showed  how  the  vague  subjective  conception  of 
fatigue  and  repair  rests  upon  objective  measurable  metabolic 
changes  within  the  human  body;  and  he  concluded  that  the 
workman  whose  daily  deficits,  however  small,  are  allowed  to 
stand  from  day  to  day,  cannot  in  the  end  escape  bankruptcy. 

Some  of  Abbe's  keenest  remarks  deal  with  the  simplest 
facts — ^facts  so  simple  that  everyone  has  always  known  them, 
and  has  lost  sight  of  their  significance  through  very  famil- 
iarity. But  the  keen  mind  can  still  pluck  out  the  inner  sig- 
nificance of  words  and  facts  that  have  become  mere  "  polished 

163 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

surfaces"  of  commonplace  for  the  rest  of  us.  Thus  Abbe 
showed  how,  owing  to  the  minute  sub-division  of  modern 
labor,  the  workman  incurs  a  certain  amount  of  perfectly 
passive  fatigue,  irrespective  of  his  actual  production.  The 
modern  worker  performs  only  one  repeated  operation  or  the 
fragment  of  an  operation  in  the  construction  of  a  whole.  Hq 
sits  or  stands  hour  after  hour  in  exactly  the  same  unchanged 
attitudes,  unvaryingly  subjected  to  the  same  noise,  and  the 
same  need  of  attention  (to  guard  himself  and  others)  when 
he  works  with  moving  machinery.  These  things  would  be 
extremely  fatiguing,  even  if  no  work  were  to  be  performed, 
and  in  the  ten-hour  day  the  workman  has  to  endure  daily 
two  hours'more  of  such  purely  passive  fatigue,  without  there- 
by accomplishing  any  more  work  than  in  the  eight-hour  day. 
It  is  as  unreasonable,  says  Abbe,  as  though  the  employer 
said  to  his  workmen:  "You  may  finish  your  work  in  eight 
hours,  but  then  you  must  remain  two  hours  longer,  standing 
or  sitting,  in  the  same  limited  attitudes,  hearing  the  same 
roar,  exerting  the  same  effort  of  attention,  but  doing  no 
work." 

Moreover,  since  the  metabolic  equilibrium  is  regained 
only  by  rest  and  recuperation,  the  length  of  working  hours 
is  of  critical  importance.  The  rate  of  recuperation  depends 
clearly  upon  many  variables — age,  state  of  health,  state  of 
mind,  food,  and  the  like.  But  the  short  day  gives,  at  least, 
the  best  chances  of  repair  to  those  parts  of  the  organism 
most  exerted  in  work,  and  while  after  ten  hours'  work  there 
are  but  fourteen  left  for  all  the  other  purposes  of  life,  after 
eight  hours'  work  there  are  sixteen  left. 

Finally,  as  to  the  greater  intensity  of  work  in  the  short- 
ened day.  Abbe  explained  it  also  in  physiological  terms. 
Good  will  or  ill  will  does  not,  in  the  end,  affect  the  matter. 
Within  certain  limits  the  workman  adapts  himself  auto- 
matically to  the  shortened  day  by  increasing  his  speed  and 
his  effort,  without  noticeably  increasing  his  exertions,  just  as 
one  can  walk  a  mile  somewhat  faster  or  somewhat  slower 
without  appreciable  difference.     The  short  workday  makes 

164 


ECONOiMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

this  closer  application  possible  without  injury  to  the  organism, 
by  allowing  the  worker  more  time  off  for  tissue  repair  between 
working  days,  and  by  eliminating  so  much  of  the  "passive 
fatigue"  which  we  have  discussed  above.  Every  one  has  a 
maximum  or  optimum  of  production,  when  he  accomplishes 
most  in  the  shortest  time,  and  the  reduction  of  hours  is 
followed  by  increased  efficiency  up  to  the  point  where  the 
greater  speed  and  intensity,  automatically  acquired,  over- 
passes physiological  limits.  When  the  worker's  natural 
adaptation  to  the  shorter  day  is  not  sufficient,  so  that  pressure 
and  effort  must  spur  him  to  accomplish  too  large  a  task  in 
too  short  a  time,  the  benefits  of  reduced  hours  are  lost.  For 
the  excessive  intensity  of  effort  costs  the  worker  more  than 
is  repaired  by  the  longer  space  of  time  allowed  off  for  recup- 
eration. 

Just  where  each  man's  maximum  lies,  when  he  can  ac- 
complish most  in  the  shortest  time  without  injury  to  himself, 
Abbe  thought  essentially  a  matter  of  special  investigation. 
But  he  concluded,  from  his  own  extended  observations  and 
from  the  experience  of  others  in  Germany  and  England,  that 
for  about  three-fourths  of  the  industrial  workers  of  Germany 
nine  hours  was  too  long  a  day  in  which  to  reach  their  maxi- 
mum and  eight  hours  not  too  short  to  reach  it.  He  therefore 
recommended  a  program  still  commonly  held  radical — the 
gradual  reduction  of  the  workday  not  to  nine  but  to  eight 
hours  for  German  industries,  in  the  interests  of  economic 
development  and  of  greater  national  efficiency. 

Abbe  made  this  recommendation  before  the  era  of 
Germany's  greatest  industrial  successes,  before  the  Germans 
had,  as  an  expert  on  industrial  efficiency  writes,*  "advanced 
their  industrial  condition,  which  twenty  years  ago  was  a  jest, 
to  the  first  place  in  Europe  if  not  in  the  world"  by  realizing 
"  the  supreme  importance  of  efficiency  as  an  economic  factor." 
But  ten  years  ago  Abbe  had  a  keen  eye  for  Germany's  then 
growing  rivalry  with  British  industries,  and  he  foresaw  that 

*Gantt,  H.  L.:  Work,  Wages  and  Profits,  page  179.  Published  by 
The  Engineering  Magaiine,  New  York,  1910. 

165 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  secret  of  ultimate  success  lay  in  the  development  of 
greater  national  efficiency.  Germany's  most  valuable  cap- 
ital seemed  to  him  the  intelligence  and  initiative  of  her  work- 
ing people,  a  buried  treasure.  And  he  urged  the  develop- 
ment of  that  capital, — the  enfranchisement  of  the  capacities 
of  the  nation, — by  all  the  resources  of  science  and  education. 
He  felt  certain  that  a  wiser  organization  of  industry  should 
allow  the  workers  a  wider  margin  of  leisure  and  time  for 
development  away  from  the  inevitably  deadening  monotony 
of  minutely  sub-divided  labor. 

Germany  had  been  spared,  he  said,  the  worst  conse- 
quences of  unregulated  industrial  expansion.  The  ten-hour 
agitation  in  England,  preceding  and  following  the  bill  of 
1847,  which  fixed  a  normal  day  for  women  and  children  in 
textile  mills  and  thereby  reduced  the  hours  of  men  in  the 
same  mills,  kindled  a  light  which  had  illuminated  all  Europe 
(der  Widerschein  des  Lichtes — in  England — hat  ganz  Europa 
erleuchtet).  Abbe  himself  had  seen  the  reflection  of  that 
light  in  the  early  50's.  For  as  a  young  child,  he  had  seen  his 
father,  an  old  man  at  thirty-eight,  working  sixteen  hours  a 
day  in  a  Thuringian  spinning  mill.  The  British  Ten  Hours 
Bill  first  greeted  by  employers  as  the  death  knell  of  industry, 
and  as  the  signal  for  British  capital  to  migrate  to  other  lands 
(a  fable  how  often  resurrected  since  that  date!)  soon  showed 
its  true  results.  German  mills,  including  the  one  in  which 
Abbe's  father  worked,  soon  followed  the  English  precedent 
and  gradually  reduced  their  hours  from  sixteen  to  eleven  per 
day. 

Thus  Abbe  knew  of  his  own  experience  what  the  short- 
ened day  meant  to  the  laborer  and  his  family.  He  always 
looked  upon  industrial  problems  as  a  son  of  the  people,  as 
well  as  an  owner  and  capitalist  (mit  dem  Auge  des  Arbeit- 
sohnes,  dem  nicht  unter  der  Hand  Unternehmer — und  Kap- 
italistenaugen  wachsen  wollten).*  And  his  many-sided 
experience  crystallized  into  a  belief  that  to  develop  Germany's 
flesh  and  blood  capital,  one  of  the  most  important  needs  was 
*  Abbe,  op.  cit.,  p.  4. 

1 66 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT    OF    REGULATION 

to  compress  work  into  as  few  hours  as  possible  without  over- 
strain or  impaired  efficiency,  so  as  to  widen  the  ranges  of 
leisure  and  development. 


7.     THE  TREND  TOWARD  SHORTER  HOURS  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES 

We  have  concentrated  our  attention  upon  these  three 
examples  of  reduced  hours — English,  Belgian  and  German — 
because  they  are  specific  and  are  to  some  degree  substantiated 
by  detailed  statistics.  A  host  of  other  less  specific  examples 
might  be  cited  from  a  wide  range  of  industries  in  which 
working  hours  have  been  successfully  shortened  without 
financial  disaster.  The  testimony  of  employers  and  manu- 
facturers, showing  how  efficiency  has  risen  and  output  flour- 
ished when  the  workday  has  been  reduced  to  nine  and  even 
to  eight  hours,  may  be  found  detailed  in  various  volumes  de- 
voted to  this  topic*  These  include  industries  employing 
men  alone,  and  industries  employing  women  alone,  and  those 
which  employ  both  sexes;  industries  mechanical,  textile,  and 
chemical;  trades  as  diverse  as  mining  and  the  manufacture 
of  jams;  shoe  making  and  ship  building;  hardware,  glass, 
bottle  making  and  cigar  making;  printing  and  the  structural 
trades. 

We  do  not  here  refer  at  length  to  Australasia's  half 
century  of  success  with  the  short  workday.  In  1856  the 
eight-hour  day  was  introduced  in  the  Australian  building 
trades  by  trade  union  agreements.  Since  that  time  the 
movement  has  widened  and  steadily  grown,  until  now  it  em- 
braces practically  all  but  the  manual  workers  in  clothing  and 
other  domestic  industries.  But  a  small  and  distant  colony 
is,  as  regards  trade  and  commerce,  in  too  isolated  a  position 
to  be  of  much  practical  concern  in  our  discussion.     The  Aus- 

*  Some  of  the  best  popular  books  on  this  subject  are:  Webb,  Sidney, 
and  Cox,  H.:  The  Eight  Hours  Day.  London,  W.  Scott,  1891.  Hadfield 
and  Gibbons:  A  Shorter  Working  Day.  London,  Methuen  and  Co.,  1892. 
Rae,  John:  Eight  Hours  for  Work.  London,  Macmillan  and  Co.,  1894. 
Weber,  Adna  T.:  The  Eight  Hours  Movement.  In  Report  of  the  New 
York  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  1900. 

167 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

tralian  industries  which  affect  the  world  market  are  chiefly 
agricultural  and  stock  raising.  Hence  the  Australian  eight- 
hour  day  has  had  little  significance  in  world  competition. 
The  experience  of  Australasia  in  maintaining  a  workday 
shorter  than  the  rest  of  the  world  is  in  itself  a  chapter  of  deep 
interest,  but  we  cannot  generalize  from  these  facts  as  we  can 
from  facts  and  figures  of  a  society  more  nearly  akin  to  our  own. 

We  are,  indeed,  so  largely  thrown  back  upon  facts  and 
figures  from  other  countries  because  our  own  are  the  most 
meager  and  least  satisfactory  of  any  industrial  nation.  No 
American  studies  of  output  have  been  published  which  can 
compare  with  the  three  which  we  have  analyzed  above.* 

The  chief  confirmation  which  our  country  affords  of  the 
point  we  have  been  examining  in  detail, — the  effect  upon  out- 
put of  the  shortened  workday, — is  the  actual  movement  of 
industry  in  the  direction  of  shorter  hours,  a  movement  not 
merely  in  posse,  but  for  some  time  past  in  esse,  existent. 

We  have  already  pointed  out  that  during  the  past  thirty- 
six  years  there  has  been  a  continuous,  although  very  slow, 
movement  towards  shorter  working  hours  for  women,  se- 
cured through  legislation  in  their  behalf.  There  has  been 
also  a  slow  but  certain  march  towards  shorter  hours  in  men's 
employments,  especially  where  strong  organizations  of  work- 
ing men  deal  collectively  with  their  employers  through  trade 
agreements.  But  here  we  face  an  extraordinary  paradox! 
For  while  working  men  are  bargaining  for  and  obtaining  the 
eight-hour  day  in  many  of  the  great  trades  throughout  the 
country,  women  and  the  laws  in  their  behalf  limp  in  the  rear, 
still  for  the  most  part  aiming  at  a  ten-hour  working  day. 
Eight  hours  for  men,  ten  hours  for  women  and  girls, — an 
ironic  commentary  on  the  cast  of  our  society. 

*  For  an  interesting  reference  to  a  successful  American  experiment 
in  reducing  the  workday  see  The  Steel  Workers  by  John  A.  Fitch,  p.  180. 
(The  Pittsburgh  Survey.  Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication.  New  York, 
Charities  Publication  Committee,  1911.)  In  1904,  the  Sharon  Steel  Hoop 
Co.,  at  Sharon,  Pa.,  reduced  the  hours  of  about  150  men  engaged  in  the 
finishing  mills  from  ten  to  eight  hours.  The  tonnage  turned  out  is  said  to 
have  remained  the  same,  and  the  general  opinion  in  Sharon  was  in  all  ways 
favorable  to  the  shorter  day. 

1 68 


ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF  REGULATION 

In  this  instance  the  discrimination  against  women  is 
particularly  paradoxical,  because  for  many  years  the  only 
effective  reduction  of  men's  hours  of  work  came  through  the 
laws  reducing  women's  hours.  Men  who  worked  in  textile 
mills  with  women,  shared  all  the  benefits  of  the  long  ten- 
hour  agitation  in  England  and  America.  They  were  and 
are  automatically  dismissed  with  the  women  at  the  close  of 
the  ten-hour  day.  This  automatic  though  tacit  inclusion  of 
the  men  has  been  recognized  since  the  beginnings  of  leg- 
islation, and  at  various  times  the  laws  for  women  were 
most  hotly  opposed  by  those  who  resented  that  workingmen 
were  obtaining  indirectly,  "skulking  behind  the  petticoats," 
a  protection  which  they  could  not  secure  openly  for  them- 
selves.* 

Yet  in  the  great  trades  which  during  the  past  twenty- 
five  years  have  reduced  the  workday  to  nine  or  to  eight 
hours, — such  as  the  cigar  makers,  the  carpenters  and  builders, 
the  printers,  granite  cutters  and  brewers, — few  if  any  women 
share  the  benefit. 

If  the  short  day  were  the  enemy  of  production,  as  its 
opponents  assert,  and  actually  led  to  a  lowered  output  in  the 
long  run,  the  progress  towards  an  eight-hour  day  in  the  great 
men's  trades  would  long  since  have  broken  down.  No  trade 
could  persist  and  grow  which  was  permanently  carried  on  at 
a  loss.  The  trend  towards  the  shortened  workday  has  been 
retarded  by  the  mistakes  of  trade  unions  as  well  as  by  the 
greed  of  employers;  but  it  is  a  fact  and  proceeds  today  only 
because,  whether  recognized  or  not,  it  is  in  harmony  with  the 
elemental  facts  which  have  emerged  from  our  study;  because 
economic  efficiency  rises  and  falls  with  the  worker's  physical 
efficiency,  and  whatever  contributes  to  the  latter  tends  to 
raise  the  former. 

The  United  States  Industrial  Commission  appointed  by 

Congress  in  1898,  which  sat  for  almost  four  years  hearing 

evidence  from  700  witnesses  on  capital,  labor,  agriculture, 

and  immigration,  devoted  considerable  attention  in  its  final 

*  Webb,  Sidney,  and  Cox,  H.:  The  Eight  Hours  Day,  p.  20. 

169 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

report*  to  the  economic  effects  of  reducing  the  workday. 
It  is  certain,  says  the  report,  that  any  program  for  reducing 
the  intensity  of  exertion  must  fail. 

"The  entire  tendency  of  industry  is  in  the  direction  of 
an  increased  exertion.  .  .  .  This  being  true,  there  is  but 
one  alternative  if  the  working  population  is  to  be  protected 
in  its  health  and  trade  longevity,  namely,  a  reduction  of  the 
hours  of  labor." 

The  commission  found  that: 

"  In  all  cases  where  reductions  have  been  brought  about 
there  have  been  strenuous  objections  and  alarming  predic- 
tions, but  after  a  very  brief  period  of  trial  these  objections 
have  disappeared,  except  where  lack  of  uniformity  remains  a 
ground  of  complaint;  and  employer  and  employe,  with  this 
exception,  alike  have  agreed  upon  the  advantages  of  the 
change."  f 

The  best  example  of  the  effects  of  shorter  hours  on 
output  deals  with  bituminous  coal  mining.  A  table  was 
compiled  from  the  report  of  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey  and  from  the  Illinois  Commissioners  of  Labor  show- 
ing the  production  of  bituminous  coal  for  the  six  years  1895 
to  1900. 

The  eight-hour  day  was  introduced  in  the  bituminous 
fields  during  the  latter  three  months  of  1897.  From  this 
table  we  see  that,  during  the  two  years  1895  and  1896  under 
the  ten-hour  system,  the  average  output  for  the  country  at 
large  for  each  working  man  per  day  was  2.9  and  2.72  tons; 
while  in  1897,  during  the  latter  three  months  of  which  the 
eight-hour  day  prevailed,  the  average  output  per  man  rose 
to  3.03  tons  per  day,  and  during  1898,  1899,  and  1900  (three 
years  of  the  eight-hour  day,  in  the  majority  of  the  coal  mines) 
the  average  output  ranged  from  2.98  to  3.09  tons.  Each 
year  of  the  eight-hour  day  shows  for  the  country  as  a  whole 
a  larger  output  per  day  for  each  workman  than  the  highest 
output  of  the  ten-hour  day. 

*  Final  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  1902.    Vol.  XIX,  p.  764, 
t  Ibid.,  p.  774. 

170 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGUL.\TION 
PRODUCTION    OF    BITUMINOUS    COAL    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES, 

1895-1900* 


Year 


Output, 
Short  tons 


Aver- 
age 
days 
active 


Average 

number 

employed 


Total  days 
worked 


Average 

output  Per  cent 
per  day,    mined  by 

Short  ';  machines 
tons     I 


1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 


1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 


1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 


Country  at  Large 
118,820,405  !  171      |     244,603     |  41,827,113   I     2.84 


135,118,193 
137,640,276 
147,609,985 
166,592,023 
193,321,987 
212,513,912 


194 
192 
196 
211 
234 
234 


11,909,856 

136   1 

13,355,806 

176  i 

12,875,202 

161 

12,196,942 

148 

14,516,867 

169 

16,500,270 

200 

18,988,150 

215   i 

39,912,463 
50,217,228 
49,557,453 
54,417,974 
65,165,133 
74,150,175 
79,842,326 


165 
206 
206 
205 
229 
245 
242 


239,962 

244,171 
247,817 
255,717 
271,027 
304,975 

Ohio 
27,105  j 

24,644  I 

25,500 

26,410 

26,986 

26,038 

27,628  ! 

Pennsylvania 
75,010 
71,130 
72,625 
77,272 
79,611 
82,812 
92,692  I 


46,232,628 
46,808,832 
48,572,132 
53,956,287 
63,420,318 
71,364,150 


2.90 
2.72 
3.03 
3.09 
3.05 
2.98 


3,686,280 

3.24  ! 

4,337,344 

3.08 

4,105,500 

3.13 

3,908,680 

3.12 

4,560,634 

3.18 

5,207,600 

3.17 

5,940,020 

3.19 

12,376,650 

3.22 

14,652,780 

3.43 

14,960,750 

3.31 

15,840,760 

3.44 

18,230,919 

3.57 

20,288,940 

2.66 

22,431,464 

3.56 

19.17 
16.19 
20.39 
23.00 
25.15 


26.16 
31.51 
35.76 
41.35 

46.53 


12.29 
16.40 

25.34 
29.67 
33.65 


Illinois 

1894 

16,429,032 

183.1 

35,398 

6,481,527 

2.53 

.. 

1895 

17,026,429 

182.2 

35,539 

6,475,315 

2.63 

1896 

18,995,160 

186.0 

34,069 

6,336,915 

3.00 

19.57 

1897 

19,365,847 

185.5 

31,084 

5,766,260 

3.36 

19.66 

1898 

17,885,327 

174.7 

32,223 

5,629,518 

3.17 

18.36 

1899 

22,497,067 

205.7 

34,031 

7,000,324 

3.21 

24.90 

1900 

24,147,771 

214.0 

36,233 

7,753,921 

3.11 

19.73 

The  table  also  shows  the  increase  in  the  use  of  machinery 
in  coal  mining.     But  it  must  not  be  assumed  that  the  in- 
creased use  of  machinery  is  responsible  for  the  larger  daily 
*  Op.  cit.,  pp.  770-771. 
171 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

output  of  coal  for  each  workman.  In  one  state,  Illinois,  the 
proportion  of  coal  mined  by  machines  remained  fairly  con- 
stant; yet,  comparing  the  two  years  of  the  ten-hour  system, 
1895  and  1896,  with  the  three  eight-hour  years,  1898,  1899, 
and  1900,  it  can  be  seen  that  the  output  for  each  workday 
has  increased  considerably.  The  ten-hour  years  have  an 
average  output  per  day  for  each  employe  of  2.53  to  3  tons; 
while  under  the  eight-hour  system  the  three  years,  1898  to 
1900,  show  an  average  of  3.11  to  3.21  tons.  This,  says  the 
report : 

" ,  .  .  must  be  ascribed  solely  to  the  increased  energy 
and  promptness  of  the  workman,  since,  as  already  stated, 
the  proportion  of  coal  mined  by  machinery  in  that  state  has 
remained  constant.  .  .  .  These  tables  bring  statistical 
evidence  to  support  the  testimony  of  witnesses  before  the 
Industrial  Commission  that  in  the  industry  of  coal  mining 
the  shorter  working  day  has  increased  the  efficiency  of  both 
the  workmen  and  the  management." 

An  interesting  point  brought  out  by  the  commission 
is  the  incentive  to  invention  and  greater  economy  on  the 
part  of  the  employes  under  the  short-hour  system.  When 
working  hours  are  diminished,  the  loss  in  time  tends  to  be  at 
least  in  part  compensated,  almost  automatically,  by  time  and 
labor  saving  methods  of  production,  as  well  as  by  increased 
energy  on  the  part  of  the  workers.  Doubtless  it  is  true  that  a 
good  machine  often  will  not  run  faster  in  eight  hours  than 
in  ten  hours,  but  new  machines  and  new  devices  are  con- 
tinually invented  to  improve  upon  the  old.  As  the  commis- 
sion pointedly  says: 

"While  a  particular  machine  will  not  go  faster  in  eight 
hours  than  in  ten  hours,  the  substitute  for  that  machine, 
which  the  eight-hour  day  presses  upon  the  employer  to  adopt, 
will  go  faster.  Less  hours  in  this  way  have  an  indirect  as 
well  as  a  direct  compensating  effect.  Not  only  do  they  make 
it  possible  for  the  workman  to  keep  up  his  intensity  of  per- 
sonal exertion  during  each  hour  of  the  day  and  to  work  more 
days  at  a  high  rate  of  speed,  but  they  cause  the  employer  to 

172 


ECONOMIC   ASPECT  OF    REGULATION 

economize  his  labor  at  every  point  and  to  improve  its  quality 
by  better  selection." 

Moreover,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  some  of  the 
most  useful  and  time  saving  inventions  and  adaptations  of 
machinery  have  not  come  from  scientific  laboratories.  They 
have  been  invented  by  American  mechanics  themselves  in 
the  course  of  their  work — work  whose  intensity  was  not  so 
great  as  to  destroy  all  the  initiative  and  nervous  vitality 
which  has  been  in  the  past  associated  with  the  American 
mechanic  and  v/orkman.  The  shortened  workday,  there- 
fore, in  this  connection,  has  a  double  advantage.  On  the 
one  hand,  it  offers  a  premium  on  labor  saving  devices  to  com- 
pensate for  the  actual  curtailment  of  working  time.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  preserves  in  the  workman  that  handiness  and 
mental  alertness  from  which  have  sprung  many  of  the  minor 
labor  saving  devices  which  we  like  to  consider  typically 
American. 

The  commission  concludes  that: 

"A  reduction  in  hours  has  never  lessened  the  working 
people's  ability  to  compete  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 
States  with  shorter  workdays  actually  manufacture  their 
product  at  a  lower  cost  than  states  with  longer  workdays." 

Conceivably,  hours  might  be  reduced  to  the  point  where 
increased  cost  of  production  would  over-balance  the  gains  to 
health  and  efficiency.     On  this  point  the  commission  holds: 

"  If  it  were  a  question  of  reducing  hours  to  absurdly  low 
limits,  nothing  could  be  said  in  favor  of  the  movement;  but 
where — as  is  actually  the  case — the  goal  set  up  by  the  work- 
ing people  is  the  eight-hour  day,  and  there  is  no  proposition 
and  no  way  for  a  five-  or  a  six-hour  day,  the  arguments  for 
reduction  need  no  qualification  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
workers  and  little  from  that  of  employers."* 

One  final  point  needs  to  be  considered  in  connection  with 
the  output  of  the  shortened  day;  that  is,  the  effect  of  regula- 
*  Op.  cit.,  p.  773. 
173 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

tion  upon  wages.  Upon  this  point  little  can  be  dogmatically 
asserted.  When  we  consider  the  rise  and  fall  of  wages  in  a 
large  sense,  and  throughout  a  long  period,  a  great  variety  of 
factors  intervene.  The  causes  of  business  depression  and 
business  prosperity  are  themselves  obscure  and  often  arise 
from  sources  incredibly  remote  and  fantastic.  Drought, 
poor  crops,  pestilence,  wars— both  of  arms  and  men,  or  of 
tariffs — often  the  mere  fear  of  these,  and  things  less  tangible, 
such  as  "loss  of  confidence,"  set  the  solid  business  world,  like 
a  flimsy  fabric,  aquiver;  a  sentiment  can  again  quiet  it. 
With  such  extreme  instability  of  values,  wages  are  naturally 
bound  up;  cuts  or  increases  respond  to  the  business  fluctua- 
tions, and  it  would  be  idle  to  ascribe  the  fall  and  rise  of  wages 
to  one  isolated  phenomenon,  such  as  the  limitation  of  working 
hours. 

And  yet,  amid  this  flux  of  things,  two  uncontroverted 
facts  stand  out  clearly:  first,  that  the  best  wages  are  paid  in 
the  most  strictly  regulated  trades.  Where  the  limitation  of 
hours  is  most  defined  and  best  enforced,  wages  are  invariably 
highest.  The  unregulated  trades,  with  the  longest  hours, 
are  the  most  sweated  and  underpaid.  Second,  while  we  can- 
not assert  that  the  operation  of  factory  laws  has  been  the 
direct  cause  of  higher  wages,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  sequel 
of  shorter  hours  has  almost  invariably  been  a  rise  in  wages, 
even  after  a  temporary  loss.*  Output,  as  we  have  seen,  has 
been  maintained  and  increased  in  the  shortened  hours.  The 
main  cause  for  this  has  been  the  increased  efficiency  of  the 
workers,  and  this  is  the  explanation  also  of  the  seeming 
paradox  of  twelve  hours'  pay  for  ten  hours'  work,  and  ten 
hours'  pay  for  eight  hours'  work. 

*  See  Part  1 1  of  this  volume,  pp.  395-407. 


174 


VI 

REGULARITY  OF  EMPLOYMENT:    FATIGUE  AND 
OVERTIME  WORK 

1.    OVERTIME  AS  A  SEPARATE  ISSUE 

THE  discussion  of  overtime  is  something  to  be  sharply 
differentiated  from  the  general  question  of  reducing 
the  length  of  the  workday.  It  is  true  that  when  over- 
time is  added  to  the  day's  work,  making  it  nine  to  twelve 
hours  or  longer  as  the  case  may  be,  all  the  arguments  that 
apply  against  the  long  day  apply  against  overtime  as  well. 
It  is  bad  because  it  results  in  too  long  a  stretch  of  working 
hours,  with  all  that  implies  for  subject  and  object,  worker  and 
work. 

How,  indeed,  could  it  be  otherwise?  For  whether  the 
last  exhausting  hours  of  the  day  be  called  "overtime,"  or  are 
a  regular  part  of  the  day's  work,  the  practical  results  of  such 
protracted  hours  must  be  the  same. 

But  overtime  means  something  more  than  an  over-long 
period  of  work.  It  means  irregular  work;  it  means  evening 
work  after  and  in  addition  to  day  work,  often  without  pre- 
vious notice  to  the  employe;  it  means  in  many  trades  that 
worst  sequence,  overwork  followed  by  out-of-work,  a  "rush" 
season  of  too  much  work  with  the  slack  season  of  no  work  and 
destitution  close  behind  it.  Hence  in  discussing  overtime, 
besides  the  evident  injuries  to  health  and  output,  a  number  of 
other  fundamental  points  need  to  be  taken  into  account  and 
realized.  Is  overtime  inevitable  and  uncontrollable?  How 
can  it  be  replaced  or  avoided?  This  discussion  is  the  more 
important  because  the  really  large  issues  involved  in  over- 
time, seemingly  so  subordinate  and  technical  a  question, 
are,  as  we  have  pointed  out,  so  often  totally  misunderstood 

175 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

or  ignored.  These  large  issues  we  will  attempt  to  outline 
under  two  heads:  first,  the  relation  between  overtime  and 
greater  continuity  or  regularity  of  employment;  and  second 
(in  Chapter  VIII),  the  relation  between  overtime  and  the 
crux  of  all  legislation,  enforcement. 

First,  however,  as  to  the  evident  likenesses  between 
overtime  and  the  long  day  in  general.  On  the  physiological 
side,  we  have  seen  that  overtime,  like  other  forms  of  overwork, 
injures  health'  because,  in  one  word,  it  strains.  It  post- 
pones rest  beyond  the  point  when  rest  can  normally  accom- 
plish its  oifice  of  repair.  "Too  late,"  is  nature's  answer  to 
the  slack  period  or  let-up  after  an  overtime  bout  in  factory  or 
store,  and  grievous  are  nature's  revenges  for  the  postpone- 
ment of  our  metabolic  debts.  Through  the  overstrain  of 
that  mysterious  agency  which,  as  we  have  seen,  "directs, 
controls,  and  harmonizes  the  work  of  the  parts  of  the  organic 
machine" — our  ramified  nervous  system — any  or  every 
organ  may  retain  the  semblance  of  perfect  health  and  may 
yet  refuse  to  function.  Nervous  dyspepsia,  nervous  palpita- 
tion of  the  heart,  nervous  eyestrain,  and  such  functional  ills 
are  well  recognized  products  of  some  form  of  "over-doing," 
as  we  call  it  among  the  well-to-do.  Among  working  people, 
the  same  disorders  and  their  causes  have,  in  this  country, 
received  scant  notice.  These  are  what  overtime  work  invites 
and  brings  with  it,  requiring  during  over-long  hours  increas- 
ing stimuli  for  wearied  muscles  from  already  tired  nerve 
centers. 

On  the  economic  side,  too,  overtime  work,  like  all  over- 
work, results  in  deteriorated  quantity  and  quality  of  output. 
In  the  long  run,  the  enlightened  employer  is  obliged  to  con- 
clude that  overtime  does  not  pay.  To  this  day,  "spoiled 
work"  is  as  marked  a  result  of  overtime  as  it  was  of  the  late 
working  hours  famous  in  the  first  English  struggles  for 
legislation.* 

Such  an  occupation  as  dressmaking  illustrates  the  de- 
terioration due  to  overtime  work.     Here  the  caprice  and  in- 
*  See  Part  1 1  of  this  volume,  pp.  433^440. 
176 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

considerateness  of  customers  have  been  in  large  part  re- 
sponsible for  the  universally  outrageous  duration  of  over- 
time, which  is  common  in  the  creation  of  women's  wearing 
apparel  in  every  country.  Year  after  year,  the  French  and 
British  factory  inspectors  have  enlarged  on  the  essentially 
wasteful,  uneconomical  character  of  overtime  in  destroying 
the  efficiency  of  the  workers.  After  a  comparatively  short 
period  of  pressure,  output  not  only  becomes  inferior,  but 
progressively  so.  Each  week's  work  bids  fair  to  be  pro- 
gressively poorer  than  that  of  the  previous  week. 

Another  reason  why  output  falls  off  during  overtime  is 
due  to  the  irregular  habits  which  it  fosters.  It  is  hardly 
surprising  that  workers  should  come  to  work  late  the  next 
morning  after  evening  overtime,  and  that  the  reaction  after 
a  spurt  should  lead  to  "loafing"  and  inferior  production  in 
consequence.* 


2.    OVERTIME  AND  REGULARITY 

So  much  for  the  evident  similarity  of  results,  physical 
and  economic,  between  overtime  and  the  long  day.  We 
turn  next  to  the  distinctive  characteristic  of  overtime,  its 
irregularity  and  the  supposed  necessity  for  longer  working 
hours  at  certain  times  or  seasons  of  the  year.  Indeed,  in  a 
certain  sense,  overtime  is  a  survival  of  the  long  day,  a  stray 
left  over  from  the  time  when  any  legislative  regulation  of 
working  hours  was  considered  intolerable.  First,  men  held 
that  the  working  day  could  not  be  regulated  at  all  without 
financial  disaster.  Then,  when  it  was  shortened,  and  in- 
dustry still  throve,  the  same  kind  of  argument  insisted,  and 
still  insists,  that  the  law  must  allow  concessions,  privileges 
for  certain  occupations  which,  according  to  the  employers, 
can  not  be  compressed  within  the  specified  limit  of  hours. 

The  provision  for  overtime  work  proceeds  on  the  theory 
that  at  certain  times  and  seasons  employers  cannot  manage 
or  meet  their  obligations  under  their  regular  schedule  of 

*See  Part  II,  pp.  440-444. 

12  177 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

hours,  but  must  be  free  to  call  upon  their  employes  for  extra 
work.  This  theory  has  obtained  in  almost  every  industrial 
country  that  has  restricted  the  hours  of  labor  by  law:  the 
regulation  of  overtime  has  been  one  of  the  most  vexed 
chapters. 

In  innumerable  trades  it  has  been  assumed  that  the  de- 
mands of  customers,  reasonable  or  unreasonable,  and  the 
necessities  of  the  season,  avoidable  or  not,  can  be  met  in  no 
other  way  than  by  lengthening  the  day's  work  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  period  of  time. 


3.     EFFORTS  TO  EQUALIZE  SEASONS 

But  to  lengthen  the  day's  work  is  in  fact  not  the  last 
word  on  the  subject.  In  many  industries  the  most  enlight- 
ened employers  have  found  that  overtime  work  is  essentially 
inefficient,  that  excessive  irregularities  in  work  are  as  demor- 
alizing to  business  as  they  are  physically  damaging  to  the 
workers.  It  has  proved  possible  to  replace  overtime,  in  large 
part,  by  spreading  work  more  uniformly  over  the  entire  year, 
instead  of  concentrating  it  into  short  periods  of  intense  over- 
work. Untold  effort  and  money  have  been  spent  to  equalize 
more  nearly  the  week's  and  month's  business.  Thus,  for 
instance,  the  now  prevalent  January  "white  sale"  of  the 
department  stores  was  devised  some  years  ago  by  a  prominent 
New  England  firm,  to  attract  customers  during  the  stagnant 
period  after  the  Christmas  "rush."  It  was  not  written  in 
the  eternal  fitness  of  things  that  the  purchase  of  new  linens 
should  be  associated  with  the  first  month  of  the  year.  But 
such  is  the  psychological  force  of  advertising,  that  the  shop- 
ping public  has  become  educated  up  to  the  January  "white 
sale"  throughout  the  country,  and  now  no  well-conducted 
store  is  without  an  artistic  display  of  damasks,  table  linen, 
bed  linen,  and  women's  white  underwear,  as  soon  as  the  new 
year  opens.  When  the  heavy  spring  trade  starts  later  in  the 
year,  the  sale  of  white  goods  is,  for  the  most  part,  over.  In- 
deed, this  effort  to  equalize  seasons  has  been  carried  to  such 

178 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

lengths  that  the  January  "white  sale,"  invented  as  a  stop- 
gap between  seasons,  has  itself  become  a  "rush"  period. 

This  example  is  only  one  of  many  such  efforts  which 
might  be  cited.  It  has  been  found  profitable  by  merchants 
to  make  the  week's  as  well  as  the  month's  business  approxi- 
mately equal.  In  many  cities,  the  custom  of  making  Monday 
a  day  of  special  "bargains"  and  "green  trading  stamps"  has 
likewise  been  implanted  in  the  public  mind,  for  the  sake  of 
attracting  customers  on  a  previously  dull  day,  and  more 
nearly  equalizing  the  business  of  the  week. 

But  the  more  important  and  more  radical  movements  of 
this  order  have  been  carried  out  in  manufacture  rather  than 
in  commerce.  The  most  farsighted  manufacturers  have 
shown  how  work  can  be  more  uniformly  spread  over  the 
entire  year,  instead  of  allowing  it  to  be  crowded  into  short 
"rush"  periods  followed  by  stagnation. 

By  way  of  concrete  illustration,  the  reorganization  of  two 
great  New  England  establishments,  for  the  precise  purpose 
of  more  nearly  equalizing  seasons,  may  be  briefly  described. 

The  first  of  these  is  one  of  the  largest  shoe  factories  in 
the  United  States.  The  shoe  trade  was,  and  in  many  in- 
stances still  is,  a  seasonal  industry.  Manufacturers  wait  for 
the  spring  and  fall  orders,  slack  periods  alternating  with 
seasonal  rushes  of  work.  The  firm  in  question  decided  that 
this  system  was  too  great  a  strain  upon  their  equipment; 
that  it  was  wasteful  and  unnecessary.  They  determined  to 
continue  at  work  during  the  slack  season  by  opening  up  new 
lines,  requiring  customers  to  send  in  their  orders  earlier,  and 
by  similar  devices.  Customers  were  notified  that  in  order 
to  have  orders  filled  they  must  be  received  by  certain  fixed 
dates.  Once  received,  the  order  is  like  a  promissory  note 
which  will  be  met  by  the  manufacturer  at  the  given  time. 
The  dates  for  receiving  and  delivering  orders  are  fixed  in  ro- 
tation, arranged  so  that  each  month's  work  is  approximately 
equal.  The  scheme  has  been  worked  out  in  minutest  detail, 
and  since  it  has  been  put  into  practice  this  establishment  has 
completely  abolished  overtime,  as  well  as  a  slack  season. 

179 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Uniform,  continuous  work  has  not  only  relieved  the  alterna- 
tions of  idleness  and  overwork;  it  has,  financially,  paid. 

Similar  has  been  the  experience  of  one  of  the  important 
manufacturers  of  jewelry  cases  in  the  United  States.  Case 
and  box  making  is  likewise  a  seasonal  trade.  The  plethora 
of  boxes  needed  for  the  Christmas  trade — fine  jewelry  cases, 
candy  boxes,  boxes  of  innumerable  shapes,  sizes,  and  quali- 
ties— is  usually  not  ordered  by  retailers  until  late  in  the  year. 
A  congestion  of  work  results  for  the  box  makers  in  October 
and  November.  The  manufacturer  of  cases  whom  we  are 
considering  and  who  supplies  a  large  proportion  of  the  fine 
jewelry  cases  used  in  the  East,  decided  likewise,  a  few  years 
ago,  to  equalize  his  year  more  nearly  if  possible.  He,  also, 
reorganized  his  business  for  the  sake  of  obtaining  that  regu- 
larity of  work  which,  once  established,  benefits  employer  and 
customer  as  much  as  employe.  He  has,  indeed,  met  with  so 
successful  a  response  from  his  customers,  that  their  orders 
are  projected  months  in  advance,  being  given  sometimes  as 
early  as  January  for  the  following  Christmas. 


4.  THE  ADAPTATION  OF  CUSTOMERS 

These  examples  of  successful  attempts  to  equalize 
seasons  for  purely  business  reasons  illustrate  also  how  the 
public  adapts  itself  to  changes  of  habit  in  purchasing.  We 
are  too  apt  to  look  upon  custom,  use  and  wont,  what  is,  as 
entirely  static  things,  impervious  to  change.  In  fact,  how- 
ever, habits  are  not  as  tyrannical  or  clod-like  as  they  appear, 
and  in  communities  as  well  as  in  individuals  the  power  of  new 
ideas  works  its  astounding  transformations. 

The  possibility  of  altering  a  well-entrenched  habit  on 
the  part  of  the  public  was  interestingly  illustrated  in  Illinois 
a  few  years  ago,  when  the  passage  of  the  ten-hour  law  for 
women  prohibited  overtime  in  laundries.  Laundries  have 
always  required  from  their  employes  longer  and  more  in- 
jurious overtime  than  perhaps  any  other  industrial  establish- 
ments  in  which  women  are  employed.     The   schedule  of 

1 80 


REGULARITY   OF   EMPLOYMENT 

working  hours  in  laundries  is  very  irregular.  Not  only  in  the 
United  States  but  also  in  Great  Britain  and  in  Germany  the 
long  and  irregular  day's  work  in  laundries  has  been  repeatedly 
investigated  and  found  unmistakably  dangerous  to  health. 
The  scrupulous  cleanliness  and  abundance  of  clean  linen  on 
which  our  generation  prides  itself  has  been  dearly  provided, 
unknown  to  the  wearers. 

Work  in  laundries  usually  begins  late  on  Mondays,  is 
slack  on  Saturdays,  and  on  the  remaining  days  of  the  week 
runs  up  to  a  wholly  indefensible  number  of  hours.  Women 
have  been  found  employed  in  laundries  as  much  as  seventeen 
consecutive  hours.*  The  alleged  necessity  for  this  overwork 
has  been  the  need  of  completing  large  orders  from  res- 
taurants, steamship  companies,  and  barber  shops,  as  well 
as  private  families,  in  the  quickest  possible  time.  When  the 
Illinois  ten-hour  law  for  women  in  factories  and  laundries 
went  into  effect  in  1909,  notices  were  posted  by  certain  large 
steam  laundries  in  various  public  places  announcing  that,  on 
account  of  the  new  law,  they  would  not  be  able  to  deliver 
laundry  work  on  any  Saturday  unless  it  were  received  by 
the  previous  Wednesday  noon.  Previously  linen  had  been 
accepted  as  late  as  Friday  for  delivery  on  the  following  day. 
Such  a  stand  as  the  laundries  assumed  towards  their  cus- 
tomers doubtless  means  that  the  establishments  which  have 
previously  insisted  upon  the  almost  immediate  return  of 
their  linen  will  be  obliged  to  lay  in  a  larger  stock.  Nor  does 
there  appear  to  be  any  legitimate  reason  why  the  difficulty 
should  not  be  met  in  this  way,  rather  than  by  the  indefensible 
overwork  of  thousands  of  girls  and  women  in  the  hot  and 
exhausting  laundry  occupations. 

The  recorded  experience  of  the  British  factory  inspectors 
during  the  past  twenty  years  in  enforcing  the  law  (in  the 
textile  and  other  well-organized  trades  where  overtime  is  pro- 
hibited) shows  unmistakably  how  the  demands  of  customers 
yield  to  the  requirements  of  a  fixed  legal  working  day.    When 

*  Report  of  the  Consumers'  League  of  the  City  of  New  York  for 
the  year  1909,  p.  24.     Published  March,  1910. 

l8l 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


customers  are  obliged  to  place  orders  sufficiently  in  advance 
to  enable  them  to  be  filled  without  overtime  work,  this  habit 
soon  tends  to  become  automatic* 


5.     THE  POLICY  OF  PERSUASION   BY  CONSUMERS 

The  experience  of  the  laundries  shows  not  only  how 
customers  adapt  themselves  to  necessity  and  the  require- 
ments of  a  fixed  rule,  but  how  the  prohibition  of  overtime 
tends  to  create  a  greater  regularity  and  uniformity  of  hours. 
Before  the  passage  of  the  law  of  1909,  the  Illinois  laundry 
owners  had  presumably  not  considered  the  possibility  of 
abolishing  overtime  and  had  certainly  not  attempted  to  re- 
quire a  more  reasonable  margin  of  time  for  delivery. 

Since  the  beginning  of  modern  industry,  a  vicious  circle 
has  tended  to  exist  between  the  customer's  (wholesale  or 
retail)  habit  of  waiting  until  the  last  minute  before  giving 
orders,  and  the  employer's  acceptance  of  orders  at  such  late 
dates,  regardless  of  the  cost  to  his  personnel  and  equipment. 
Either  party  could  forcibly  break  this  circle  if  either  would 
take  a  determined  stand — the  customer  by  giving  orders  in 
time  and  refusing  to  accept  them  unless  finished  in  season; 
the  employer  on  his  side  refusing  to  accept  orders  received 
too  late.  Neither  customers  nor  employers,  however,  are 
apt  to  take  the  initiative  in  this  way  until  really  urgent  need 
arises. 

But  when  an  outside  authority — the  law — representing 
the  sentiment  of  the  whole  community,  limits  the  length  of 
the  workday,  both  employers  and  customers  are  protected — 
the  former  against  unreasonable  requirements  of  their  clien- 
tele, the  latter  against  wearing,  eating,  or  otherwise  consum- 
ing articles  the  manner  of  whose  manufacture  or  sale  they 
condemn. 

It  is  true  that  consumers  have  in  their  own  hands  a 
considerable  power  of  demanding  changes  from  the  manu- 
facturers and  merchants  with  whom  they  deal.     It  is  plainly 

*See  Part  II  of  this  volume,  pp.  407-411;  528-531. 
182 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

to  the  latter's  advantage  to  meet  the  desires,  even  the  whims 
of  their  patrons;  yet  the  consumer's  power  of  obtaining  what 
commodities  he  desires,  in  an  infinite  variety,  has  been  Httle 
used  to  secure  working  conditions  of  which  he  can  thoroughly 
approve  for  the  workers  by  whom  he  is  clothed,  fed,  and 
otherwise  provided  with  the  material  equipments  of  life. 
Even  when  the  consumer  awakes  to  a  desire  to  mend  condi- 
tions, the  method  of  securing  improvements  from  employers 
as  favors,  is  sharply  differentiated  from  the  method  of  legis- 
lation, which  secures  them  as  rights. 

So,  for  instance,  at  Christmas  time  it  has  long  been  sup- 
posed that  the  employment  of  thousands,  even  hundreds  of 
thousands,  of  young  women  is  unavoidable  each  evening  in 
the  large  cities,  to  wait  upon  a  throng  of  shoppers  and  sight- 
seers. So  firmly  fixed  in  the  public  mind  has  this  belief  been 
that  in  New  York  state,  for  example,  the  law  which  pro- 
tects young  women  between  sixteen  and  twenty-one  years 
in  stores,  from  more  than  sixty  hours'  work  in  one  week, 
is  suspended  during  the  Christmas  "rush,"  when  most 
needed. 

During  the  past  twenty-one  years  an  association  of 
customers  or  consumers  in  New  York  City  has  consecutively 
endeavored  to  persuade  the  merchants  with  whom  they  deal 
to  close  their  establishments  in  the  evenings  during  the  last 
half  of  December,  in  default  of  a  law  prohibiting  Christmas 
overtime.*  This  policy  of  persuasion  has  led  a  growing 
number  of  the  best  establishments  to  close  early,  without 
financial  disaster.f  It  proved  that  the  supposed  necessity 
of  keeping  these  young  women  clerks  at  work  in  the  evening 
after  an  exhausting  day'swork,  is  after  all  not  inherent.  For 
when  customers  are  not  able  to  postpone  their  shopping  for 
gifts  until  a  few  nights  before  Christmas,  they  find  it  possible, 
for  the  most  part,  to  attend  to  it  between  eight  in  the  morning 

*  Reports  of  the  Consumers'  League  of  the  City  of  New  York,  1891 
to  1911. 

t  In  1911,  from  among  40  of  the  best  known  stores  in  New  York  City, 
all  but  14  closed  at  6  or  7  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Only  four  stores  re- 
mained open  more  than  three  nights  before  Christmas. 

183 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


and  six  at  night.  But  the  time  and  effort  required  to  prove 
this  has  been  out  of  proportion  to  the  results  attained;  it 
has  shown  Hkewise  that  the  early  closing  movement  to  be 
successful,  must  be  sustained  by  a  specific  law. 


6.     THE  LEGAL  PROHIBITION  OF  OVERTIME 

Hence  the  Consumers'  Leagues,  which  under  a  national 
organization  have  spread  into  17  different  states,  are  devoting 
their  efforts  more  and  more  to  securing  specific  laws  for  the 
protection  of  working  women  and  children.  Justice  and  ex- 
pediency demand  that  a  uniform  rule  shall  protect  the  pro- 
gressive and  check  the  backward  employers  in  stores  and  other 
commercial  establishments  as  well  as  in  manufacture.  Where- 
ever  the  indiscriminately  long  seasonal  employment  of  women 
has  been  forbidden  by  law,  even  the  backward  employers 
have  found  it  possible  to  mend  such  irregularities,  in  some 
degree  if  not  wholly,  by  foresight  and  management.  A 
more  equal  and  uniform  distribution  of  work  throughout 
the  year  has  followed.  This  seems  to  be  the  uniform  ex- 
perience of  countries  whose  industrial  experience  is  recorded 
in  the  reports  of  their  factory  inspectors.  British,  French, 
German  reports  coincide  in  yearly  comments*  that  legisla- 
tion which  fixes  a  "normal  day"  has  been  the  best  incentive 
towards  greater  regularity  of  employment,  planned  in  ad- 
vance to  meet  the  legal  requirement  as  to  hours.  In  1902, 
and  again  in  1903,  the  Committee  of  the  British  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  appointed  to  investigate  the 
economic  effect  of  legislation  regulating  women's  labor,  took 
occasion  to  emphasize  the  influence  of  legislation  on  regular- 
ity of  employm.ent,  stating  that  the  British  acts  had  led  to 
spreading  work  more  uniformly  over  the  week,  month,  and 
year,  and  that  without  the  acts  it  "seems  certain"  that  there 
would  have  been  less  uniformity.! 

*See  Part  II  of  this  volume,  pp.  444-463. 

t  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  1902.  Women's 
Labour,  2nd  Report,  pp.  293-295;   1903,  3rd  Report,  pp.  340-341. 

184 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

On  the  other  hand,  in  trades  where  overtime  has  been 
tolerated,  the  pressure  towards  long  and  irregular  hours — 
"spurting" — has  been  almost  irresistible.  As  one  of  the 
British  inspectors  somewhat  naively  puts  it: 

"  I  am  afraid  that  foresight  and  arrangement  will  never 
be  exercised  while  the  mischievous  expedient  of  overtime  is 
m.ade  so  easy."* 

it  is  indeed  so  much  easier,  so  much  more  in  line  with  natural 
human  inertia,  simply  to  lengthen  the  workday  by  a  few 
hours,  and  to  keep  the  workers  who  are  on  hand,  rather  than 
to  plan  laboriously  in  advance  to  meet  emergencies,  that 
overtime  takes  on  the  appearance  of  an  absolute  necessity. 

No  industry  illustrates  this  more  clearly  than  the  canning 
trade,  to  whose  quite  unrecognized  physical  hardships  we  have 
drawn  attention  in  a  previous  chapter.  In  few  industries, 
on  the  whole,  have  employers  made  less  consistent  efforts  to 
reduce  overtime.  At  the  same  time  they  are  insisting  to 
legislatures  and  the  public  that  overtime  work  is  an  inherent 
necessity  in  the  canneries. 

In  the  federal  investigation,  as  we  have  seen,  women 
were  found  employed  in  the  canneries  up  to  ninety  hours 
in  the  week,  while  the  canners  maintain  that  without  such 
intolerable  exploitation  their  industry  could  not  exist,  when 
a  seasonal  glut  of  raw  materials  overtakes  them.  But  the 
truth  is  that  there  are  more  than  two  horns  to  this  dilemma. 
For  while  the  canners  are  so  depleting  their  workers,  on  the 
plea  of  unavoidable  necessity,  they  are  at  the  same  time  often 
found  neglecting  the  most  elementary  means  of  meeting 
the  admitted  difficulties  of  their  industry,  and  of  providing 
themselves  with  a  sufficient  number  of  workers  at  times  of 
glut.  In  the  summer  of  1907,  as  was  known  to  the  writer, 
some  women  were  employed  in  one  New  York  cannery  up 
to  eighty-five  hours  in  one  week,  while  side  by  side  with 
them  other  women  were  employed  twenty-five  hours  and  less. 
At  some  canneries  no  devices  more  effective  than  ringing  the 

*  British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII,  p.  90.     1893. 
185 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

factory  bell  were  used  to  summon  workers  living  within  hear- 
ing distance,  when  unexpectedly  heavy  pea  deliveries  were 
received  late  in  the  afternoon,  and  workers  who  responded  to 
the  summons  were  kept  working  until  after  midnight — 
sufficient  proof  that  the  canners  have  simply  rested  upon  their 
alleged  "necessity"  for  overtime,  and  have  spent  upon  the 
organization  of  the  working  force  little  of  the  ingenuity  and 
intelligence  which  have  been  devoted  to  the  technique  of 
canning.  It  is  not  credible  that  in  a  trade  where  technical 
mechanical  processes  have  been  brought  to  such  perfection, 
the  difficulties  of  management  can  not  be  better  solved. 
The  latest  government  investigation  of  canneries  in 
Maryland  and  California,  dwells  upon  this  "entire  absence 
of  working-time  records,  and  almost  uniform  lack  of  records 
of  any  description  for  the  piece-workers."* 

"Without  such  records,"  as  the  report  says,  "it  is 
impossible  for  employers  to  make  any  progress  in  distributing 
the  strain  of  excess  work  over  the  whole  force,  for  there  is 
nothing  but  the  memory  or  personal  interest  of  the  foremen 
to  mark  the  working  time  of  each  employe.     .     .     . 

"It  is  singular  that  employers  who  direct  other  phases 
of  their  business  along  lines  indicated  by  carefully  kept  ac- 
counts should  attempt  to  regulate  the  supply  of  so  large  a 
part  of  their  labor  without  the  help  of  adequate  records."! 

Indeed,  once  overtime  is  tolerated  on  the  plea  of  neces- 
sity, it  is  almost  impossible  to  draw  the  line  where  necessity 

*  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  96,  Sept.,  1911. 
Hours  and  Earnings  of  Women  Workers  in  Maryland  and  California,  pp. 
399^00. 

t  Interesting  confirmation  of  this  disorganization  of  the  labor  force 
was  given  at  the  public  hearing  on  the  ten-hour  bill  for  women,  at  Annapolis, 
Maryland,  on  February  14,  1912. 

"Mr.  Soper  (counsel  for  the  canners):  No  record  is  kept  of  the  names 
of  these  people,  is  there? 

Mr.  Numsen  (a  canner):    Absolutely  none. 

Mr.  Soper:  If  you  were  to  go  to  the  canners  and  ask  some  of  them 
to  show  you  their  books,  they  cannot  show,  to  save  their  souls,  how  many 
hours  any  particular  person  worked  in  their  factory;  not  because  they  want 
to  conceal  it,  but  because  of  the  exigency  of  the  situation  which  does  not 
permit  of  the  record;  therefore,  nobody  can  tell  exactly  the  amount  of  time 
that  is  put  in  by  any  particular  person."  (Stenographic  record  of  hearing, 
pp.  27  and  40.) 

l86 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

begins  and  ends.  The  canners  maintain  that  overtime  is 
unavoidable  on  account  of  the  perishable  nature  of  their  raw 
produce.  But  what  possible  defense  is  the  perishability  of 
fruits  and  vegetables  for  such  a  common  practice  as  the 
employment  of  women  at  night  at  labeling  jars  and  cans? 

The  federal  report  on  canneries  states  that  in  California 
some  of  the  "  long  drives," — reaching  a  m.aximum  of  twelve 
to  fifteen  hours  a  day  or  seventy-two  to  ninety-eight  hours 
in  one  week, — are  worked  by  labelers  and  stampers,  who 
handle  the  product  "after  it  is  canned,  hermetically  sealed, 
cooked,  and  no  longer  perishable."* 

What  justification  is  the  perishability  of  the  products  for 
requiring  overtime  work  at  making  fruit  and  berry  baskets? 
Fruits  and  berries  are  perishable,  but  no  perversity  could  so 
describe  the  baskets.  Yet  in  one  state  at  least  (Delaware) 
the  canners  have  actually  had  enacted  into  law  special  per- 
mission to  work  young  children  of  any  age,  for  any  number 
of  hours,  at  berry  and  fruit  basket  making,  as  well  as  at  the 
technical  processes  of  canning.  Anyone  can  see  that  there 
is  no  shadow  of  excuse  for  such  exploitation.  It  is  due  to 
the  sheer  license  which  flourishes  in  such  employment  as  the 
canneries  and  the  sweated  trades,  where  the  employer  is  free 
to  use  his  employes  to  the  limits  of  their  physical  strength. 

It  is  indeed  true  that  far  greater  difficulties  attend  a 
regular  schedule  of  hours  in  the  canneries  than  in  other 
factories.  Once  a  glut  of  produce  reaches  the  canneries  it 
must  be  used  at  once,  within  a  very  short  period.  Experts 
allow  five  to  twenty-four  hours  for  holding  peas  before 
canning,  about  twenty-four  hours  for  beans,  and  so  on,t 
though  the  possibilities  of  cold  storage  have  not  yet  been  ex- 
plored. The  canners  cannot  stay  the  hand  of  Nature  or 
prevent  the  sudden  ripening  of  crops.  But  they  can  learn 
and  provide  in  advance  for  these  alleged  "emergencies"  to 
an  extent  quite  unapproached  at  present  in  most  states. 

*  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  96,  p.  395. 
t  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Factory  Inspection.    New  York 
State  Department  of  Labor,  1908,  pp.  393,  394. 

187 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

It  was  on  this  ground  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts, a  few  years  ago,  refused  to  accept  the  plea  of  neces- 
sity for  violation  of  the  Sunday  law  by  the  owner  of  cran- 
berry bogs  in  Plymouth  County.*  The  court's  decision  is 
so  clear  and  goes  so  directly  to  the  root  of  the  difficulties 
in  limiting  the  day's  work  as  well  as  in  enforcing  the  Sunday 
rest  that  it  should,  at  least  in  part,  be  quoted. 

The  owner  of  the  bogs  contended  that  he  could  not 
harvest  his  crop  without  working  on  Sunday;  that  Sunday 
work  was  not  unlawful,  if  it  was  a  matter  of  necessity;  and 
that  he  was  justified  in  working  on  Sunday  if,  "owing  to  the 
size  of  the  crop,  the  difficulty  of  procuring  or  housing  labor, 
the  prospect  of  frost,  or  the  danger  of  the  fruit  getting  over- 
ripe and  other  circumstances,  he  had  reason  to  believe  that 
the  crop  might  be  injured  or  lost  if  he  did  not  gather  it  on 
the  Lord's  Day." 

On  cross  examination  in  the  lower  court,  it  was  shown 
that  if  the  employer  had  procured  enough  men — only  one- 
sixth  more — "  he  could  have  done  the  same  work  in  six  days 
that  he  was  doing  in  seven."  It  was  also  shown  that  while 
the  crop  was  three  times  greater  than  it  had  ever  been  before, 
the  owner  knew  at  the  end  of  July  that  he  should  probably 
have  such  a  crop  and  that  he  should  have  to  employ  a  great 
many  more  men  to  take  care  of  it  in  September.  It  was 
shown  that  his  employes  lived  in  shanties  owned  by  him, 
that  he  could  not  accommodate  any  more  men,  and  had  not 
made  any  effort  to  do  so.  He  began  to  employ  between 
three  and  four  hundred  men  towards  the  middle  of  September, 

The  judge  in  the  lower  court  instructed  the  jury  that 
the  employment  of  these  men  on  Sunday  was  not,  under  the 
circumstances,  "work  of  necessity  within  the  meaning  of  the 
statute."  In  upholding  the  decision  of  the  lower  court, 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  further  emphasized  the 
fact  that  this  work  was  not  one  of  necessity,  and  refused 
to  consider  as  emergencies,  facts  which  might  have  been 
provided  for  in  advance. 

*  Commonwealth  v.  Edwin  M.  White.     190  Mass.  578. 


REGULARITY   OF    EMPLOYMENT 

"Without  going  over  the  evidence  in  detail,"  said  the 
court,  "it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  here  there  was  no  extra- 
ordinary, sudden  and  unexpected  emergency.  The  crop  was 
large,  it  is  true,  but  that  it  was  likely  to  be  large  had  been 
known  for  weeks.  The  weather  was  only  what  might  have 
been  expected.  The  substance  of  the  testimony  was  simply 
that  in  gathering  the  crop  it  was  somewhat  less  expensive 
and  more  convenient  to  work  seven  days  in  the  week  rather 
than  six.  That  is  not  enough.  Such  testimony  falls  far 
short  of  showing  'necessity'  within  the  meaning  of  the 
statute." 

After  all,  these  so-called  "emergencies"  in  the  canneries 
are  essentially  the  same  (although  of  far  higher  degree)  as 
those  which  may  arise  in  all  businesses.  With  the  fickleness 
of  modern  fashions,  and  their  extraordinarily  sudden  changes, 
the  market  for  most  commodities  is  precarious.  All  the 
articles  of  men's  as  well  as  women's  clothing — garments,  hat- 
wear,  foot-wear,  ornaments,  jewelry,  the  furniture  of  our 
houses,  the  service  upon  our  tables,  sports  (like  bicycling,  a 
few  years  ago,  and  motoring  today),  the  very  songs  of  the 
music  halls,  echoing  in  the  streets  and  in  the  innumerable 
musical  instruments  whose  manufacture  develops  from  year 
to  year — all  these  things  are  subject  to  changes  in  fashion 
more  violent  than  a  former  generation  could  dream  of. 
Articles  in  demand  in  January  are  out-of-date  by  June. 
Last  year's  models  are  antiquated.  The  whirligig  of  time 
never  before  brought  such  revenges.  And  in  consequence 
all  these  commodities  are  practically  "seasonal,"  in  the 
sense  that  they  are  of  value  at  a  given  moment  or  season, 
like  fruits,  berries,  and  vegetables  ripe  in  field  or  orchard. 
And  like  the  fruits,  too,  after  their  moments  of  prime,  they 
are  useless,  over-ripe. 

Are  we  then  driven  to  conclude  that  all  these  manu- 
factures must  have  special  concessions  and  privileges  of 
overtime  allowed  by  law,  such  as  the  canners  maintain  that 
they  must  have?  No.  In  this  country  we  have,  with  single 
exceptions,  recorded  in  our  legislation  (and  are  now  facing 
the  problem  of  enforcing)  our  contention  that,  so  far  as 

189 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

working  women  and  children  are  affected,  the  seasonal 
necessities  must  be  provided  for  by  good  management  within 
reasonable  working  hours;  that,  in  a  word,  production  must 
be  limited  to  conserve  the  workers'  health  and  welfare,  which 
is  the  health  and  welfare  of  the  nation. 

That  such  a  contention  is  not  unreasonable  the  best 
practice  in  all  industries  tends  to  prove.  The  appeal  is  always 
from  Philip  drunk  to  Philip  sober:  from  the  alleged  impossi- 
bilities to  the  actual  facts.  Even  in  canning,  the  extent  of 
overtime  varies  greatly  in  different  establishments,  and  this 
variation,  as  a  recent  New  York  labor  report  points  out, 

"  is  of  itself  highly  significant.  For  if  one  firm  has  very  little 
overtime  while  another  has  a  great  deal,  .  .  .  the  ques- 
tion naturally  arises  whether  the  overtime  actually  occurring 
in  the  latter  is  not  due  to  the  methods  of  management  of  that 
firm,  rather  than  to  conditions  necessarily  inherent  in  the 
industry. 

"  Positively  it  can  be  said  that  the  very  fact  that  some 
firms  get  along  with  little  or  no  overtime,  seems  to  throw 
upon  those  with  more  overtime  the  burden  of  proving  the 
necessity  for  such  overtime."* 

Overproduction, — the  attempt  of  manufacturers  to  con- 
tract for  more  than  their  equipment  can  legitimately  ac- 
complish,— is  well  known  the  world  over,  and,  as  a  policy, 
defeats  its  own  ends.  It  is  like  unintelligent  farming,  which 
tries  to  get  from  the  soil  more  than  it  can  bear,  and  leaves  it 
impoverished  after  too  abundant  bearing.  The  soil,  in  time, 
can  be  revivified,  if  nourished  and  allowed  to  lie  fallow.  But 
after  over-production,  what  working  people  can  afford  to  lie 
fallow,  even  were  the  revival  of  their  powers  thereby  assured? 
As  the  British  factory  inspector,  already  quoted,  intelligently 
remarks: 

"  There  will  always  be  some  people  who  do  not  know  how 
to  refuse  orders,  however  little  they  may  be  prepared  to 
execute  them,  and  who  expect  their  work  people  to  help 
them  out  of  the  difficulty  by  working  excessive  hours." 

*  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Factory  Inspection.  New  York 
State  Department  of  Labor,  1908,  p.  363. 

190 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

It  is  precisely  to  save  workingwomen  from  the  dilemma 
of  either  working  such  excessive  hours,  or  of  suffering  dis- 
missal, that  the  police  power  of  states  has  interfered  with 
"private"  businesses  and  has  sanctioned  legislation  which 
regulates  the  length  of  the  workday.  That  legislation  is 
still  most  defective  in  tacitly  or  specifically  allowing  overtime. 

Our  conclusion  would,  therefore,  be  that  the  alleged 
necessity  for  overtime,  and  the  consequent  irregularity  of 
work,  is  not  an  inherent  necessity.  If  the  testimony  of  ex- 
perience counts  for  anything,  it  goes  to  prove  that  in  fields 
where  overtime  and  irregularity  were  long  thought  indis- 
pensable, a  better  organization  has  spread  work  more  uni- 
formly through  the  year,  and  has  in  large  part  done  away  with 
overtime.  It  shows  also  that  the  caprice  of  customers,  to 
which  the  necessity  for  overtime  is  often  ascribed,  can  also 
be  regulated  to  a  degree  as  yet  unapproached  in  many  in- 
dustries. Finally,  both  for  customers  and  employers,  the 
best  incentive  to  regularity  has  been  the  legal  regulation  of 
working  hours — a  regulation  which  is  most  effective  where  it 
is  most  specific  and  exact. 


191 


VII 

THE  NEW  SCIENCE  OF  MANAGEMENT:   ITS  RELA- 
TION TO  HUMAN  ENERGIES 

IN  the  preceding  chapter,  the  detailed  planning  of  output 
in  advance  of  performance,  in  two  progressive  New 
England  establishments,  was  related  to  point  out  the 
permanence  of  employment  and  avoidance  of  overtime  there- 
by effected.* 

These  results  or,  more  truly,  by-products  were  achieved 
by  means  of  the  new  system  which,  under  the  name  of  scien- 
tific management,  industrial  efficiency,  and  the  like,  is  slowly 
spreading  through  the  world.  We  have  already  touched  in 
passing  upon  several  incidents  of  this  new  order,  such  as  the 
increased  use  of  the  stop-watch  in  gauging  men's  efficiencies. 
Abbe's  studies  of  individual  working  capacity  also  tended  in 
the  direction  of  scientific  management.  But  the  system  it- 
self is  something  immensely  larger  than  any  of  the  factors 
which  compose  it.  It  is  a  philosophy,  not  a  new  routine;  or 
more  exactly,  it  is  a  new  synthesis  of  many  elements  pre- 
viously tested  and  untested.  Its  results  have  intoxicated 
the  imagination.  "  I  cannot  prophesy  the  end,  there  is  no 
end.  ...  I  am  learning  my  trades  all  over  again,"  testi- 
fied a  prominent  contractor  in  regard  to  the  system,  before 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission.!  Scientific  manage- 
ment is  said  to  differ  from  the  ordinary  systems  of  produc- 
tion "much  as  production  by  machinery  differs  from  pro- 
duction by  hand;  and  the  revolution  .  .  .  which  must 
result  from  the  introduction  of  scientific  management  is  com- 

*  See  pages  178-179. 

t  Brandeis,  Louis  D.:  Before  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
Docket  No.  3400.  Brief  on  behalf  of  the  Traffic  Committee  of  Commercial 
Organizations  of  Atlantic  Seaboard,  1911,  pp.  21  and  33. 

192 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF    MANAGEMENT 

parable  only  to  that  involved  in  the  transition  from  hand  to 
machine  production." 

These  are  prodigious  assertions  seriously  made.  Of  the 
philosophy  and  practice  which  underlie  them  we  can  con- 
sider here  only  the  most  distinctive  notes,  which  are  most 
closely  allied  to  the  subjects  which  we  have  treated  up  to 
this  point. 


1.     DIFFERENCES  BETWEEN   ORDINARY   SPEEDING-UP  AND 
THE  NEW  SYSTEM 

Some  concrete  examples  of  increased  efficiency  under 
scientific  management  are  as  follows : 

"  (a)  When  applied  to  the  simple  operation  of  load- 
ing by  hand  a  railroad  car  with  pig  iron,  the  performance 
of  the  individual  worker  increased  from  12>^  to  47  tons 
a  day. 

"  (b)  When  applied  to  shoveling  coal,  it  doubled 
or  trebled  the  performance  of  the  shoveler. 

"  (c)  When  applied  to  machine  shop  work,  it  de- 
veloped in  certain  operations  increases  in  production, 
ranging  from  400  to  1800  per  cent. 

"  (d)  When  applied  to  bricklaying,  the  day's  ac- 
complishment rose  from  1000  to  2700  bricks.  (Gilbreth : 
Record,  p.  3410.) 

"  (e)  When  applied  in  the  manufacture  of  ma- 
chinery, 75  men  in  the  machine  shop  with  20  in  the 
planning  department  do  two  to  three  times  as  much 
work  as  105  men  in  the  machine  shop  did  under  the  old 
methods.     (Hathaway:   Record,  p.  3059.) 

"  (f)  When  applied  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton 
goods,  it  increased  the  output  100  per  cent.  (Scheel: 
Record,  p.  3377.)"* 

"One  of  the  folders  on  light  work  (in  a  cloth  finishing 
establishment),  a  wonderfully  skilful  young  woman,  who  had 
folded  155  pieces  a  day  before,  now  folded  887. "f 

*  Brandeis,  op.  cit.,  pp.  38-39. 

t  See  Scientific  Management  as  Applied  to.  Women's  Work,  in  Clark, 
S.  A.,  and  Wyatt,  Edith:  Making  Both  Ends  Meet,  p.  242.  New  York, 
The  Macmillan  Co.,  1911. 

13  193 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

The  question  at  once  arises:  How  do  these  extraordinary 
increases  of  output  differ  from  the  ordinary  speeding  up  and 
pace-making  which  we  have  seen  to  be  common  in  industry, 
and  prime  factors  in  its  overstrain?  It  is  entirely  natural 
that,  at  first  sight,  the  almost  incredible  heightening  of  hu- 
man capacity  which  scientific  management  achieves  should 
be  viewed  with  extreme  suspicion.  Instinctively  we  ask  how 
this  is  accomplished,  and  what  are  its  effects  upon  the  workers. 

In  both  ordinary  management  and  under  the  new  system, 
it  is  the  stimulus  of  reward  which  calls  forth  the  extra  exer- 
tions of  the  workers.  Indeed,  scientific  management  has 
evolved  stimuli  of  far  greater  psychological  power  than  any 
known  before,  in  its  finely  adjusted  rates  and  proportions  of 
pay. 

But  the  diversified  pay  systems  are  merely  subordin- 
ate mechanisms.  Scientific  management  differs  from  other 
systems  not  in  degree,  but  in  kind.  Ordinary  management 
leaves  the  workers  in  any  industry  to  learn  and  pursue  their 
trades  by  imitation  from  their  fellows,  by  tradition  and  the 
rule  of  thumb.  Scientific  management  assumes  the  responsi- 
bility of  teaching  the  workman  a  predetermined  task  and 
keeping  him  adequately  provided  to  accomplish  this  task. 

In  this  apparently  simple  assumption  lie  the  germs  of  a 
wholly  new  system  of  production.  The  responsibilities  as- 
sumed by  scientific  management  involve  a  new  conception  of 
every  business.  It  replaces  empiricism  by  predetermination 
of  results;  the  haphazard  of  the  mechanic  by  the  engineer's 
application  of  scientific  laws.  Each  process  of  work  is  ana- 
lyzed into  its  ultimate  units.  Each  smallest  step  of  the  proc- 
ess is  compared  with  an  ideal  standard  of  performance, 
and  allowance  being  made  for  practical  conditions,  an  at- 
tainable commercial  standard  is  set  for  each  unit  of  work  and 
for  the  whole  work  reassembled  in  its  entirety.* 

This  brief  formula  contains  the  gist  of  a  long  series  of 
complicated  operations.     It  presupposes  the  scientific  selec- 
tion of  workmen  for  their  tasks;  an  analytical  time  study  of 
*  Brandeis,  op.  cit.,  p.  17. 
194 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF   MANAGEMENT 

each  unit  of  work;  records  of  the  accomplishment  of  not  only 
each  individual  but  of  each  machine  and  of  the  material  used; 
the  standardizing  of  all  tools,  machines,  and  equipment,  and 
similar  contrivances  for  obtaining  in  advance  exact  know- 
ledge of  "what  work  is  to  be  done,  how  it  shall  be  done, 
when  it  shall  be  done,  and  what  it  shall  cost."  Some  con- 
crete examples  will  make  this  clearer. 

Let  us  consider  first  one  which  has  been  most  widely 
quoted  and  which  deals  with  one  of  the  simplest  forms 
of  human  labor, — loading  a  freight  car.  Frederick  W. 
Taylor, — best  known  in  the  scientific  world  as  the  author  of 
the  "Art  of  Cutting  Metals,"  a  profound  work  resulting  from 
twenty-six  years  of  investigation, — is  also  the  originator  of 
the  new  study  of  elficiency.  He  has  given  an  intensely  in- 
teresting account  of  the  first  application  of  the  new  system 
at  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Works.* 

"The  opening  of  the  Spanish  War  found  some  80,000 
tons  of  pig  iron  placed  in  small  piles  in  an  open  field  adjoining 
the  works.  Prices  for  pig  iron  had  been  so  low  that  it  could 
not  be  sold  at  a  profit,  and  it  therefore  had  been  stored. 
With  the  opening  of  the  Spanish  War,  the  price  of  pig  iron 
rose,  and  this  large  accumulation  of  iron  was  sold.  This  gave 
us  a  good  opportunity  to  show  the  workmen,  as  well  as  the 
owners  and  managers  of  the  works,  on  a  fairly  large  scale  the 
advantages  of  task  work  over  the  old-fashioned  day  work  and 
piece  work,  in  doing  a  very  elementary  class  of  work. 

"The  Bethlehem  Steel  Company  had  had  five  blast 
furnaces  the  product  of  which  had  been  handled  by  a  pig- 
iron  gang  for  many  years.  This  gang,  at  this  time,  consisted 
of  about  75  men.  They  were  good,  average  pig-iron  handlers, 
were  under  an  excellent  foreman  who  himself  had  been  a  pig- 
iron  handler,  and  the  work  was  done,  on  the  whole,  about  as 
fast  and  as  cheaply  as  it  was  anywhere  else  at  that  time. 

"A  railroad  switch  was  run  out  into  the  field,  right 
along  the  edge  of  the  piles  of  pig  iron.  An  inclined  plank 
was  placed  against  the  side  of  a  car,  and  each  man  picked  up 
from  his  pile  a  pig  of  iron  weighing  about  92  pounds,  walked 
up  the  inclined  plank  and  dropped  it  on  the  end  of  the  car. 

*  Taylor,  Frederick  W. :  Principles  of  Scientific  Management,  pp. 
41  and  42.     New  York,  Harper  and  Brothers,  1911. 

195 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

"We  found  that  this  gang  were  loading  on  the  average 
about  \2y2  long  tons  per  man  per  day.  We  were  surprised 
to  find,  after  studying  the  matter,  that  a  first-class  pig-iron 
handler  ought  to  handle  between  47  and  48  long  tons  per  day, 
instead  of  12>^  tons.  This  task  seemed  to  us  so  very  large 
that  we  were  obliged  to  go  over  our  work  several  times  before 
we  were  absolutely  sure  that  we  were  right." 

How,  now,  had  this  result  been  come  at?  Mr.  Taylor 
had  long  sought  to  discover,  and  had  spent  years  in  attempt- 
ing to  measure  "the  tiring  effects  of  heavy  labor"  upon  a 
first-class  man.  His  object  was  to  find  an  exact  mechanical 
measurement  of  daily  work.  He  sought  to  learn  what  frac- 
tion of  a  horse-power  a  man  was  able  to  exert  in  one  day, 
translated  into  foot  pounds  of  work.*  Records  of  previous 
experiments  by  physiologists  and  engineers  were  found  too 
meager  to  base  any  laws  upon.  Accordingly,  in  1881,  while 
Mr.  Taylor  was  employed  in  the  Midvale  Steel  Works,  he 
began  the  series  of  experiments  which  ultimately  yielded  the 
desired  result  and  led  the  way  for  the  system  which  bears  his 
name. 

Two  first-class  laborers  were  selected  and  were  given 
various  tasks.  Each  motion  was  timed  by  a  stop-watch. 
Useless  and  awkward  motions  were  eliminated  or  replaced  by 
correct  movements.  But  no  relation  was  discovered  between 
the  tiring  effects  of  various  kinds  of  heavy  work  and  the  foot 
pounds  of  energy  exerted. 

"On  some  kinds  of  work  the  man  would  be  tired  out 
when  doing  perhaps  not  more  than  one-eighth  of  a  horse- 
power, while  in  others  he  would  be  tired  to  no  greater  extent 
by  doing  half  a  horse-power  of  work.  We  failed,  therefore, 
to  find  any  law  which  was  an  accurate  guide  to  the  maximum 
day's  work  for  a  first-class  workman. "f 

It  was  not  until  some  years  later,  after  a  second  and 
third  elaborate  series  of  observations  and  measurements,  that 

*  One  foot-pound  =  the  amount  of  energy  required  to  raise  one  pound 
to  a  height  of  one  foot.    One  horse-power  =  33,000  foot-pounds  per  minute, 
t  Taylor,  op.  cit.,  p.  55. 

196 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF    MANAGEMENT 

the  law  sought  was  found.  "  And  it  is  so  simple  in  its  nature/' 
says  Mr.  Taylor,  "that  it  is  truly  remarkable  that  it  should 
not  have  been  discovered  and  clearly  understood  years 
before."  From  our  physiological  point  of  view,  it  is  pecu- 
liarly interesting  to  find  this  law  of  mechanical  work  simply 
an  extension  and  mathematical  working  out  of  the  basic 
principle  which  has  emerged  from  our  study  of  fatigue: 
That  rest  must  adequately  balance  exertion.  Translated  into 
the  language  of  mechanical  labor,  this  requires  that  a  man 
should  be  under  load  for  only  a  definite  percentage  of  the  day, 
and  must  be  entirely  free  from  load  at  frequent  intervals. 

"For  example,  when  pig  iron  is  being  handled  (each 
pig  weighing  92  pounds),  a  first-class  workman  can  only 
be  under  load  43  per  cent  of  the  day.  He  must  be  en- 
tirely free  from  load  during  57  per  cent  of  the  day.  And  as 
the  load  becomes  lighter,  the  percentage  of  the  day  under 
which  the  man  can  remain  under  load  increases.  So  that,  if 
the  workman  is  handling  half-pig,  weighing  46  pounds,  he 
can  then  be  under  load  58  per  cent  of  the  day,  and  only  has 
to  rest  during  42  per  cent."* 

The  process  of  adjustment  is  continuous,  and  as  the 
load  grows  lighter  the  workman  can  remain  under  load, 
without  undue  fatigue,  during  a  larger  and  larger  percentage 
of  the  day. 

This  formula  was  obtained  by  Mr.  C.  G.  Earth's  mathe- 
matical studies,  in  which  each  element  of  the  work  was 
graphically  represented  by  plotting  curves,  to  give  a  bird's- 
eye  view  of  the  data  and  records  accumulated. 

But  to  explain  the  formula  thus  evolved,  we  must  revert 
again  to  the  familiar  language  and  conceptions  of  physiology. 
As  Mr.  Taylor  puts  it : 

"Throughout  the  time  that  the  man  is  under  a  heavy 
load,  the  tissues  of  his  arm  muscles  are  in  process  of  degenera- 
tion, and  frequent  periods  of  rest  are  required  in  order  that 
the  blood  may  have  a  chance  to  restore  these  tissues  to  their 
normal  condition."! 

*  Taylor,  op.  cit.,  pp.  57  and  58.  t  Ibid.,  p.  58. 

197 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

No  constant  relation  was  found  between  the  foot  pounds 
of  energy  exerted  and  the  tiring  effect  of  various  kinds  of 
heavy  muscular  work,  because  no  horse-power  whatever  is 
exerted  by  the  man  who  stands  still  under  load,  however 
intense  his  efforts.  His  arm  muscles  are  under  the  same  se- 
vere tension  whether  he  is  moving  or  not,  but  that  tension 
had  not  been  registered. 

Such  were  the  results  of  the  long-continued  observations 
and  studies  which  preceded  the  efficiency  engineer's  estimate 
of  47  long  tons  instead  of  12J^,  as  the  proper  day's  work  for 
pig-iron  handlers.  His  practical  task  was  now  to  select 
workmen  specially  fitted  for  this  type  of  work;  his  next  to 
train  them  to  accomplish  it.  Mr.  Taylor's  account  of  this 
process  in  relation  to  the  new  management  is  again  of  intense 
interest: 

"Schmidt  started  to  work,  and  all  day  long  and  at 
regular  intervals,  was  told  by  the  man  who  stood  over  him 
with  a  watch,  '  Now,  pick  up  a  pig  and  walk.  Now  sit  down 
and  rest.  Now  walk — now  rest,'  etc.  He  worked  when  he 
was  told  to  work,  and  rested  when  he  was  told  to  rest,  and  at 
half  past  five  in  the  afternoon  had  his  47 >^  tons  loaded  on  the 
car.  And  he  practically  never  failed  to  work  at  this  pace  and 
do  the  task  that  was  set  him  during  the  three  years  that  the 
writer  was  at  Bethlehem."* 

Gradually  other  men  were  chosen  and  trained  to  handle 
pig  iron  at  the  rate  of  47>^  tons  per  day,  receiving  $1.85  in- 
stead of  the  ruling  rate  of  SI. 15  per  day,  until  all  of  the  pig 
iron  was  handled  at  this  high  rate  and  the  gang  received  60 
per  cent  higher  wages  than  other  workmen  around  them. 

In  this  instance  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  such  an  extra- 
ordinary heightening  of  human  working  capacity  could  not 
possibly  have  resulted  from  the  mere  incentive  of  a  high  wage. 
It  resulted  from  the  application  of  the  laws  of  exact  science 
learned  after  years  of  investigation.  The  high  wage  was 
nothing  more  than  an  inducement  for  the  workman  to  change 

*  Taylor,  op.  cit.,  p.  47. 
198 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF    MANAGEMENT 

his  ordinary  habits  and  become  the  pupil  of  a  new  system. 
As  Mr.  Taylor  rightly  says: 

"  If  Schmidt  had  been  allowed  to  attack  the  pile  of  47 
tons  of  pig  iron  without  the  guidance  or  direction  of  a  man 
who  understood  the  art,  or  science,  of  handling  pig  iron,  in 
his  desire  to  earn  his  high  wages  he  would  probably  have  tired 
himself  out  by  11  or  12  o'clock  in  the  day.  He  would  have 
kept  so  steadily  at  work  that  his  muscles  would  not  have  had 
the  proper  periods  of  rest  absolutely  needed  for  recuperation, 
and  he  would  have  been  completely  exhausted  early  in  the 
day.  By  having  a  man,  however,  who  understood  this  law, 
stand  over  him  and  direct  his  work,  day  after  day,  until  he 
acquired  the  habit  of  resting  at  proper  intervals,  he  was  able 
to  work  at  an  even  gait  all  day  long,  without  unduly  tiring 
himself."* 

Here  we  have  the  system  of  scientific  management  at 
its  best.  It  justifies  the  seemingly  extraordinary  claim  that 
"  the  whole  realm  of  science  is  brought  to  the  aid  of  the  hum- 
blest workman." 

Schmidt  was  the  gainer  in  wages,  the  company  and  the 
community  in  the  amount  of  work  done.  With  workers  of 
finer  intelligence  and  reactions,  the  self-respect  and  exhilara- 
tion which  spring  from  achievement  are  as  great  as  the  in- 
creased wage.  In  this  instance  the  prodigious  increase  in 
working  capacity  was  in  direct  proportion  to  the  physiolog- 
ical potentialities  of  the  workman.  Any  one  can  see  the 
difference  between  the  ordinary  methods  of  "speeding  up" 
and  this  speed  achieved  by  the  efficiency  engineer.  He  also 
sets  up  speed  as  one  of  his  ends.  He  aims  for  speed  not  only 
to  increase  quantity  of  work,  as  with  the  pig-iron  handlers, 
but  regards  it  also  as  a  function  of  quality. f 

Now  just  in  proportion  as  this  function  of  speed  is 
developed,  subject  to  the  capacities  of  the  human  agent,  instead 

*  Taylor,  op.  cit.,  p.  59. 

t  "  In  the  last  process  of  stamping  tickets  and  ticketing  (in  a  cloth 
finishing  establishment)  the  girls  work  without  one  superfluous  motion,  with 
a  deftness  very  attractive  to  see;  and  both  here  and  at  book  folding  justified 
the  claim  made  by  Scientific  Management  that  speed  is  a  function  of  quality." 
Clark  and  Wyatt,  op.  cit.,  p.  244. 

199 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

of  as  a  driver  of  those  capacities,  it  counts  as  a  gain.  Just  so 
soon  as  the  function  of  speed  is  disassociated  from  its  effects 
on  the  worker,  we  revert  to  the  old  system  of  pace-making 
and  speeding. 

Such  a  reversion  was  seen  in  the  case  of  the  Bethlehem 
Steel  Works.  When  the  ownership  of  the  works  passed  into 
the  hands  of  Charles  M.  Schwab  in  1901,  the  efficiency  en- 
gineers were  dismissed.  But  the  machinery  of  their  system 
was  kept.  Bonuses,  premiums,  and  other  inducements  for 
great  exertions  on  the  part  of  the  workers  were  continued,  but 
without  the  spirit  which  had  previously  made  these  contriv- 
ances parts  of  a  larger  system,  as  in  the  case  of  Schmidt,  the 
pig-iron  man.  The  result  was  a  return  to  the  system  of 
"drive,"  such  as  the  world  has  seldom  seen  excelled.* 

This,  indeed,  is  one  of  the  dangers  of  scientific  manage- 
ment. Unscrupulous  men  can  easily  pervert  it  to  their  own 
uses.  Its  mechanical  features,  such  as  timing  operations  by  a 
stop-watch,  and  the  like,  are  easily  copied,  and  unless  they 
are  correctly  applied  the  workers  can  thereby  be  exploited 
more  relentlessly  than  ever  before. 

But  such  perversions  cannot  fairly  be  charged  against 
the  system  itself.  They  emphasize  the  dangers  of  this  new 
instrument  of  efficiency;  it  may  be  used  as  a  club  as  well  as 
a  crutch.  But  many  invaluable  stimuli  are  dangerous  in  the 
wrong  hands.  If  the  unscrupulous  use  of  scientific  manage- 
ment were  all  that  could  be  charged  against  it,  the  system 
could  defend  itself  easily  enough.  That  more  has  been 
charged  against  it,  it  would  be  idle  to  deny. 

More  serious  is  the  contention  that  the  efficiency  engi- 
neers themselves  have  failed  to  gauge  fairly  the  tax  of  in- 
creased productivity  upon  the  workers,  and  into  the  justice 
of  this  charge  it  behooves  us  to  inquire. 

*  Gantt,  H.  G.:  Work,  Wages  and  Profits,  p.  107.  Published  by  The 
Engineering  Magazine,  New  York,  1910. 


200 


THE   NEW    SCIENCE   OF   MANAGEMENT 

2.     BENEFITS  OF  THE  NEW  SYSTEM 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  case  of  Schmidt,  the  pig-iron 
man,  increased  efficiency  was  attributed  to  the  balance  of 
exertion  by  enforced  rests.  In  machine  work,  obviously, 
many  more  comphcated  factors  intervene.  Here  scientific 
management  obtains  its  marvelous  results  not  only  by  teach- 
ing the  worker  the  best  possible  way  of  accomplishing  his 
task  with  the  least  time  and  effort,  but  also  by  removing  all 
possible  external  obstacles.  The  management  has,  in  ad- 
vance, perfected  his  equipment  and  sees  that  it  is  always  in 
perfect  order  and  that  the  worker  is  regularly  supplied  with 
material  in  perfect  order  and  condition, 

in  reorganizing  the  weaving  room  of  a  cotton  mill,  for 
instance,*  the  efficiency  engineer  spent  a  month  in  studying 
and  timing  the  looms  and  the  most  expert  weavers.  He 
learned  exactly  how  much  time  it  was  necessary  for  the  loom 
to  be  stopped  each  day  to  remove  and  replace  the  bobbins, 
etc.,  and  what  proportion  of  time  it  should  actually  be  weav- 
ing, when  all  unnecessary  delays  and  obstacles  were  removed. 
After  starting  the  first  workers  on  their  predetermined  tasks, 
he  found  himself  still  dissatisfied  with  the  condition  of  the 
looms  and  the  way  in  which  the  warps  and  filling  were  sup- 
plied. The  new  system  was  again  delayed  eleven  days  un- 
til all  external  delays  and  obstacles,  which  might  interfere 
with  the  accomplishment  of  the  specified  number  of  picks 
to  be  thrown  by  the  loom,  were  removed.  The  first  workers 
were  then  taught  their  trade  anew  by  the  most  expert  weaver, 
chosen  as  teacher,  with  the  efficiency  engineer  to  superintend 
and  teach  the  teacher. 

Another  striking  example  of  regularizing  work  under 
scientific  management  and  saving  the  workers  from  avoidable 
delay  was  shown  in  the  recent  reorganization  of  the  general 
machine  shops  of  the  government  arsenal  at  Watertown, 
Massachusetts. t    The  most  important  manufactures  in  the 

*  Gantt,  op.  cit.,  pp.  143  fF. 

t  Statement  of  Secretary  of  War  Stimson  in  regard  to  War  Depart- 
ment's Experiments  with  Scientific  Management,  1911. 

201 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

arsenal  are  seacoast  gun  carriages — large  structures  with 
hundreds  of  parts,  requiring  many  months  for  their  comple- 
tion. Shop  methods  at  the  different  arsenals  were  believed 
to  be  fully  abreast  of  the  best  general  work  in  private  in- 
dustries of  the  same  nature.  Yet  it  was  concluded  that  the 
general  machine  shop  might  be  materially  improved  under 
scientific  management.  One  of  the  chief  aims  has  been  pre- 
cisely to  regulate  "  the  flow  of  work  so  that  it  shall  be  even 
and  continuous." 

"An  expert  in  shop  management  was  employed,  and 
under  his  guidance  the  .  .  .  orders  for  manufacture  now 
go  from  the  office  to  the  shops  with  a  much  more  complete 
arrangement  and  supply  than  formerly  of  drawings,  specifica- 
tions, lists  of  parts,  list  of  material,  and  orders  regulating  the 
particular  parts  of  the  structure  to  be  produced     .     .     . 

"There  has  been  installed  a  planning  room,  equipped 
with  personnel  and  appliances  for  the  regular  production  of 
what  might  be  called  the  time  tables  of  the  thousands  of 
pieces  which  must  travel  through  the  various  shops  on  their 
way  from  the  stage  of  raw  material  to  that  of  finished  product, 
without  collisions  or  unnecessary  delays. 

"The  work  of  planning  the  course  of  component  parts 
of  the  structures  to  be  manufactured  through  the  shops  of  the 
arsenal  has  been  systematized,  so  that  this  course  shall  be 
regular  and  orderly,  and  the  work  shall  at  no  time  be  held 
through  the  lack  of  some  component  which  is  not  at  hand 
when  needed;  and  that  no  wasteful  effect  shall  arise  through 
congestion  of  work  at  particular  machines,  or  the  idleness  of 
other  machines  or  workmen,  while  waiting  for  the  assignment 
of  operations  which  should  have  been  planned  for  them  in 
advance." 

Compared  with  such  a  regime,  the  crudity  and  chaos  of 
ordinary  systems  stand  out  in  glaring  contrast.  A  revolu- 
tion has  been  effected ;  a  terrible  waste  has  been  checked,  of 
that  capital  which  alone  is  common  and  equal  for  all  mortal 
beings:  of /fw^,  "the  daily  miracle  .  .  .  the  inexplicable 
raw  material  of  everything."  Hitherto  hours,  days,  and 
weeks  of  employment  have  been  habitually  lost  to  the 
workers  through  no  fault  of  their  own,  but  through  the  sheer 

202 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF    MANAGEMENT 

incompetence  of  the  management  in  performing  its  obliga- 
tions and  supplying  materials  and  equipment  fairly.  No 
page  in  industry's  history  is  more  dreary  and  disheartening 
than  the  "time  lost"  by  competent  and  willing  workers, 
waiting,  unpaid,  for  employment  which  might  be  fairly  regu- 
larized. Indeed,  the  daily  delays  and  irregularities  of  work 
involve  more  than  the  direct  loss  of  wage  and  earning  capac- 
ity. They  are  more  subtly  interfused  into  the  day's  work; 
and  the  psychological  gain  which  springs  from  the  elimination 
of  such  daily  annoyance  and  friction  is  undoubtedly  an  im- 
portant factor  in  heightening  working  capacity  under  scien- 
tific management. 

The  new  organization  of  work  has  brought  also  a  new 
emphasis  upon  the  workers'  physical  surroundings.  All 
those  physical  inconveniences  which  waste  human  strength 
and  comfort  and  which  are  common  rather  than  uncommon 
characteristics  of  our  workshops, — such  as  bad  air,  bad  light, 
overcrowding,  dirt,  and  unsanitary  conditions, — are  all  marks 
of  inefficiency  in  the  management.  They  are  intolerable  to 
the  system  which  is  based  essentially  on  the  observation  and 
study  of  cause  and  effect.  Where  the  ordinary  management 
sees  in  the  crudest  so-called  "welfare  work"  (better  light,  air, 
sanitation,  and  comfort)  merely  concessions  to  the  labor 
force,  the  engineer  sees  them  as  indispensable  parts  of  the 
equipment.  They  are  the  mere  commonplaces  of  efficiency, 
without  which  the  accomplishment  of  predetermined  tasks 
cannot  be  expected. 

Under  such  a  system,  as  we  have  seen,  the  increase  in 
production  has  been  stupendous.  Yet  the  picture  has  its 
reverse,  which  may  not  be  ignored.  The  multiplied  task  has 
within  it  real  elements  of  danger,  and  unless  they  are  seen  and 
neutralized  at  the  outset,  the  new  management  may  undo  its 
benefits. 

3.     DANGERS  OF  THE  NEW  SYSTEM 

It  is  clear  that  unless  the  working  hours  are  proportion- 
ately shortened,  or  eased  by  rests,  the  physical  or  nervous 

203 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

hardship  inherent  in  any  process  is  bound  to  be  multiplied 
when  the  task  is  multipHed.  This  was  true  in  the  case  of  the 
weavers  under  scientific  management,  and  is  almost  inevit- 
able in  all  machine  processes.  Take,  for  another  example, 
the  case  of  girls  who  wind  the  bobbins  for  filling,  in  a  cotton 
mill.  They  watch  the  thread  from  18  bobbins,  stopping  and 
replacing  the  bobbins  by  throwing  their  weight  upon  foot 
pedals.  The  girls'  work  was  concentrated  by  providing 
doffers  to  place  the  bobbins  on  the  warp,  formerly  done  by 
the  girls  themselves.  A  time  study  was  made  and  the  task 
so  increased  that  the  girls  earned  from  $8.00  to  $10.50  a 
week,  in  place  of  their  previous  salary  of  $7.00  to  $7.50.  The 
hours  of  labor  were  not  changed.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the 
increased  stamping  of  the  pedals,  necessitated  by  the  larger 
task,  was  bound  to  be  more  exhausting  than  before.* 

So,  too,  with  the  girl  spool  tenders.  "In  replacing  the 
bobbins  and  fastening  the  broken  threads  with  a  tier  knot 
the  girls  have  to  stoop  down  almost  to  the  floor."  Naturally, 
then,  the  increased  task  requires  proportionally  more  con- 
tinuous stooping. 

Moreover,  as  we  saw  in  discussing  the  strain  of  industry, 
the  increased  concentration  of  attention  upon  more  limited 
and  intensive  tasks  makes  for  monotony  and  increases  effort. 
This,  it  is  true,  is  counteracted  under  scientific  management 
by  the  worker's  new  interest  in  earning  a  larger  wage,  condi- 
tional upon  the  quality  as  well  as  the  quantity  of  a  given  task. 
Where  the  payment  of  a  bonus,  over  and  above  the  regular 
day-  or  piece-rate,  does  not  lead  to  an  undue  strain  of  effort, 
it  undoubtedly  acts  as  a  new  and  important  psychological 
motive  in  arousing  interest  in  work.  And  this  interest,  in  the 
intricacy  of  our  psychological  powers,  itself  develops  capacity 
and  reduces  effort. 

The  new  order  of  production  is  thus  infinitely  complex 
in  its  effects  upon  working  capacity.  No  offhand  or  general 
statement  can  gauge  its  true  results.  When,  therefore,  the 
efficiency  engineer  presents  to  us  as  complete  answer  the  fact 

*  Clark  and  Wyatt,  op.  cit.,  pp.  256-257. 
204 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF    MANAGEMENT 

that  the  predetermined  task  has  been  accompHshed  and  that 
bonuses  have  been  earned  by  foreman  and  workers,  he  does 
not  answer  our  demand  to  learn  the  effect  upon  the  workers. 

Mr.  Gantt,  for  instance,  in  his  interesting  book,  shows  by 
graphic  charts  how  the  working  capacity  of  men  and  girls  in 
a  variety  of  establishments  was  remarkably  increased.  He 
insists  upon  the  benefit  accruing  to  the  workers  under  scien- 
tific management,  not  only  in  efficiency  and  wages,  but  in 
habits  of  industry,  in  self-respect  and  improved  personal 
appearance.  He  states  in  general,  that  this  improvement  is 
more  marked  in  girls  than  in  men,  and  that  under  the  new 
system  the  "girls  invariably  acquire  better  color  and  improve 
in  health." 

But  with  a  system  whose  possibilities  for  harm  as  well  as 
for  good  are  so  striking  as  the  new  efficiency,  we  are  justi- 
fied in  asking  for  more  specific  data.  The  burden  of  proof  is 
upon  the  new  system  to  show  that  its  marvelous  results  have 
been  attained  by  legitimate  means,  as  in  the  case  of  the  care- 
fully observed  pig-iron  handlers,  without  extra  strain  upon 
the  vitality  of  the  workers. 

As  applied  to  women,  scientific  management  is  so  recent 
and  has,  as  yet,  affected  such  a  comparatively  small  number, 
that  it  is  perhaps  unreasonable  to  expect  much  accumulated 
evidence.  An  open-minded  and  painstaking  investigation 
into  the  effects  of  scientific  management  upon  working 
women  was  recently  made  by  Miss  Edith  Wyatt,  and  yielded 
results  more  or  less  inconclusive  as  to  the  effect  on  health. 
In  three  large  establishments  studied,  the  new  management 
seems  to  have  "resulted  fortunately  for  the  health  of  the 
workingwomen  in  some  instances  and  unfortunately  in 
others."  To  this  impartial  observer  "the  best  omen  for  the 
conservation  of  the  health  of  the  women  workers  under 
Scientific  Management  in  the  cotton  mill  was  the  entire 
equity  and  candor  shown  by  the  management  in  facing  situ- 
ations unfavorable  for  the  women  workers'  health,  and  their 
sincere  intention  of  the  best  practicable  readjustments."* 
*  Clark  and  Wyatt,  op.  cit.,  pp.  260  and  266. 
205 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

What  we  need  as  regards  both  men  and  women  (and  the 
only  answer  which  will  allay  the  suspicions  aroused  by  scien- 
tific management)  is  more  knowledge  as  to  the  ultimate 
physical  adjustment  of  the  workers  to  the  heightened  in- 
tensity of  their  tasks. 

This  was  a  subject  which  preoccupied  the  attention  of 
the  man  who  was  in  some  sort  a  forerunner  of  the  efficiency 
engineer — Ernst  Abbe.  He,  too,  was  a  student  of  working 
capacity.  He,  too,  sought  the  optimum  in  which  men  accom- 
plished most  in  the  shortest  space  of  time.  But  he  was  con- 
cerned with  the  effects  of  heightened  intensity  upon  the  de- 
velopment of  his  workers  not  only  as  economic  vessels  and 
units  of  production,  but  as  men  and  citizens. 

Now,  it  is  clearly  self-evident  that  the  efficiency  engineer 
desires  the  permanent  welfare  of  his  employes.  Permanency 
of  the  labor  force  is  a  part  of  efficiency,  since  the  training  of 
employes  represents  a  concrete  investment  of  money,  time, 
and  effort.  Scientific  management  would  brand  as  essentially 
inefficient  such  management  as  that  in  many  department 
stores,  where  the  army  of  employes  shifts  almost  like  an  army 
of  tramps.  In  one  large  and  well  known  department  store 
in  Boston,  for  instance,  during  a  single  year,  from  among 
less  than  1,000  regular  employes,  708  left  after  employment 
averaging  fourteen  weeks.*  Only  279  worked  an  entire  year. 
Such  a  record,  resulting  largely  from  underpay,  is  a  fair  gauge 
of  inefficiency.  The  "system  of  drive"  also,  which  merely 
keeps  replacing  its  workers  as  they  are  used  up  or  worn  out 
by  overwork  and  unrelieved  intensity  of  effort,  is  condemned 
by  the  engineers  as  essentially  inefficient.  They  aim  to  set 
tasks  which  the  workers  may  accomplish  and  "thrive  under." 
In  comparison  with  this,  the  difference  in  Abbe's  attitude 
towards  his  workers  was  only  a  matter  of  emphasis.  Yet, 
as  we  all  know,  nothing  is  in  the  end  more  potent  or  rev- 
olutionary than  the  intangible  spirit  which  animates  a  new 
system  and  sets  its  tone,  and  of  this  emphasis  upon  the  work- 

*  This  did  not  include  the  temporary  employes  engaged  for  the 
Christmas  season. 

206 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF   MANAGEMENT 

ers  as  independent  social  units,  scientific  management  has 
still  much  to  learn. 

The  practical  difficulties  of  gauging  the  individual  ad- 
justments to  work  are  undoubtedly  huge.  But  it  is  the 
business  of  scientific  management  to  approach  such  prob- 
lems of  employment  in  the  same  spirit  which  has  solved  the 
vexed  problems  of  equipment. 

What  observation  of  the  workers  is  comparable  to  the 
genius  for  both  details  and  underlying  principles  shown  in  the 
maintenance  of  belting,  in  a  railroad  shop  described  by  Mr. 
Harrington  Emerson?  The  care  of  belting  at  one  of  the  main 
shops  had  cost  about  $12,000  a  year,  or  $1,000  each  month. 

"  It  was  so  poorly  installed  and  supervised  that  there  was 
an  average  of  twelve  breakdowns  each  working  day,  each 
involving  more  or  less  disorganization  of  the  plant  in  its  parts 
or  as  a  whole.     .     .     ." 

Scientific  management  then  entered : 

"The  worker  in  actual  charge  of  belts,  a  promoted  day 
laborer,  was  given  standards,  and  took  his  directions  from  a 
special  staff  foreman,  only  one  of  whose  duties  was  knowl- 
edge as  to  belts.  The  foreman  had  received  his  knowledge  and 
ideals  from  the  general  chief  of  staff,  who  had  made  belts  a 
special  study,  and  this  general  chief  of  staff  had  been  inspired 
and  directed  by  a  man  who  had  made  a  nine  years'  special 
study  of  belts  and  who  was  the  greatest  authority  in  the 
world  on  the  subject.  The  belt  foreman  had  as  much  of  this 
knowledge  at  his  call  as  he  could  absorb,  but  he  in  turn  was 
in  immediate  contact  with  each  individual  belt,  with  the 
machine  it  was  on  and  with  the  worker  using  the  machine. 
The  chief  of  staff  learned  as  much  from  the  belt  foreman  as 
the  belt  foreman  learned  from  the  chief  of  staff.  The  belt 
foreman  learned  as  much  from  the  machinists  as  they  learned 
from  him.  The  cost  of  maintaining  belts  fell  from  $1,000  a 
month  to  $300  a  month;  the  number  of  breakdowns  declined 
from  twelve  each  working  day  to  an  average  of  two  a  day, 
not  one  of  them  serious."* 

*  Emerson,  Harrington:  Efficiency  as  a  Basis  for  Operation  and  Wages, 
p.  61.     Published  by  The  Engineering  Magazine,  New  York,  1909. 

207 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Here  we  have  the  greatest  authority  in  the  world  sought 
as  consultant  for  the  Hfe  of  belting.  What  first  class  author- 
ity, nay,  what  specialist  at  all,  is  called  in  as  consultant  for 
the  lives  of  mortal  men  and  women  singularly  responsive  and 
singularly  influenced  by  the  new  and  unstudied  forces  re- 
leased by  the  new  system  of  production? 


4.   SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT   AND   COLLECTIVE 
BARGAINING 

The  solution  of  these  problems,  connected  with  the  de- 
termination of  strains  upon  the  workers,  will  probably  be 
contingent  upon  the  solution  of  another,  which  it  is  the  re- 
proach of  scientific  management  to  have  left  so  far  unsolved. 
This  is  its  relation  to  labor  organization:  its  failure  to  enlist 
the  forces  of  a  devotion  as  passionate  as  the  instinct  for  self- 
preservation  itself. 

In  a  recent  valuable  paper  on  "Organized  Labor's 
Attitude  Toward  Industrial  Efficiency,"*  John  R.  Commons 
observes  that  the  conflict  between  unionism  and  scientific 
management  is  found  at  the  point  where  management  weakens 
the  solidarity  of  the  labor  unions.  Where,  for  instance,  the 
principle  of  individual  bargaining  replaces  collective  bar- 
gaining, the  instinctive  and  reasonable  hostility  of  labor 
arises.  It  is  true,  as  evidence  showed  before  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission,  that  in  a  number  of  important 
establishments,  union  and  non-union  men  have  worked 
peaceably  under  the  new  management. f  Nor  is  there 
any  reason  why  they  should  not  do  so.  The  hostility 
of  labor  which  resents  the  stop-watch  of  the  engineer,  his 
impersonal  and  unfeeling  measurement  of  human  powers  in 
mechanical  and  psychological  terms,  is  bound  to  yield  to  tact 
and  persuasion.     This  is  a  hostility  bred  of  sentiment,  which 

*  The  American  Economic  Review,  Vol.  I,  No.  3.     September,  191L 
t  Tabor  Manufacturing  Company  of  Philadelphia;    Canadian  Pacific 
Shops  at  Angus,   Montreal;    Manhattan  Press  of  New  York;     Plimpton 
Press  of  Norwood,  Massachusetts,  and  contract  work  under  Frank  Gil- 
breth  and  others. 

208 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF    MANAGEMENT 

it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  time  and  education  may 
gradually  dissipate.  But  the  unionist's  desperate  dread  of 
losing  his  hard-won  collective  bargaining  power  (the  essential 
basis  of  his  solidarity)  can  be  met  only  by  "converting  this 
craving  for  harmony  and  mutual  support,  as  well  as  the  im- 
pulse of  individual  ambition,  into  a  productive  asset."* 

The  material  results  of  industrial  efficiency  are  such  that 
the  new  system  is  inevitably  bound  to  spread  and  affect  the 
fortunes  of  a  constantly  growing  number  of  wage-earners, 
men  and  women.  This  is  the  reason  why  its  attitude  towards 
collective  bargaining  is  of  such  vast  consequence  now,  while 
the  relations  between  the  engineers  and  the  unions  are  still 
uncrystallized  and  in  process  of  formation. 

The  unions  themselves  have,  on  the  whole,  failed  as  yet 
to.grasp  the  significance  and  inevitableness  of  the  new  order 
of  production.  They  have  confused  its  outward  forms  and 
economies,  such  as  the  bonuses,  with  the  old  system  of 
"drive."  They  often  resent,  as  indeed  it  is  only  human  at 
first  to  resent,  the  enforced  substitution,  however  desirable, 
of  new  habits  for  old.  They  have  belied  the  system  and  wil- 
fully closed  their  eyes  to  its  marvelous  possibilities;  but  in 
such  opposition  the  forces  of  unionism  are  beating  against  a 
dead  wall.  Scientific  management  is  bound  to  triumph  with 
them  or  despite  them.  Labor  has  thus  before  it  a  unique 
opportunity,  still  largely  unrecognized,  to  strengthen  its 
cause  and  to  gain  for  itself  a  fair  share  in  the  new  benefits  of 
science.  Its  bitter  experience  in  the  past,  especially  in  rela- 
tion to  new  inventions  such  as  the  introduction  of  machinery, 
whose  benefits  capital  and  not  labor  has  so  largely  absorbed, 
explains  in  part  the  opposition  of  labor  to  scientific  manage- 
ment. 

The  forces  of  repression  so  threaten  unionism  on  all 
sides,  perverting  even  industrial  efficiency  itself  to  their  ma- 
lign uses,  that  the  leaders  of  the  new  order,  free  to  realize  its 
wider  implications  and  benefits  to  laborer  as  well  as  to  em- 
ployer, are  under  special  obligations  to  spend  their  best  ef- 

*  Commons,  op.  cit.,  p.  472. 
14  209 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

fort  upon  this,  doubtless  their  most  difficult  problem.  "  Lib- 
erty," said  a  true  lover  of  his  race,  "does  not  fail  those  who 
are  determined  to  have  it":*  and  the  same  is  true  of  justice. 

"The  fundamental  defect,"  as  Professor  Commons  puts 
it,  "is  the  failure  to  investigate  first  the  bargaining  relations 
and  then  to  organize  those  relations  in  such  a  way  that  con- 
flicts of  opinion  and  interest  will  be  furnished  a  channel  for  ex- 
pression and  compromise;  and  then,  last  of  all,  to  work  out 
the  standards  and  records  under  the  direction  of  and  sub- 
ordinate to  this  organization  of  the  bargaining  relations.  I 
do  not  pretend  to  say  how  this  shall  be  done.  It  also  is  a 
matter  for  investigation  in  each  case.  1  only  contend  that 
the  individual  bargain  should  be  eliminated  as  far  as  possible 
and  the  collective  bargain  substituted."! 

So  far  as  concerns  the  legislative  restriction  of  working 
hours  which  our  study  has  led  us  to  advocate,  the  new  effi- 
ciency is  no  obstacle  or  check,  but  rather  an  incentive. 

It  represents  the  progressive  employers  whom  the  state 
benefits  together  with  their  employes,  in  checking  the  less 
efficient  and  unscrupulous  competitors.  Excessive  hours, 
like  overtime  and  under  pay,  are  marks,  often  unrecognized, 
of  inefficiency.  That  scientific  management  itself  has  short- 
ened the  workday  in  fair  proportion  to  the  increased  produc- 
tivity of  its  workers,  no  one  can  justly  maintain.  In  regard 
to  both  hours  and  conditions  the  new  system  has  still  to  share 
its  marvelous  gains  more  equitably  with  labor.  In  the  pres- 
ent status  of  our  industries,  therefore,  where  the  true  effici- 
ency is  still  exceptional,  legislation  to  restrict  the  working 
day  is  still  a  cardinal  need. 

*  "Liberia  non  tradisce  i  volenti." — Garibaldi, 
t  Commons,  op.  cit.,  p.  471. 


2IO 


VIII 
THE  ENFORCEMENT  OF  LABOR  LAWS 

WE  have  now  reached  a  more  technical  aspect  of  our 
subject  which  needs  close  consideration — the  ad- 
ministration of  our  labor  laws.  For  in  the  end  the 
whole  test  and  crux  of  labor  legislation — indeed  its  whole 
excuse  for  being — is  precisely  its  enforceability  and  enforce- 
ment. We  do  not  seek  laws  limiting  the  hours  of  labor  for 
the  sake  of  having  them  on  the  statute  books,  nor  for  any 
academic  purposes  whatever.  We  seek  them  purely  for  the 
sake  of  securing  adequate  control  of  the  length  of  the  work- 
day. What  then  are  the  essential  desiderata  for  enforcement? 
What  assists  and  what  hinders  the  factory  inspectors  in  their 
difficult  office  of  administering  these  statutes,  particularly 
that  statute  which  combats  industrial  fatigue  by  limiting 
the  hours  of  labor?  Our  inquiry  narrows  itself  down  to  this 
specific  question.  We  must  consider  what  kind  of  laws  tend, 
on  the  whole,  to  get  themselves  best  enforced. 

It  is  in  this  connection  that  the  employment  of  women 
at  night  and  in  the  evening  after  the  day's  work  plays  so  im- 
portant a  role.  Overtime  work  may,  in  fact,  be  called  the 
key  to  the  whole  matter  of  regulating  the  hours  of  labor. 
More  than  30  American  states  have  enacted  laws  prohibit- 
ing, in  various  degrees,  the  employment  of  women  more  than 
a  specified  number  of  hours.  But  only  three  states — Massa- 
chusetts, Indiana,  and  Nebraska — have  set  a  legal  closing 
hour  after  which  employment  is  illegal.  Moreover,  many 
states,  as  we  shall  see,  allow  various  exceptions  for  overtime 
which  interfere  gravely  with  the  enforceability  of  their  laws. 
The  diificulties  of  inspection  become  almost  insuperable. 

21  1 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


Let  US  first  make  clear  the  distinction  between  the  rigid 
law  which  prohibits  overtime  and  night  work,  and  the  elastic 
law  which  does  not. 


1.     THE  RIGID  LAW:    HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN 
MASSACHUSETTS 

The  rigid  or  non-elastic  law  is  one  which  provides  fixed 
boundaries  for  working  hours.  It  protects  women  from  work- 
ing after  a  specified  hour  at  night,  and  more  than  a  given 
number  of  hours  by  the  day  or  week.  The  best  exemplar  of 
this  kind  of  law  in  the  United  States  is  the  Massachusetts 
statute  which  prohibits  the  employment  of  women  in  textile 
mills  more  than  ten  hours  in  one  day,  or  more  than  fifty-four 
hours  in  one  week,  or  before  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  or 
after  six  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

A  moment's  thought  will  show  the  advantages  for  en- 
forcement of  laws  thus  rigidly  framed.  The  law  is  final.  Its 
provisions  are  clear  cut.  Employers,  employes,  and  inspec- 
tors know  without  disagreement  or  argument  what  constitutes 
a  violation.  Work  continued  after  the  specified  closing  hour 
is  conclusive  evidence  of  violation.  The  factory  inspector 
can  see  at  a  glance,  without  further  machinery,  whether  or 
not  employes  are  being  illegally  kept  at  work. 

The  Massachusetts  textile  law  has  not  been  hastily 
enacted.  It  is  the  fruit  of  almost  forty  years  of  experience. 
After  two  commissions  of  investigation  in  1866  and  1867,  the 
first  Massachusetts  law  for  adult  women  was  enacted  in  1874. 
From  that  date  to  the  present  day  there  has  been  slow  but 
steady  progress  making  the  law  more  and  more  rigid  and 
definite  in  its  requirements,  as  experience  proved  how  enforce- 
ment was  hindered  by  the  laxness  of  the  earlier  statutes.  It 
is  worth  while  to  trace  this  course  of  legislation  in  Massachu- 
setts, since  the  whole  case  for  an  exact  and  rigid  law  with 
fixed  legal  opening  and  closing  hours,  rests  not  on  any  theory 
but  on  the  direct  evidence  of  experience.  No  arguments 
could  be  more  telling  than  the  fact  that  our  oldest  industrial 

212 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

State,  like  England  before  it,  has  had  to  amend  its  laws  deal- 
ing with  the  hours  of  labor  steadily  in  the  direction  of  greater 
rigidity  and  exactness. 

The  first  statute  for  adult  women  enacted  in  Massa- 
chusetts prohibited  their  employment  in  manufacture  more 
than  ten  hours  in  one  day  and  sixty  hours  in  one  week.  But 
this  law  was  inoperative  for  some  years  because  a  fine  was 
prescribed  only  for  its  "wilful"  violation — a  loophole  through 
which  obviously  any  offender  could  easily  escape.  The  law 
of  1874  was  "practically  not  in  operation  until  in  1879  when 
the  word  'wilfully'  was  stricken  out  by  chapter  207  of  that 
year.  * 

The  law  of  1874  had  also  allowed  two  other  exemptions 
which  added  greatly  to  the  difficulties  of  enforcement.  This 
was  in  permitting  overtime  after  the  ten-hour  day,  in  order 
to  make  good  any  time  lost  for  repairs  within  the  same  week, 
or  in  order  to  make  one  day  in  the  week  shorter. 

"  The  time  devoted  to  starting  and  stopping  machinery 
was  absurdly  prolonged.  Again,  where  a  factory  ran  an 
eleven-hour  day,  each  woman  and  child  was  required  to 
leave  for  half  an  hour  in  each  half  day,  but  her  neighbor  tended 
two  sets  of  machinery  during  her  absence — 'doubling  up' 
this  was  technically  called."t 

In  order  to  meet  these  evident  defects  in  the  operation 
of  the  law,  various  amendments  were  accordingly  passed. 
In  1880|  the  posting  of  a  notice  was  required,  stating  the 
daily  hours  of  work;  in  1886§  it  was  required  that  the  notices 
should  contain  an  additional  statement  of  time  allowed  to 
stop  and  start  machinery,  and  the  time  given  for  meals. 
Even  this  amendment  proved  too  lax.  In  the  very  next 
year,  1887,  the  law  was  again  amended  ||  to  require  the  post- 

*  Report  of  the  Convention  of  the  International  Association  of  Factory 
Inspectors,  1894,  p.  65. 

t  Massachusetts  Labor  Legislation.  S.  S.  Whittlesey.  Supplement 
to  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science. 
January,  1901,  p.  13. 

X  Laws  of  1880,  chap.  194.  §  Laws  of  1886,  chap.  90. 

II  Laws  of  1887,  chap.  280. 

213 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ing  of  the  exact  hours  when  work  began  and  stopped  and  also 
hours  when  meal-time  began  and  ended. 

The  practice  of  lengthening  the  day's  work  by  "doub- 
ling up"  was  also  attacked  in  1887.*  In  factories  where  five 
or  more  women  began  work  at  the  same  time,  it  was  required 
that  meal-time  should  be  given  them  at  the  same  hours, 
without  imposing  additional  work  upon  women  who  began 
work  and  had  their  meals  later. 

Another  important  amendment  enacted  in  1887  aimed 
to  correct  another  evasion  of  the  law  which  the  inspectors 
had  found  very  general. 

"The  most  trivial  accident  to  the  machinery  which,  in 
itself,  might  not  have  entailed  an  appreciable  loss  of  time,  had 
again  and  again  been  made  the  pretext  for  much  lengthened 
overtime  employment. "f 

This  abuse  was  attacked  by  allowing  overtime  for  repairs 
only  when  stoppage  lasted  over  thirty  minutes,  and  after  a 
full  written  report  had  been  sent  to  the  chief  inspecting 
official.     A  special  fine  was  prescribed  for  false  reporting. 

Such  were  some  of  the  successive  amendments  enacted 
to  assist  the  enforcement  of  the  law  by  making  its  technical 
requirements  more  rigid.  More  important  still  were  suc- 
cessive enactments  cutting  down  the  period  of  hours  within 
which  the  legal  workday  was  allowed  to  fall. 

In  1890t  for  the  first  time  legal  opening  and  closing 
hours  were  set  for  the  day's  work.  This  was  a  step  of  far- 
reaching  importance.  The  absence  of  a  fixed  closing  hour 
had  previously  been  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  law.  It  allowed  women  to  be  employed  by  night 
as  well  as  by  day.  Moreover,  it  made  almost  unenforceable 
the  ten  hours'  limitation  of  work.  So  long  as  women  might 
be  employed  until  any  hour  of  the  night  at  will,  it  was  prac- 
tically impossible  for  the  inspectors  to  detect  violations.  Un- 
less they  remained  actually  on  the  premises  they  could  not 

*  Laws  of  1887,  chap.  215.  f  Whittlesey,  op.  cit.,  p.  14. 

t  Laws  of  1890,  chap.  183. 

214 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

know  when  work  stopped.  The  law  of  1890,  therefore,  pro- 
vided that  the  ten-hour  workday  must  fall  between  6  a.  m. 
and  10  p.  m.  The  employment  of  women  in  manufacture 
was  prohibited  before  and  after  those  hours. 

Even  this  limit  of  hours,  however,  proved  inadequate 
for  enforcement.  So  long  as  it  was  permissible  to  employ 
women  ten  hours  at  any  time  between  six  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing and  ten  o'clock  at  night  (a  period  of  sixteen  hours),  it 
was  still  exceedingly  difficult  to  enforce  the  law  effectually. 

Moreover,  a  practice  grew  up  known  as  "swapping." 
One  manufacturer  would  employ  women  ten  hours  between 
six  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and 
another  manufacturer  would  employ  them  additional  hours 
up  to  ten  o'clock  at  night.  This,  of  course,  entirely  destroyed 
the  effect  of  the  law.  Hence,  after  many  defeats  and  more 
than  a  dozen  years'  agitation  by  the  trade  unions  and  other 
interested  persons,  the  so-called  "overtime  bill"  was  passed 
in  1907.*  This  provides  that  in  Massachusetts'  greatest 
manufacture,  the  textile  industry,  women  may  not  be  em- 
ployed before  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  nor  after  six  o'clock 
— instead  of  after  ten  o'clock — in  the  evening.  This  rigid 
provision,  which  copies  the  still  more  definite  British  textile 
act,  has  finally  been  successfully  enforced. 

Accompanying  these  successive  efforts  to  cut  down  the 
period  within  which  the  legal  workday  must  fall,  there  have 
been  successive  reductions  of  the  legal  day's  and  week's 
work.  In  1883t  the  ten-hour  day  was  extended  to  women 
employed  in  mechanical  and  mercantile  establishments.  In 
1892t  women's  hours  of  labor  in  manufacturing  and  mechan- 
ical establishments  were  reduced  to  fifty-eight  in  one  week. 
Eight  years  later,  in  1900,  §  the  same  reduction  was  made  for 
women  in  mercantile  establishments,  excepting  that  retail 
stores  were  exempted  from  this  provision  during  December. 
In  1904  the  exemption  was  repealed  1|  and  work  was  limited  to 

*  Laws  of  1907.  chap.  267.  t  Laws  of  1883,  chap.  157. 

t  Laws  of  1892,  chap.  357.  §  Uws  of  1900,  chap.  378. 

[1  Uws  of  1904,  chap.  397. 

215 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


fifty-eight  hours  a  week  during  the  whole  year.  In  1908*  the 
week's  work  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  establish- 
ments was  reduced  to  fifty-six  hours. f  Finally,  in  1911,  the 
weekly  allowance  of  hours  was  reduced  to  fifty-four.J 


2.    THE  RIGID  LAW:    HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  GREAT 

BRITAIN 

In  this  consistent  sequence,  extending  through  a  long 
series  of  years,  Massachusetts  has  followed  the  earlier  ex- 
perience of  England.  We  find  there,  extending  over  an  even 
longer  period,  a  similar  movement  towards  shorter  and  more 
rigidly  defined  hours,  in  the  interest  of  enforcement. 

In  England  the  necessity  of  having  fixed  opening  and 
closing  hours  was  recognized  in  the  very  first  effective  statute 
limiting  hours  of  labor.  This  was  the  British  act  of  1833 
which  forbade  the  employment  of  young  persons  under  eigh- 
teen years  in  textile  mills  between  8.30  p.  m.  and  5.30  a.  m., 
or  more  than  twelve  hours  in  any  one  day.  There  were 
other  regulations  for  young  children  which  need  not  be  con- 
sidered here. 

The  British  law  of  1844  was  the  first  statute  in  any 
country  to  limit  the  working  hours  of  adult  women.  It  ex- 
tended to  them  the  provisions  of  the  act  of  1833,  thus  pro- 
viding for  all  women  employed  in  textile  mills  a  maximum 
number  of  working  hours  and  a  period  of  rest  at  night  be- 
tween specified  hours.  From  the  beginnings  of  legislation 
it  was  realized  that  the  effective  enforcement  of  any  limita- 
tion of  hours  by  day  was  dependent  upon  the  establishment 
of  a  fixed  closing  time  at  night. 

The  act  of  1847  reduced  women's  hours  of  labor  in 
textile  mills  to  ten  hours  in  one  day.  But  the  advocates  of 
restriction,  led  by  Lord  Shaftesbury,  were  defeated  in  their 

*  Laws  of  1908,  chap.  645. 

t  Except  that  in  any  establishment  "where  the  employment  is  by 
seasons,"  the  week's  work  may  be  fifty-eight  hours,  if  the  total  number  of 
hours  in  the  year  does  not  exceed  an  average  of  fifty-six  hours  a  week. 

I  Laws  of  1911,  chap.  484. 

2l6 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

attempt  to  have  work  at  night  prohibited  between  6  p.  m. 
and  6  a.  m.  instead  of  the  original  terminal  hours.  The 
experience  of  the  factory  inspectors  showed  very  early,  what 
was  shown  later  in  Massachusetts,  that  it  was  almost  im- 
possible to  enforce  the  law  effectively,  so  long  as  it  was  per- 
missible to  employ  women  at  any  time  within  a  period  of 
fifteen  hours,  that  is,  between  5.30  a.  m.  and  8  p.  m.*  It 
was  realized  that  the  textile  law  would  be  practically  non- 
enforceable  until  a  so-called  "normal  day''  should  be  estab- 
lished. This  meant  that  the  legal  workday  should  be  re- 
quired to  fall  between  specified  hours  and  within  a  fixed 
period  of  time,  just  equal  in  duration  to  the  legal  workday 
plus  meal  times. 

Accordingly,  in  1850,  further  legislation  remedied  this 
defect  in  the  textile  law.  It  provided  that  women  might  be 
employed  ten  and  one-half  hours  in  the  day,  and  it  provided 
also  that  the  workday  must  fall  in  the  twelve-hour  periods 
between  6  a.  m.  and  6  p.  m.  or  7  a.  m.  and  7  p.  m.,  with  one 
and  one-half  hours  off  for  meals.  Under  this  arrangement 
the  "normal  day"  between  the  fixed  opening  and  closing 
hours  exactly  coincided  with  the  ten  and  one-half  hours  of 
labor  allowed,  plus  meal  hours.  It  also  made  possible  a 
twelve-hour  period  of  rest  at  night. 

Subsequent  acts  have  still  further  reduced  the  length  of 

the  workday  and  have  made  the  British  textile  law  as  nearly 

definite  and  exact  as  is  humanly  possible.     Work  must  fall 

between  6  a.  m.  and  6  p.  m.  or  7  a.  m.  and  7  p.  m.,  with  two 

hours  off  for  meals  on  week  days;  and  on  Saturdays  it  must 

fall  between  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  twelve  o'clock 

at  noon,  or  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  one  o'clock  in 

the  afternoon,  with  one  half  hour  off  for  meals.     It  may  not 

begin  or  end  on  the  half  hour. 

*  See  a  similar  complaint  by  the  New  York  Mercantile  Inspector  in 
the  year  1910.  "The  part  of  Section  161  relative  to  the  hours  of  labor 
of  females  from  sixteen  to  twenty-one  years  of  age,  is  one  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult provisions  of  the  law  to  enforce.  .  .  .  The  provision  calling  for 
ten  hours'  work  between  the  hours  of  7  a.  m.  and  10  p.  m.,  allows  a  period 
of  fifteen  hours  per  day  in  which  to  perform  ten  hours'  work."  Report 
of  the  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  1910,  p.  132. 

217 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Of  the  effects  of  these  rigid  provisions  on  both  industry 
and  labor,  one  of  the  foremost  EngHsh  economists  writes 
with  enthusiasm. 

"How  potently,"  says  Mr.  Sidney  Webb,  "the  addi- 
tional freedom  which  the  law  thus  secures,  to  master  as  well 
as  to  man,  has  reacted  on  the  efficiency  of  the  industry  is, 
at  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century,  one  of  our  proudest 
boasts.  In  spite  of  the  keenest  foreign  competition,  the 
Lancashire  cotton  mill,  in  point  of  technical  efficiency,  still 
leads  the  world,  and  the  Lancashire  cotton  spinner,  once 
in  the  lowest  depths  of  social  degradation,  now  occupies,  as 
regards  the  general  standard  of  life  of  a  whole  trade,  perhaps 
the  foremost  position  among  English  wage-earners."* 

Following  the  first  textile  legislation,  the  acts  were  slowly 
extended  to  take  in  other  industries,  such  as  print  works 
(1845);  bleaching  and  dyeing  (1860);  lace  works  (1861); 
bake  houses  (1863);  earthen  ware,  lucifer  matches,  percus- 
sion caps  and  cartridge  packing,  paper-staining  and  fustian 
cutting  (1864).  Between  1867  and  1907  the  acts  were 
still  further  extended  by  taking  in  many  other  subsidiary 
branches  of  industry  and  the  so-called  "workshops,"  where 
work  is  done  by  hand. 

3.  THE  ELASTIC  LAW:   HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  GREAT 

BRITAIN 

In  all  the  various  so-called  "non-textile"  acts  which 
followed  the  original  textile  legislation,  the  same  general 
principle  was  followed,  providing  for  a  maximum  number  of 
working  hours  by  day,  between  fixed  hours  before  and  after 
which  it  was  illegal  to  employ  any  women,  and  a  period  of 
rest  at  night.  But  the  general  laxness  of  the  non-textile  acts 
and  the  many  exceptions  allowed  have  proved  as  damaging 
to  enforcement  as  the  rigidity  of  the  textile  acts  proved 
helpful. 

The  non-textile  acts  have  nominally  prohibited  night- 

*  Hutchins,  B.  L.,  and  Harrison,  A.:  A  History  of  Factory  Legislation. 
Preface  by  Sidney  Webb,  p.  x.  2nd  Edition  revised.     London,  King,  1911. 

2l8 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

work  and  have  provided  for  a  fixed  workday;  but  in  a  large 
number  of  trades  these  restrictions  have  been  dehberately 
brought  to  naught  by  allowing  special  exceptions  up  to  a 
late  hour  of  the  evening. 

Thus,  for  instance,  the  general  act  tor  non-textile  fac- 
tories provides  that  women  may  not  be  employed  therein 
more  than  ten  and  one-half  hours  in  one  day,  and  that  em- 
ployment must  fall  in  the  twelve-hour  periods  between  6,  7, 
or  8  a.  m.  and  6,  7,  or  8  p.  m.,  with  one  and  one-half  hours 
allowed  off  for  meals.  But  in  certain  trades  overtime  is 
allowed  for  a  variety  of  reasons,  such  as  press  of  work  at 
certain  seasons,  or  when  the  material  to  be  manufactured 
may  be  spoiled  by  weather.  In  such  trades  women  may  be 
employed  twelve  hours  in  one  day  and  as  late  as  10  p.  m.; 
that  is,  employment  is  supposed  to  fall  within  the  fourteen- 
hour  periods  between  6,  7,  or  8  a.  m.  and  8,  9,  or  10  p.  m., 
with  two  hours  allowed  off  for  meals. 

The  experience  gained  in  the  enforcement  of  the  textile 
law  was  ignored.  The  laxness,  or  margin  of  supplementary 
hours  allowed  for  evening  overtime  in  the  non-textile  laws, 
has  long  been  not  only  a  hardship  to  the  workers  but  a 
constant  obstacle  to  the  enforcement  of  these  more  lax 
statutes.  The  legal  permission  to  employ  women  until 
ten  o'clock  in  the  evening  has  led  to  uncontrollable  illegal 
employment  after  that  hour.  The  difficulties  of  enforce- 
ment have  been  practically  insuperable.  In  this,  inspectors 
and  all  fair-minded  observers  agree.* 

Gradually,  however,  this  state  of  affairs  has  been  found 
intolerable.  It  has  been  realized  that  evening  overtime 
must  be  curtailed  and  the  closing  hour  must  be  set  earlier, 
if  the  non-textile  acts  are  to  be  made  of  practical  benefit. 
Beginning  with  the  Consolidating  Act  of  1878,  therefore, 
we  find  the  beginnings  of  a  change  in  this  direction.  From 
among  many,  we  may  cite  a  few  examples  of  the  gradual 
stiffening  of  the  non-textile  acts  and  the  restriction  of  over- 
time work. 

*  See  Part  1 1  of  this  volume,  pp.  464-472. 
219 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

The  act  of  1878  allowed  women  to  be  employed  over- 
time in  non-textile  factories,  as  described  above,  48  days 
during  the  year  and  on  five  days  in  any  week.  In  the  act 
of  1895  such  overtime  work  was  reduced  to  30  times  during 
the  year  and  permitted  on  only  three  days  of  the  week. 

Similar  overtime  employment  has  been  allowed  also  for 
articles  of  "perishable  nature."  This  exception  includes 
such  places  of  employment  as  fruit-preserving  establish- 
ments. In  the  act  of  1878  such  employment  was  allowed 
therein  96  times  during  the  year  and  on  five  days  in  the  week. 
in  1895  such  overtime  was  cut  down  to  60  times  during  the 
year,  and  in  1901  it  was  further  reduced,  being  allowed  only 
50  times  during  the  year,  and  on  not  more  than  three  days 
of  the  week. 

By  a  retrograde  movement  a  special  amendment  had  been 
inserted  into  the  act  of  1891,  exempting  from  all  operation 
of  the  acts,  "the  process  of  cleaning  and  preparing  fruit 
so  far  as  necessary  to  prevent  the  spoiling  of  the  fruit  on 
its  arrival  at  a  factory  or  workshop,  during  the  months  of 
June,  July,  August,  and  September."  This  wholesale  ex- 
emption allowed  women  to  be  employed  unlimited  hours,  by 
day  or  night,  on  certain  processes  in  the  fruit  preserving 
establishments.  Though  the  exemption  was  meant  to  apply 
only  to  "cleaning  and  preparing  fruit  on  arrival,"  its  effect 
was  to  nullify  totally  the  laws  governing  hours  of  labor  in 
those  establishments.  The  legal  permission  to  work  un- 
limited hours  on  certain  processes  led  inevitably  to  the  illegal 
employment  of  women  in  all  processes. 

Of  a  similar  consequence  from  the  exemptions  granted  to 
the  fish-curing  trade,  the  British  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories 
wrote  in  discouragement  in  1901:* 

"Starting  with  an  exemption  for  one  process,  that  of 
'gutting,  salting,  and  packing,'  the  industry  would  seem  to 
have  shaken  itself  gradually  free  from  control,  until  now  we 
find  fish  that  have  been  in  salt  for  several  weeks  dealt  with  as 

*  British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  X,  1901.  Report  of  the  Chief 
Inspector  of  Factories  and  Workshops,  pp.  338-339. 

220 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

perishable  articles.  Given  plenty  of  time  and  unsuitable 
surroundings,  every  article  of  food  is  to  some  extent  perish- 
able, and  when  a  herring  has  been  kept  in  salt  for  some  weeks 
there  is  no  reason  for  working  on  it  at  night  except  the  reason 
that  the  day  will  bring  other  work,  and  in  this  seems  to  lie 
the  cause  of  much  of  the  late  and  irregular  hours  of  the  fish- 
curing  trade.     .     .     ." 

Under  the  British  law,  however,  the  Home  Secretary  is 
empowered  to  issue  "special  orders,"  extending  or  restricting 
the  overtime  exemptions.  After  twelve  years  of  agitation  by 
the  factory  inspectors  and  others  against  the  abuses  of  over- 
time work  and  the  impossibility  of  enforcing  these  useless 
statutes  in  fruit-preserving  establishments,  a  special  order 
was  issued  by  the  Home  Secretary  in  1907.  This  was  in  line 
with  all  previous  experience,  which  had  proved  that  laws 
governing  the  hours  of  labor  cannot  be  enforced  without  a 
fixed  opening  and  closing  hour.  The  order  prohibited  em- 
ployment of  women  in  fruit-preserving  establishments  be- 
tween 10  p.  m.  and  6  a.  m.  This  still  leaves  a  very  long  work- 
day in  these  establishments,  but  an  effective  step  has  been 
taken  toward  ultimate  protection  of  the  workers  by  the 
prohibition  of  night  work. 

Another  interesting  example  of  the  gradual  tendency  to 
restrict  evening  overtime  work  and  limit  the  workday  more 
strictly  by  an  early  closing  hour  is  shown  in  the  history  of 
British  legislation  regarding  the  laundries.  Before  1895  the 
laundries  had  not  been  subject  to  the  Factory  Acts.  In 
the  act  of  that  year  they  were  included  for  the  first  time, 
but  instead  of  being  governed  by  the  same  hours  of  labor 
as  other  establishments,  a  different  and  unenforceable  set  of 
hours  was  prescribed  for  the  laundries.  No  closing  hour  was 
set,  so  that  the  fourteen-hour  workday  permissible  under  the 
law  might  be  and  was  worked  either  by  day  or  by  night.  It 
was  not  until  a  special  act  was  passed  in  1907  that  women 
employed  in  laundries  obtained  protection  at  all  comparable 
to  that  of  women  in  other  occupations. 

This  law  still  permits  a  very  long  working  day  and  work- 

221 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ing  week  (sixty-eight  hours),  and  exemptions  of  many  kinds 
still  defeat  its  effective  enforcement.  But  a  beginning  has 
been  made  by  providing  that  the  workday  must  end  at  9  p.  m. 

In  their  report  for  1909,  the  women  factory  inspectors 
noted  that  the  number  of  complaints  of  excessive  hours  in 
laundries  was  steadily  declining,  showing  how  the  fixed  and 
earlier  closing  hour  was  facilitating  the  enforcement  of  the 
law.  "  It  may  be  hoped,"  says  the  latest  edition  of  the  stand- 
ard history  of  British  factory  legislation,  "that  the  act  of 
1907  will  be  a  step  towards  the  normal  day  which  the  ex- 
perience of  generations  in  regard  to  other  industries  has 
shown  to  be  in  the  best  interests,  not  only  of  the  workers,  but 
of  the  trades  concerned."* 

A  fourth  employment  (besides  non-textile  factories, 
fruit-preserving  establishments,  and  laundries)  in  which  a 
special  laxity  of  hours  has  been  legal  until  recently,  are  the 
flax  scutch  mills.  In  the  Consolidating  Factory  Act  of  1878 
and  earlier,  these  mills  were  totally  exempted  from  all  re- 
strictions of  hours  by  night  as  well  as  by  day,  provided  that 
no  children  or  young  persons  were  employed  therein,  and 
provided  that  employment  did  not  continue  longer  than  six 
months  in  the  year.  In  1907  this  special  exemption  was 
repealed  and  the  flax  scutch  mills  included  in  the  scope  of 
the  textile  acts,  in  order  to  bring  the  British  laws  into  con- 
formity with  the  terms  of  the  Berne  Convention  of  1906  on 
night  work,  to  which  Great  Britain  had  been  a  party. f 

Thus  the  history  of  the  factory  acts  in  Great  Britain 
shows  as  conclusively  as  in  Massachusetts,  how  the  laws 
limiting  the  workday  have  had  to  be  consistently  made  more 
exact  and  more  rigid,  in  the  interest  of  enforcement.  The 
process  is  still  far  from  complete.  Twenty  years  ago,  Mr. 
Sidney  Webb  pointed  out  the  anomaly  in  differentiating 
textile  from  non-textile  laws.  When  the  textile  factories 
were  first  singled  out  for  regulation,  the  cotton  trade  was 

*  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  op.  cit.,  p.  256. 

t  Bulletin  of  the  International   Labour  Office.     English  Edition.    Vol. 
II,  No.  1,  1907.  Page  38. 

222 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

practically  the  only  great  industry  employing  women  and 
children,  and  work  therein  was  far  more  exacting  than  in  any 
other  industrial  employment.  But  with  the  increase  in  the 
number  of  workers  and  intensity  of  work  in  non-textile  em- 
ployments, the  distinction  has  become  purely  arbitrary.  Its 
abandonment  and  the  inclusion  of  non-textile  occupations 
in  the  stricter  statutes  are  only  matters  of  time.  Overtime 
employment  of  all  young  persons  under  eighteen  years  has 
been  prohibited  since  1895.  British  legislation  moves 
"slow,  how  slowly,"  but  the  best  opinion  in  England  holds 
that  "the  overtime  exception  is  doomed." 

4.     ELASTIC  LAWS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
England  is  thus  slowly  emerging  from  a  past  phase  of 
industrial  experience  and  legislation.     Overtime  favors  to 
special    interests   are   going   out.     But   meanwhile,    in   the 
United  States  they  are,  to  some  extent,  coming  in. 

This  refers  particularly  to  one  industry  whose  quite 
unrecognized  physical  hardships  have  been  dwelt  upon  in  a 
previous  chapter.  Six  states  (four  of  them  within  the  year 
1911)  have  enacted  laws  which  limit  women's  hours  of  labor, 
but  in  which  the  canneries  are  totally  exempted.  These 
states  are  California,  Maine,  Michigan,  Ohio,  Utah,  and 
Washington.*  Unlike  the  British  and  Continental  legisla- 
tion, which  at  least  attempts  to  fix  the  amount  and  extent  of 
overtime  allowed  for  perishable  articles,  the  American  laws 
exempt  the  trade  entirely  from  any  restriction  of  hours. 

So,  too,  in  Connecticut,  Louisiana,  and  New  York, 
mercantile  establishments  are  by  statute  exempted  from  all 
restrictions  upon  the  working  hours  of  women  during  the 
Christmas  "rush."t     In  these  cases,  women  are  totally  de- 

*  Similar  action  has  been  taken  in  1912  by  Maryland,  New  Jersey,  and 
New  York. 

t  In  Connecticut  between  December  17th  and  2Sth  (provided  employer 
gives  seven  holidays  with  pay);  in  Louisiana  during  twenty  days  before 
Christmas;  in  New  York  between  December  18th  and  24th,  applying  to 
girls  between  sixteen  and  twenty-one  years.  Similar  exceptions  previously 
existing  in  Massachusetts  and  Oregon  were  repealed,  respectively,  in  1904 
and  1909.    A  similar  exemption  was  enacted  in  New  Jersey  in  1912. 

223 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

prived  of  protection  when  it  is  most  urgently  needed.  But 
we  need  not  here  dwell  at  length  upon  such  total  exemptions, 
since  they  do  not  affect  the  enforcement  of  laws,  which  we  are 
now  considering.  In  these  cases  there  is  no  law;  hence  there 
can  be  no  enforcement.  But  these  exemptions  are  the  more 
deplorable  because  they  mark  a  departure  from  previous 
usage  in  America. 

In  the  United  States  the  slower  and  more  cumbrous 
British  method  of  legislating  for  one  industry  at  a  time  has 
been  replaced  by  a  more  reasonable  and  inclusive  system. 
We  have  seen  that  Massachusetts  requires  an  earlier  closing 
hour  in  textile  mills  than  in  any  other  occupation;  but  in  no 
case  has  an  American  law  restricting  women's  hours  of  labor 
been  limited  to  any  one  special  industry.  Laws  governing  the 
hours  of  labor  in  manufacture  have  included  all  manufacture. 
Broadly  speaking,  the  American  usage  has  been  to  include  all 
industries  in  the  laws.  With  the  recent  exception  of  canneries 
and  Christmas  trade,  the  injurious  custom  of  granting  over- 
time to  special  industries  has  not  obtained. 

But  other  exceptions  and  laxities  in  American  laws  have 
been  as  disastrous  for  enforcement  as  the  overtime  provisions 
for  special  trades  abroad.  The  most  flagrant  of  these  is  the 
almost  universal  absence  of  a  fixed  legal  closing  hour,  to 
which  we  have  previously  referred. 

It  is  a  startling  fact  that  only  three  American  states 
(and  only  one  of  them  a  great  manufacturing  state)  have  pro- 
hibited women's  employment  at  night — a  form  of  work  which, 
as  we  shall  see  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  all  the  civilized  na- 
tions of  Europe  have  striven  to  abolish  by  international  treaty. 
Indeed,  the  laws  of  California,  Illinois,  Oregon,  Washington, 
and  Wisconsin  specifically  state  that  work  may  be  so  arranged 
as  to  permit  the  employment  of  women  for  eight  or  ten  hours 
at  any  time  during  the  day  or  night.  Consequently,  some 
years  ago  an  enterprising  mill  owner  in  the  state  of  Wash- 
ington attempted  to  employ  the  same  women  almost  twenty 
consecutive  hours  in  a  mill  (from  noon  on  one  day  to  near 
noon  on  the  next  day,  with  an  intermission  at  midnight).     He 

224 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

maintained  that  the  two  periods  of  ten  hours  were  divided 
into  two  days'  labor  by  the  convenient  line  of  midnight. 
Fortunately  the  commissioner  of  labor  interpreted  the  law 
otherwise  and  put  a  stop  to  this  particular  form  of  exploita- 
tion. 

But  in  all  those  states  which  limit  women's  employment 
without  fixing  a  closing  hour,  night  work  is  entirely  legal 
and  often  customary.  Moreover,  the  fixed  closing  hour  has 
been  found  indispensable  not  only  to  check  the  employment 
of  women  at  night,  but  to  make  possible  the  limitation  of 
work  by  day.  The  two  things  are  practically  inseparable.* 
Hence  all  those  states  which  fail  to  provide  a  legal  closing 
hour  must  have  maximum  difficulties  in  enforcing  their 
laws. 

Besides  the  absence  of  a  legal  closing  hour,  other  laxities 
in  the  American  laws  help  to  defeat  their  enforcement. 
Thus  eight  statesf  are  satisfied  to  prohibit  more  than  a  fixed 
amount  of  work  during  the  week,  leaving  the  separate  days' 
work  on  various  pretexts  wholly  unrestricted.  If  work  ends 
(or  is  supposed  to  end)  early  on  Saturday  or  on  any  one  day, 
the  other  days  may  be  as  long  as  the  employer  pleases,  pro- 
vided that  the  total  week's  work  does  not  exceed  the  specified 
number  of  hours. 

Such  a  statute  is  obviously  intended  to  afford  to  working 
people  a  half  holiday  on  some  one  day  of  the  week  and  to 
compensate  employers  for  such  a  half  holiday  by  allowing 
employes  to  work  longer  on  other  days.  But  in  practice  the 
intent  of  the  statute  is  easily  evaded.  In  some  New  York 
mercantile  establishments,  for  instance,  the  day's  work  is 
lengthened  by  overtime,  and  instead  of  giving  a  compen- 
sating half  holiday  the  employer  complies  technically  with 

*  Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I' Industrie.  Rapports  sur 
son  importance  et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Prof.  Etienne 
Bauer,  p.  viii.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

t  Arizona  (applying  to  laundries  only),  Connecticut,  Georgia,  Maine, 
Minnesota,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island  (all  applying  to  manufacture); 
New  York  (applying  to  mercantile  establishments  for  girls  between  sixteen 
and  twenty-one  years).  In  Louisiana  and  Pennsylvania  the  hours  are 
unrestricted  on  Saturdays  in  mercantile  establishments. 

'5  225 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  Statute  by  allowing  employes  to  come  to  work  a  single 
hour  later  in  the  morning  of  one  day! 

Moreover,  how  enforce  such  a  statute?  Any  one  can 
see  how  disastrous  for  enforcement  it  must  be.  The  par- 
ticular value  of  the  rigid  textile  laws  of  Massachusetts  and 
England  is  that  they  are  automatic  and  tend  to  be  more  or 
less  self-enforcing.  Precisely  the  opposite  is  true  of  the 
shifting  schedule  of  hours.  When  an  inspector  finds  women 
employed  in  the  evening,  he  has  no  means  of  knowing  whether 
the  long  day  will  be  compensated  by  a  shorter  day  later  in 
the  week,  so  that  the  total  week's  work  may  not  exceed  the 
number  of  hours  allowed  by  law. 

"The  claim  is  always  made,"  says  the  New  York  Mer- 
cantile Inspector,  "when  employes  are  found  working  over 
ten  hours  per  day,  that  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  making  a 
shorter  day  of  some  one  day  of  the  week.  This  compels  the 
inspector  to  prove  the  total  number  of  hours  per  week,  and 
makes  it  much  more  difficult.  ...  To  prove  the  actual 
hours  worked  per  day  or  week  is  almost  impossible  unless 
we  secure  the  aid  of  the  employe.  The  fear  of  losing  their 
employment  has  deterred  many  employes  from  rendering 
assistance."* 

It  is  out  of  the  question  for  the  inspector  to  return  each 
day  to  see  that  a  shorter  compensating  day  is  allowed.  With- 
out an  army  of  inspectors  and  a  degree  of  supervision  such 
as  exists  nowhere  in  the  world,  it  is  impossible  to  enforce  a 
law  made  up  of  exceptions. 

This  is  the  reason  why  such  a  statute  as  the  New  York 
factory  law  is  so  thoroughly  unsatisfactory.  This  law  was 
amended  in  1907,  so  as  to  copy  precisely  the  most  lax  and 
unworkable  portions  of  the  British  non-textile  factory  acts. 
The  New  York  factory  law  sets  no  closing  hour  for  women. f 
Moreover,  it  allows  overtime  after  the  ten-hour  day,  but 
limits  work  to  twelve  hours.    The  law  permits  an  employer  to 

*  Report  of  the  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  1910,  p.  132. 

t  The  provision  which  prohibited  employment  of  adult  women  in 
factories  between  9  p.  m.  and  6  a.  m.  was  held  unconstitutional  by  the  New 
York  Court  of  Appeals  in  1907.     People  v.  Williams.     189  N.  Y.  131. 

226 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

work  his  women  employes  twelve  hours  a  day  on  five  days 
a  week  regularly  during  the  whole  year;  it  permits  him  to 
work  them  twelve  hours  a  day  on  three  days  of  the  week  if 
he  does  so  "irregularly,"  that  is,  not  as  a  regular  rule. 

Even  further  concessions  to  irregularity  are  made. 
When  it  is  difficult  to  fix  the  weekly  hours  of  labor  in  advance 
"owing  to  the  nature  of  the  work,"  the  law  permits  employers 
to  dispense  with  posting  a  printed  schedule  showing  the  re- 
quired working  hours  for  each  day  of  the  week.  This  posting 
is  a  mechanical  device  which,  as  we  saw  in  discussing  Massa- 
chusetts, has  been  found  indispensable  for  enforcement,  be- 
cause the  presence  of  persons  on  the  premises  at  any  other 
hour  than  those  stated  in  the  printed  schedule  is  prima  facie 
evidence  of  violation.  Precisely  when  this  provision  is  most 
necessary,  when  overtime  is  most  sought  and  the  difficulties 
of  inspection  are  greatest,  the  New  York  law  allows  the  posted 
schedule  of  the  week's  work  to  be  omitted  by  permit  of  the 
commissioner  of  labor. 

When  we  realize  that  the  total  number  of  factory  in- 
spectors in  New  York  state  is  80;  that  they  are  charged  with 
the  inspection  of  all  the  factories  in  the  state  (over  30,000  in 
1910),  all  the  stores,  all  the  tenements  licensed  for  home  work 
or  applying  for  license;  that  they  must  enforce  the  labor  laws 
regarding  the  fencing  of  dangerous  machinery,  the  ventilation 
and  sanitary  condition  of  workrooms,  as  well  as  those  which 
provide  for  the  inspection  of  tunnels,  for  the  payment  of 
wages,  for  the  enforcement  of  the  eight-hour  law  on  public 
works,  all  the  child  labor  laws,  and  others  besides — it  is 
apparent  that  a  law  to  limit  hours  of  labor,  so  full  of  exemp- 
tions, so  little  calculated  to  be  enforceable,  sets  the  inspectors 
a  genuinely  impossible  task,  and  must  remain,  more  or  less, 
a  dead  letter. 

It  is  true  that  in  New  York  state  the  difficulties  of  ad- 
ministration are  greater  than  in  other  states,  on  account  of 
the  larger  field  to  be  covered  and  the  far  greater  number  and 
variety  of  establishments  and  employes.  But  the  conditions 
are  not  essentially  different  in  other  states. 

227 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

5.    TWO  TESTS  OF  EFFICIENCY 

What  then  is  the  general  state  of  administration  in  the 
United  States?  Can  we  fix  upon  any  general  tests  of  effi- 
ciency? In  so  large  and  complex  a  field  we  are  again  forced 
to  limit  ourselves  to  a  few  definite  points  of  discussion.  From 
among  many  possible  items  we  may  choose  two,  as  fairly 
good  indices  of  intelligence  and  ability  in  administering  the 
laws.  The  first  of  these  is  the  character  of  the  yearly  printed 
report  of  the  state  labor  bureau  or  department;  the  second, 
its  means  of  gauging  the  effect  of  industrial  occupations  on  the 
health  of  the  workers. 

(a)  The  Annual  Report 

To  many  persons  our  first  item  may  not  seem  a  fair 
test  of  efficiency.  The  yearly  printed  report  seems  a  mere 
formality,  a  conventional  requirement,  which  has  resulted 
in  libraries  full  of  dead  statistics  and  verbiage.  But  if  the 
statistics  are  not  dead  nor  the  comments  mere  verbiage! 

In  Great  Britain  and  other  foreign  countries  the  yearly 
report  has  been  found  an  essential  and  effective,  though  in- 
direct, aid  to  administration.  In  the  first  place,  the  report 
is  a  yearly  public  accounting,  a  yearly  focus  or  review,  which 
discloses  the  internal  working  of  the  inspection  department. 
In  a  word:  it  turns  on  the  light.  It  reveals  the  department's 
efficiency  or  inefficiency.  It  acts  as  a  valuable  check  upon 
the  field  work,  since  it  is  based  upon  the  inspector's  daily 
activities.  A  good  report  presupposes  and  indeed  necessi- 
tates an  adequate  system  of  supervision,  daily  reporting,  and 
standardized  record  keeping  by  the  field  inspectors,  and 
where  such  a  system  is  lacking  the  annual  report  reveals 
it  unmistakably. 

Secondly,  the  yearly  report  has  been  found  an  invaluable 
aid  to  enforcement  by  helping  to  form  intelligent  public 
opinion.  We  are  dealing  here  with  a  public  office — the  ac- 
tivity of  public  officials,  peculiarly  dependent  upon  the  ap- 
proval of  the  community  for  effective  work.     In  communities 

228 


ENFORCEMENT  OF    LABOR    LAWS 

where  people  in  general  are  interested  and  alert  as  to  the 
welfare  of  working  people,  the  laws  tend  to  get  enforced  with 
a  minimum  of  friction  and  a  maximum  of  efficiency.  It 
follows  that  publicity  is  one  of  the  important  weapons  of 
efficient  administration.  We  are  not  proposing  that  law  and 
enforcement  should  wait  upon  the  vagaries  of  public  opinion. 
Public  opinion  is  often  unintelligent  and  reactionary,  and  the 
labor  laws  should  be  just  far  enough  in  advance  of  it  to  force 
up  the  standards  of  the  backward  and  unenlightened  em- 
ployers. But  all  that  makes  for  a  wider  general  knowledge 
of  the  facts  at  issue — industrial  conditions,  working  hours, 
work  accidents,  and  the  like — helps  to  form  that  enlightened 
public  opinion  without  which  labor  laws,  in  a  democracy, 
cannot  in  the  long  run  be  enforced. 

Thirdly,  the  yearly  factory  reports  have  been  found  not 
only  efficient  aids  to  the  administration  of  existing  laws,  but 
perhaps  the  most  valuable  means  of  securing  better  laws. 
As  we  have  seen,  successive  factory  laws  have  not  been  based 
upon  theories  or  generalities  but  for  the  most  part  have  fol- 
lowed some  insistent  demand  for  the  correction  of  specific 
abuses.  Abroad,  the  factory  inspectors  have  been  in  a 
position  to  furnish  such  facts  to  legislative  bodies.  They 
have  made  available  a  fund  of  information  gained  from 
official  investigations  and  experiences. 

We  have  seen  that  since  1833,  when  the  first  English 
inspectors  were  appointed  and  were  charged  to  report  on  the 
condition  of  the  workers  and  the  operation  of  the  laws,  a 
more  or  less  continuous  record  of  industrial  history  has  come 
down  to  us.  What  record  of  industrial  conditions  and  of  the 
operation  of  our  factory  laws  do  our  American  factory  reports 
yield,  or  will  they  leave  to  posterity? 

Let  any  student  who  wishes  to  form  an  opinion  on  this 
subject  read  a  year's  files  of  American  factory  reports.  It 
will  not  be  possible  to  read  a  current  year's  file,  for  many  of 
the  states  do  not  publish  current  reports,  although  their 
value  for  remedial  action  depends  upon  the  freshness  and 
genuineness  of  the  information  they  furnish.     By  the  time 

229 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

our  State  factory  reports  have  been  printed,  the  information 
contained  therein  is  often  several  years  old.  For  instance, 
in  1909,  the  latest  available  Illinois  report  was  for  1905.  The 
report  of  the  Massachusetts  state  inspectors  of  health  for  the 
year  ending  November  1,  1908,  was  published  at  the  close 
of  1910.  Eight  states  publish  biennial  reports  and  their 
news  is  inevitably  one  year  late. 

It  is  true  that  these  delays  in  printing  are  not,  in  the 
first  instance,  due  to  the  inspection  force.  The  chief  in- 
spector or  head  of  the  labor  department  shifts  the  blame  for 
the  delay  on  to  the  state  printer.  Yet  this  delay  is  essentially 
an  index  of  the  efficiency  of  the  labor  department,  and  it  has 
been  shown  that  if  sufficient  pressure  is  brought  to  bear,  these 
reports  can  be  issued  in  time.  This  was  illustrated  in  New 
York  state  in  1905,  when  an  efficient  commissioner  of  labor 
determined  that  his  report  should  be  published  at  the  close 
of  the  year  which  it  purported  to  describe.  His  report  and 
recommendations  to  the  legislature  were  accordingly  issued 
on  time,  while  the  tables  and  statistical  portions  of  the  de- 
partment's work  were  necessarily  delayed  until  later.  This 
procedure  has  ever  since  been  followed  in  New  York  state, 
whose  reports  in  substance,  as  well  as  time  of  issuance,  differ 
commendably  from  most  other  publications  of  the  state 
labor  departments. 

The  belated  publication  of  the  American  factory  reports 
obviously  destroys  the  three-fold  function  which,  as  we  have 
pointed  out,  they  should  fulfill:  revealing  the  internal  or- 
ganization of  the  inspection  department,  forming  public 
opinion,  and  furnishing  material  for  constructive  legislation. 

Moreover,  the  contents  of  these  reports  are,  for  the  most 
part,  little  calculated  to  accomplish  these  purposes.  No 
report  is  efficient  which  does  not  tell  at  least  the  following 
elementary  facts  concerning  the  workers: 

(1)  The  number  and  occupations  of  men,  women,  boys, 
and  girls  found  at  work. 


230 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

(2)  The  ages  of  the  minors,  the  issuance  of  "working 
papers,"  and  other  data  relating  specifically  to  the  employ- 
ment of  children. 

(3)  The  times,  places,  and  nature  of  violations  of  the 
law. 

(4)  The  methods  of  dealing  with  such  violations  by 
warnings,  prosecutions,  or  the  like. 

(5)  The  number  and  disposition  of  prosecutions  actually 
brought  to  court,  including  the  amount  of  money  collected 
in  fines  and  penalties. 

(6)  The  nature  of  occupations  deemed  dangerous  to 
health,  the  number  of  workers  found  therein,  and  (as  far  as 
possible)  the  eifects  of  the  work. 

All  these  things  must  be  known  in  order  to  gauge  the 
effectiveness  of  the  laws,  and  the  points  in  which  they  are 
adequate  or  inadequate.  Yet  few  state  reports  contain  such 
accurate,  specific,  and  current  information.  The  opinions 
of  the  inspectors,  for  instance,  on  the  value  and  workability 
of  their  respective  state  laws  are  almost  totally  lacking. 

Only  a  few  years  ago  a  striking  exhibition  was  given,  not 
alone  of  the  extraordinary  ignorance  of  the  chief  labor  official 
of  a  great  state,  but  also  of  his  open  animus  against  the  labor 
laws  which  he  was  appointed  to  enforce.  The  report  of  the 
Pennsylvania  chief  factory  inspector  for  the  year  1907  ap- 
peared in  1908,  the  year  in  which  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  rendered  its  famous  decision  in  the  Oregon  ten-hour 
case,  upholding  the  right  of  a  state  to  protect  its  working 
women  by  limiting  their  hours  of  labor.*  Shortly  before 
that  decisive  judgment  was  to  be  handed  down,  the  chief 
factory  inspector  of  Pennsylvania  officially  declared  his  hos- 
tility to  a  similar  Pennsylvania  law,  on  the  ground  that  it 
was,  in  his  opinion,  unconstitutional.  "  I  have  yet  to  find  a 
single  instance,"  he  takes  pains  specifically  to  write,t  "where 
any  court  of  last  resort  has  upheld"  such  a  statute — ignorant 
of  four  earlier  decisions  upholding  the  constitutionality  of 

*  For  a  full  discussion  of  this  decision  see  Chapter  IX,  page  250. 
t  Report  of  the  Pennsylvania  Chief  Factory  Inspector,  1907,  pp.  10  and  11. 

231 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

similar  laws  by  the  Supreme  Courts  of  four  other  states, 
Massachusetts,  Nebraska,  Washington,  and  Oregon!  The 
impropriety  of  such  an  oificial  attack  upon  the  Pennsyl- 
vania law  was  the  more  glaring  because  an  earlier  Pennsyl- 
vania act  limiting  women's  hours  of  labor  had  been  previously 
upheld  in  a  strong  and  illuminating  decision  by  the  Superior 
Court  of  Pennsylvania.* 

Owing  to  conditions  of  which  the  foregoing  is  an  ex- 
treme example  it  has  come  about  at  any  time  of  need  that, 
instead  of  the  responsible  officials,  private  investigation, 
without  proper  powers,  opportunities,  or  privileges  of  ob- 
servation, has  had  to  furnish  facts  and  figures  about  labor 
conditions. 

Thus,  since  the  first  permanent  child  labor  committee 
was  formed  in  New  York  City  in  1903,  the  entire  American 
campaign  against  child  labor  has  been  hampered  by  having 
to  depend  almost  wholly  upon  private  investigation  of  the 
facts,  to  secure  laws  protecting  children  from  premature 
work.  In  state  after  state  private  investigators  have  had 
to  learn  the  extent  of  child  labor,  the  conditions  under  which 
children  have  been  employed,  the  effects  of  premature  work 
upon  health  and  morals  and  industry — all  those  facts  which 
the  official  inspectors  should  have  been  publishing  as  the 
bases  of  legislation.  Not  until  the  first  volume  of  the  federal 
investigation  of  working  women  and  children  was  published 
in  1910,  was  there  any  comprehensive  study  of  the  children 
employed  in  the  cotton  mills.  Moreover,  the  facts  and  sta- 
tistics gathered  by  private  investigation  are  often  considered 
open  to  the  charge  of  personal  bias.  Government  investi- 
gation is  impersonal;  its  reports  carry  greater  weight  because 
they  are  held  to  present  wholly  uncolored  facts. 

*  Commonwealth  v.  Beatty.     15  Pa.  Sup.  Ct.  5,  15. 


232 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

(b)  The  Observation  of  Health  in  Industrial  Establish- 
ments 

A  second  almost  universal  failure  in  administering  labor 
laws  concerns  the  observation  of  the  health  of  working  people, 
as  affected  by  their  occupations.  The  whole  justification, 
legal  and  moral,  of  laws  such  as  those  limiting  the  hours  of 
labor,  prohibiting  the  employment  of  women  and  minors  in 
certain  occupations,  providing  sanitary  regulations,  seats  for 
girls  and  women,  and  the  like,  is  their  necessity  for  the  health 
and  welfare  of  the  workers.  Yet  so  elementary  has  been  our 
conception  of  administering  these  health  statutes,  that  we 
have  practically  not  yet  begun  to  test  the  value  of  medical 
inspection  of  work  places.  It  is  true  that  the  labor  laws  have 
not  required  the  appointment  of  physicians  as  inspectors, 
except  in  a  few  instances  which  we  will  next  discuss.  But  the 
lack  of  the  most  rudimentary  observation  of  the  health  of 
the  workers  is  a  legitimate  reproach  to  every  labor  department 
which  makes  any  pretense  of  inspection. 

A  beginning  has  been  made  in  New  York  state  to  cope 
with  the  difficult  problems  affecting  health  in  industrial 
occupations  by  the  appointment  of  one  physician  to  act 
as  inspector.  During  his  first  years  in  office  the  medical 
inspector  has  had  to  specialize  chiefly  on  the  single  subject 
of  ventilation  and  the  obscurer  pollutions  of  the  atmo- 
sphere in  factories  and  stores. 

In  Massachusetts,  too,  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
provide  medical  observation  of  the  workers.  In  1907  the 
office  of  state  inspector  of  health  was  created  under  the 
Massachusetts  state  board  of  health,  and  15  such  inspectors 
were  appointed.  Besides  other  duties  they  are  required 
to  enforce  various  sanitary  and  hygienic  regulations  in  fac- 
tories, to  inform  themselves  as  to  the  health  of  minors  in 
factories  and  the  prevalence  of  tuberculosis  and  other  dis- 
eases amongst  factory  workers. 

Thanks  to  a  careful  and  detailed  system  of  record  keep- 
ing, the  reports  of  the  Massachusetts  inspectors  of  health, 
together  with  a  previous  investigation  by  the  state  board  of 

233 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

health,  have  given  the  first  official  American  returns  on  many 
unhealthful  processes  of  manufacture.* 

One  of  the  most  important  duties  of  the  Massachusetts 
inspectors  of  health  has  been  to  assist  the  state  board  of 
health  in  enforcing  the  new  and  epoch-making  law  of  1910 
concerning  the  employment  of  minors.  This  provides  for 
the  exclusion  of  minors  under  the  age  of  eighteen  years  from 
any  occupation  or  process  of  manufacture  deemed  by  the 
board  sufficiently  injurious  to  health.  Accordingly,  many 
processes  have  been  studied  with  a  view  to  determining  their 
effects  upon  young  persons.  For  example,  the  manufacture 
of  rubber  goods  was  specially  scrutinized,  and  some  stages  of 
the  work  were  found  unfit  for  minors.  In  rubberized  cloth- 
ing factories,  the  medical  inspectors  found  young  boys  em- 
ployed at  work  which  required  them  to  spend  from  one-third 
to  one-half  of  their  entire  working  time  in  doubled-up  posi- 
tions crawling  underneath  the  "spreader"  machines,  breath- 
ing over-heated  air  vitiated  by  naphtha  fumes.  Their  heads 
were  protected  from  the  heat  of  the  machines  by  planks 
covered  with  asbestos. 

Following  these  and  similar  reports  from  the  inspectors 
of  health,  regarding  the  injurious  nature  of  many  different 
kinds  of  manufacture,  the  state  board  of  health  issued  an 
order  on  July  10,  1911,  declaring  24  different  processes  of 
manufacture  to  be  injurious  to  the  health  of  minors,  within 
the  meaning  of  the  law.  These  processes  involved  exposure 
to  poisonous  or  irritating  dust,  gases,  and  fumes,  and  the 
employment  of  minors  under  eighteen  years  of  age  was 
accordingly  forbidden  therein.     This  included  such  work  as 

*  Memorial  on  Occupational  Diseases  prepared  by  a  Committee 
of  Experts  and  presented  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  September 
29,  1910.     American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  Jan.,  1911,  p.  137. 

Report  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health  upon  the  Sanitary 
Conditions  of  Factories,  Workshops,  and  other  establishments  where  persons 
are  employed.     1907. 

Report  on  the  Work  of  the  State  Inspectors  of  Health,  Nov.  1,  1907, 
to  Nov.  1,  1908.  From  the  40th  Annual  Report  of  the  Massachusetts 
State  Board  of  Health. 

ibid.  Nov.  1,  1908,  to  Nov.  1,  1909.  From  the  41st  Annual  Report 
of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health. 

234 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

that  of  the  "spreader  boys"  in  the  rubberized  clothing  fac- 
tories. 

Another  valuable  service  performed  by  the  medical 
inspectors  was  inaugurated  in  Worcester.  Beginning  with 
one  public  spirited  employer,  the  medical  inspector  has  se- 
cured the  co-operation  of  numerous  others  in  combatting  the 
growth  of  tuberculosis  among  their  employes,  by  paying  their 
expenses  at  the  state  sanatorium  for  a  shorter  or  longer  period.* 

These  initial  services  suggest  how  great  a  part  the  medi- 
cal inspector  may  fill  in  helping  to  prevent  deterioration  of 
health  among  factory  workers.  But  in  many  most  important 
respects  the  Massachusetts  system  has  been  no  test  whatever 
of  medical  inspection.  The  inspectors  of  health  are  paid  to 
give  only  part  time  to  this  work;  many  at  the  same  time 
continue  private  practice  as  physicians.  They  have  so  much 
more  work  assigned  to  them  than  they  can  perform  that  in 
January,  1911,  some  medical  inspectors  appointed  in  1907 
had  not  yet  completed  a  tour  of  their  districts. f 

The  so-called  examination  of  children  employed  in  fac- 
tories is  especially  inadequate.  For  instance,  from  among 
43,270  working  children  reported  as  "inspected"  during  the 
year  1907-1908,  only  521  were  found  ill  or  physically  unfit 
for  the  work  they  were  performing.  This  surprising  percent- 
age (scarcely  more  than  one-tenth  of  1  per  cent)  is  explained 
by  the  method  of  "inspecting"  minors.  One  inspector,  for 
instance,  reported: 

"A  total  of  4,881  minors  were  examined.  Of  this 
number,  706  were  inspected  without  conversing  with  them, 
while  passing  through  the  factory."! 

*  Up  to  April,  1911,  34  industrial  establishments  signified  in  writing 
their  willingness  to  take  part  in  this  campaign.  Twenty-seven  employes 
in  all  have  been  aided.  See  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor, 
No.  96,  Sept.,  1911,  p.  488.  Hanson,  Wm.  C,  M.D.:  Attitude  of  Massa- 
chusetts Manufacturers  Toward  the  Health  of  Their  Employes. 

t  Report  of  the  Commission  to  Investigate  Inspection  of  Factories, 
Workshops,  Mercantile  Establishments  and  other  buildings.  Boston,  Janu- 
ary, 1911,  p.  60. 

t  Report  of  the  Work  of  the  State  Inspectors  of  Health,  Boston,  1907, 
p.  86. 

235 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Efforts  have  recently  been  made  to  obtain  places  within 
the  factory  for  more  adequate  examinations. 

Moreover,  the  inspectors  of  health  have  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  with  the  enforcement  of  that  statute  which  our 
study  has  shown  to  be  perhaps  most  important :  the  law  which 
protects  the  workers  against  industrial  fatigue  by  limiting 
their  working  hours.  When  the  office  of  inspector  of  health 
was  created  in  1907  to  enforce  sanitary  regulations,  the  en- 
forcement of  all  other  factory  laws,  including  the  limitation 
of  the  hours  of  labor,  was  left  as  before  to  the  factory  inspec- 
tion department  of  the  Massachusetts  district  police.  No 
co-operation  has  existed  between  the  two  departments.  The 
commission  appointed  in  1910  to  investigate  the  inspection 
of  factories,  etc.,  found  that: 

"The  two  groups  of  inspectors  go  their  separate  ways 
without  assisting  each  other  at  all  in  the  enforcement  of  the 
laws." 

"The  factory  inspectors  and  the  health  inspectors  in 
the  same  district  as  a  rule  never  meet  each  other.  Many 
inspectors  testified  to  this  fact  before  the  Commission. 
Some  of  these  inspectors  assigned  to  the  same  district  act- 
ually met  for  the  first  time  at  the  Commission's  hearing."* 

Thus  the  appointment  of  physicians  as  additional  in- 
spectors of  factories  in  Massachusetts  has  hitherto  been  a 
tentative  experiment — valuable  chiefly  in  demonstrating  the 
wide  possibilities  of  medical  inspection. 


6.    SOME  TECHNICAL  REQUIREMENTS  IN  FACTORY 
INSPECTION 

But  the  character  of  administration  and  inspection  is 
receiving  a  new  attention  in  many  quarters.  It  has  long  been 
a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that,  in  general,  the  caliber 
of  the  men  and  vv'omen  who  administer  the  labor  laws  in  the 

*  Report  of  the  Commission  to  Investigate  Inspection  of  Factories, 
etc.     Op.  cit.,  pp.  57  and  67. 

236 


ENFORCEMENT    OF    LABOR    LAWS 

United  States  has  been  utterly  inadequate  for  their  duties. 
Until  1911  only  three  states — Massachusetts,  New  York, 
and  Wisconsin — required  inspectors  to  pass  civil  service  ex- 
aminations before  appointment,  and  by  an  extraordinary 
exemption  Massachusetts  obliged  preference  to  be  given  to 
Civil  War  veterans,  without  examination,  as  inspectors  of 
the  district  police.  This  exemption  is  no  longer  observed, 
but  in  December,  1910,  the  veterans  still  numbered  12  out 
of  28  factory  and  building  inspectors.* 

In  place  of  the  most  elementar}'  technical  fitness,  chiefs 
of  departments  as  well  as  subordinates  have,  for  the 
most  part,  been  appointed  for  political  or  personal  reasons. 
Hence,  the  first  needs  are  to  make  all  appointments  to  the 
inspection  service  subject  to  civil  service  examinations  of 
the  proper  character,  and  to  assure  tenure  of  office  during 
good  conduct,  instead  of  allowing  inspectors  to  be  displaced 
at  any  moment  by  political  favoritism.  Other  urgent  needs, 
to  improve  the  service,  are  to  pay  more  adequate  salaries 
than  the  present  ones;  to  grade  inspectors  according  to 
their  ability  and  to  promote  them  for  good  service — a  system 
which  has  been  begun  with  good  effects  in  New  York  state. 
Such  and  similar  changes  would  tend  towards  securing  a 
more  valuable  class  of  inspectors. 

There  is  ground  for  encouragement  in  the  yearly  in- 
creasing number  of  men  and  women  of  higher  caliber  who  are 
becoming  available  for  an  improved  service.  The  social 
aspects  of  labor  and  labor  legislation  newly  studied  in  colleges 
and  universities  throughout  the  country,  have  turned  the  at- 
tention of  many  young  men  and  women  to  the  possibilities 
in  this  field.  Special  schools  in  New  York,  Boston,  Chicago, 
Philadelphia,  and  St.  Louis  are  training  students  each  year 
for  social  work,  who  should  be  available  for  administrative 
positions  in  the  service  of  the  state  as  they  are  for  private 
societies.  But  we  need  even  more  than  this.  We  need 
inspectors  equipped  with  technical  training. 

*  In  1911,  New  Jersey  enacted  a  law  requiring  civil  service  examinations 
for  inspectors. 

237 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

At  the  opposite  pole  from  our  disorganized  and  untrained 
system  we  find  such  an  extremely  elaborate  service  as  that 
in  Prussia,  where  there  has  been  a  regular  program  of  training 
since  1897.  Members  of  the  staff,  which  numbers  over  270, 
are  appointed  for  life.  They  must  have  three  years  of 
technical  study  in  such  subjects  as  mechanics,  mining,  or 
chemistry,  and  a  year  and  a  half  of  probationary  practice  in 
the  service.  This  period  is  followed  by  one  and  one-half 
years  of  university  study  in  law  and  political  science,  and  a 
written  and  oral  examination  in  Berlin  by  an  examining 
board  instituted  for  this  special  purpose.* 

Such  extreme  requirements  are  cited  here  merely  by  way 
of  contrast.  They  do  not  appear  as  yet  to  have  resulted  in 
an  ideal  enforcement  of  labor  laws  in  Germany,  and  they 
would  clearly  be  impossible  in  this  country.  But  it  is  be- 
coming more  evident  each  year  that  our  service  is  in  urgent 
need  of  inspectors  of  special  knowledge  and  training. 

No  one  but  a  physician  can  study  the  manifold  relations 
of  industries  to  health,  and  inspect  working  people  (adults 
as  well  as  minors)  in  order  to  learn  the  physical  effects  of 
industrial  fatigue,  dangerous  occupations,  unsanitary  con- 
ditions and  the  like.  The  federal  report  on  the  white  lead 
industry  in  the  United  States  shows  that  dangerous  processes 
regulated  abroad  are  not  only  unregulated  here  but  so  carried 
on  as  to  be  "much  more  dangerous"  to  health  than  they 
are  in  Europe. f  In  such  occupations  a  special  limitation 
of  working  hours  is  called  for,  as  well  as  sanitary  require- 
ments. We  have  seen  that  the  most  eminent  physicians 
in  Canada  were  opposed  to  more  than  six  hours'  work  each 
day  for  girls  in  the  exacting  telephone  service.  In  Germany 
today  adult  men  are  prohibited  from  being  worked  more 
than  two  hours  at  a  stretch  in  certain  dangerous  processes, 

*  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  89.  July,  1910. 
Veditz,  C.  W.  A.,  Ph.D.:   Child  Labor  Legislation  in  Europe,  p.  192. 

t  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  95.  July,  1911. 
Hamilton,  Alice,  .M.A.,  M.D.:  White  Lead  Industry  in  the  United  States, 
p.  190. 

238 


ENFORCEMENT    OF    LABOR    LAWS 

such  as  filling  and  emptying  oxidizing  chambers  in  lead 
works.* 

This  is  indeed  the  prime  value  of  the  medical  inspection 
of  work  places:  to  check  industrial  disease  at  its  source.  It 
not  only  removes  to  tuberculosis  sanitaria  and  the  like, 
workers  who  have  acquired  disease  at  their  occupations,  but 
it  performs  a  more  constructive  service.  It  discovers  the 
causes  of  industrial  infection  or  overstrain  in  the  dusty  and 
poisonous  and  straining  processes  of  manufacture;  and  the 
improvement  of  such  conditions  is  more  important  than  the 
cure  of  the  sick.  It  protects  the  workers  before  they  have 
been  injuriously  affected.  Within  the  next  decade  scien- 
tific study  should  show  the  dangers  of  occupations  peculiar 
to  our  country  and  modes  of  manufacture,  and  should 
indicate  in  what  occupations  the  day's  work  must  be  radi- 
cally reduced  to  conserve  the  workers. 

Beside  such  medical  study  of  industry  we  need  other 
technical  study  as  well.  The  ventilation  and  lighting  of 
workrooms,  guarding  of  dangerous  machinery,  and  the 
forced  removal  of  the  noxious  by-products  of  manufacture, 
are  engineering  problems  directly  related  to  the  health  of 
working  people.  They  have  hitherto  been  left  almost  wholly 
to  the  discretion  of  untrained  lay  inspectors.  As  might  have 
been  expected,  little  progress  has  been  made  in  their  solution. 
But  at  least  these  things  have  come  to  be  recognized,  even 
in  America,  as  unsolved  problems  for  professional  study  and 
investigation.  Fixed  standards  of  safety,  sanitation,  ventila- 
tion, and  lighting  have  not  yet  been  agreed  upon,  but  will  be 
perfected  during  the  next  few  years,  and  will  assist  greatly  in 
the  effective  protection  of  working  people. 

It  is  in  this  connection  that  profound  interest  attaches 
to  the  new  scheme  of  administration  recently  devised  by  the 
state  of  Wisconsin.  In  1911  an  industrial  commission  was 
created  which  superseded  all  the  former  machinery  of  inspec- 

*  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  95,  p.  170. 
Factory  Regulations  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  German  Empire  Regarding 
Lead  and  its  Products. 

239 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

tion  and  enforcement.  It  consists  of  three  members,  ap- 
pointed for  periods  of  six  years  each  by  the  governor  of  the 
state.  The  novelty  of  this  commission  lies  in  its  extra- 
ordinary range  of  power.  It  is  not  only  charged  to  administer 
and  enforce  a  list  of  specified  statutes,  such  as  the  laws  relat- 
ing to  child  labor  and  school  attendance,  women's  employ- 
ment, laundries,  bakeries,  fire-escapes,  and  the  like.  In  addi- 
tion, the  commission  is  practically  enjoined  to  see  to  it  that 
all  work  places  shall  be  safe  and  sanitary.  It  is  specifically 
empowered  to  ascertain,  fix,  and  enforce  standard  safety 
devices,  and  all  other  means  of  protection  for  the  "  life,  health, 
safety,  and  welfare"  of  employes  in  all  places  of  employment. 

No  charter  could  be  wider  than  this.  Under  its  provi- 
sions the  commission  may  appoint  not  only  the  lay  factory 
inspectors,  but  experts  of  every  technical  description,  to 
adopt  and  modify  standards  of  safety  commensurate  with 
the  ever  changing  mechanisms  and  processes  of  industry. 

Such  a  sweeping  and  almost  revolutionary  scheme  of  ad- 
ministration obviously  carries  with  it  potentialities  of  abuse 
as  well  as  of  extraordinary  value.  The  very  breadth  and 
looseness  of  the  powers  conferred  makes  their  effectiveness 
peculiarly  dependent  upon  the  spirit  which  informs  them. 
The  present  personnel  of  the  commission  encourages  the 
most  hopeful  auguries.*  But  time  alone  can  show  whether, 
under  the  Wisconsin  scheme,  the  routine  difficulties  of  the 
subordinate  inspectors  will  be  lessened  or  increased  in  en- 
forcing the  standards,  and  in  withstanding  the  pressure  of 
employers  for  concessions  and  modifications  in  the  name  of 
their  "practical  needs." 

However  that  may  be,  and  whatever  the  value  of  leaving 
free  and  unfixed  the  standards  of  sanitation  and  safety,  so 
far  as  concerns  our  special  subject  (the  curtailment  of  in- 
dustrial fatigue  by  the  limitation  of  working  hours)  we  need 
rigid  statutes  precisely  for  the  sake  of  that  enforcement  which 
is  their  raison  d'etre.     If  the  experience  of  England  and 

*  Prof.  J.  A.  Crownhart,  chairman,  Prof.  John  R.  Commons,  Mr.  J.  D. 
Beck. 

240 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

Massachusetts  has  proved  anything,  it  has  proved  that  rigid 
laws  Hmiting  the  workday  have  been  enforceable,  and  that 
the  lax  laws  have  not. 

Even  when  trades  are  differentiated  and  varying  hours 
of  labor  must  be  fixed  according  to  their  degrees  of  injurious- 
ness  to  health,  such  special  regulations  should  be  as  nearly 
fixed  and  definite  as  can  be  settled  by  legislation. 

Here,  however,  the  question  arises  as  to  the  rights  of 
legislatures.  Under  their  constitutional  powers,  how  free  are 
they  to  enact  measures  limiting  the  length  of  the  workday? 
To  answer  this,  we  must  next  consider  some  recent  decisions 
of  the  courts  on  the  scope  of  labor  legislation. 


i6 


241 


IX 
LABOR  LAWS  AND  THE  COURTS 

IN  any  discussion  of  the  laws  which  limit  an  adult's 
hours  of  labor,  we  must  constantly  bear  in  mind  the 
fact  that  no  law  is  final  in  the  United  States  until  it  has 
passed  the  review  of  the  courts.  Physicians  may  agree  as  to 
the  urgency  of  curtailing  the  workday,  legislators  may  enact 
such  statutes  in  deference  to  a  public  demand,  but  unless  the 
judges  are  convinced  of  their  harmony  with  the  federal  and 
state  constitutions,  such  laws  are  declared  unconstitutional 
and  are  void. 

At  first  sight,  the  question  of  constitutionality  appears 
to  be  remote  from  the  course  of  our  discussion,  a  region  of 
legal  technicalities  and  abstractions  into  which  the  layman 
may  scarcely  venture,  and  in  which  such  human  forces  as 
hygiene  and  social  welfare  must  count  as  nil.  But  in  fact 
the  reverse  is  true.  In  the  last  resort,  the  constitutionality 
of  these  laws  is  determined  by  no  other  considerations  than 
such  medical  and  social  facts  as  those  which  we  have  dis- 
cussed at  length. 

1.    THE  POLICE  POWER 

In  order  fully  to  understand  this  relation,  we  must  keep 
in  remembrance  the  old  truth  that  government,  indeed  society 
itself  under  any  form  of  government,  means  restraints  of  one 
kind  or  another.  By  the  inexorable  law  of  compensation,  so 
soon  as  men  join  in  any  bonds  of  union,  they  must  surrender 
some  portion  of  their  individual  liberties  in  return  for  the 
solidarity  which  protects  them.  The  state's  right  to  impose 
such  restraints  or  regulations  upon  the  individual  is  called 
the  police  power.     Under  this  power,  all  our  laws  for  the 

242 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

protection  of  health,  safety,  and  welfare  have  been  enacted 
and  sustained  by  the  courts;  laws  such  as  the  quarantine  and 
liquor  laws,  those  establishing  hospitals  and  insane  asylums, 
laws  which  require  fire-escapes  in  hotels,  schools,  and  fac- 
tories, the  fencing  of  dangerous  machinery,  and  a  host  of 
others. 

The  police  power  is  thus  of  widest  application  and  has  no 
definite  limitations.  Its  applications  have  been  repeatedly 
defined  by  the  courts  in  a  very  large  number  of  cases.  "  From 
the  mass  of  decisions,"  says  Professor  Freund,  one  of  the  fore- 
most writers  on  this  subject,  "  it  is  possible  to  evolve  at  least 
two  main  attributes  or  characteristics  which  differentiate  the 
police  power;  it  aims  directly  to  secure  and  promote  the  pub- 
lic welfare,  and  it  does  so  by  restraint  and  compulsion."* 

Hence,  in  reviewing  legislation  the  courts  must  decide 
whether  any  specific  statute  is  justifiable  in  order  to  pre- 
serve the  public  health,  safety,  and  welfare,  or  whether  it 
infringes  unduly  upon  personal  liberties.  Here  we  reach  the 
core  of  our  difficulty  and  the  obstacle  which  has  stood  in  the 
path  of  labor  legislation. 


2.    THE  "FREEDOM  OF  CONTRACT"  THEORY 

It  is  a  fact  of  common  knowledge  that  after  our  civil 
war,  the  fourteenth  amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
was  adopted,  and  similar  provisions  in  the  state  constitutions, 
declaring  that  "no  state  shall  deprive  any  person  of  life, 
liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law," 

By  one  of  life's  ironies,  this  wellknown  phrase  has  been 
interpreted  by  the  courts  as  prohibiting  the  protection  of 
working  people  in  sundry  ways,  on  the  ground  that  their 
individual  rights  are  interfered  with.  Labor  is  property,  said 
the  judges.  The  laborer  has  the  same  right  to  sell  his  labor 
and  to  contract  with  his  employer  as  any  other  property 
owner.     Hence  the  laws  limiting  hours  of  labor,  or  regulating 

*  Freund,  Ernst:  The  Police  Power,  p.  3.  Chicago,  Callaghan  and 
Co..  1904. 

243 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

labor  in  other  ways,  are  in  conflict  with  the  fourteenth 
amendment,  because  they  interfere  with  the  laborer's  indi- 
vidual property  rights. 

This  theory  of  the  so-called  "freedom  of  contract"  was 
not  invoked  against  labor  legislation  until  twenty  years  after 
the  fourteenth  amendment  had  been  adopted  for  a  very 
different  purpose.  In  1886,  the  Supreme  Courts  of  Illinois 
and  Pennsylvania  first  threw  out  certain  labor  cases  as  un- 
constitutional on  this  ground.* 

The  "freedom  of  contract"  assumption  has  so  vitally 
affected  the  very  existence  of  the  laws  in  which  we  are  con- 
cerned, that  we  may  well  glance  at  the  six  or  seven  most  im- 
portant decisions  of  superior  courts  on  the  subject,  handed 
down  during  the  last  sixteen  years,  between  1895  and  1911. 

The  fallacy  of  this  thesis  has  been  of  late  so  much  dis- 
cussed that  it  need  not  delay  us  long.  It  is  coming  to  be 
recognized  that  since  employes  do  not  stand  upon  an  equal- 
ity in  bargaining  power  with  their  employers,  the  so-called 
"  right"  to  contract  for  a  day  of  any  length  is  purely  theoret- 
ical. The  worker  in  fact  obeys  the  compulsion  of  circum- 
stance. No  one  can  suppose  that  young  women  working  in 
the  box  factories  of  Chicago,  discussed  in  a  previous  chapter, 
need  or  desire  to  be  protected  in  their  "right"  to  labor  over- 
time nine  months  in  the  year;  or  that  women  in  laundries 
should  be  "free"  to  work  fourteen  hours  or  more  during 
several  days  of  the  week.  They  have,  in  fact,  no  choice  or 
freedom  in  the  matter.  The  alternative  is  to  work  or  starve. 
To  refuse  means  to  be  dismissed.  Modern  industry  has 
reduced  "freedom  of  contract"  to  a  paper  privilege,  a  mere 
figure  of  rhetoric. 

The  First  Ritchie  Case.     Yet  this  was  precisely  the 

ground  upon  which  the  judges  of  the  Illinois  Supreme  Court 

in  1895  declared  invalid  an  Illinois  eight-hour  law  for  women 

employed  in  factories.     In  what  is  known  as  the  first  Ritchie 

*  Freund,  Ernst:  Constitutional  Limitations  and  Labor  Legislation,- 
pp.  51-71.  Address  before  the  Third  Annual  Meeting  of  the  American 
Association  for  Labor  Legislation,  New  York,  December,  1909. 

244 


LABOR    LAWS    AND    THE    COURTS 

case,*  they  declared  that  the  pohce  power  of  the  state  did 
not  sanction  such  an  interference  with  the  working  hours  of 
adult  women.  There  was  no  "fair,  just,  and  reasonable 
connection  between  such  Hmitation  and  the  pubHc  health, 
safety,  or  welfare  proposed  to  be  secured  by  it."  Hence  the 
law  was  declared  unconstitutional;  and  for  thirteen  years, 
until  this  decision  was  practically  over-ruled  b\'  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  in  1908,  it  retarded  the  movement  for 
the  protection  of  working  women  in  all  our  states. 

The  Case  of  Holden  v.  Hardy.  Curiously  enough, 
three  years  after  the  decision  in  the  Ritchie  case,  a  law  limiting 
men's  hours  of  labor  was  carried  to  the  federal  Supreme  Court 
at  Washington  and  was  sustained.!  This  case  involved  the 
validity  of  the  Utah  law  fixing  an  eight-hour  day  for  men 
employed  in  mines  and  smelters.  The  court  handed  down  a 
decision  which  has  become  almost  a  classic  in  its  clear  state- 
ment of  the  broad  principles  at  issue.  It  is  true  that  the 
employments  regulated  were  clearly  dangerous  to  health, 
safety,  and  welfare.  Therefore  the  limitation  of  hours  was 
more  obviously  justifiable  under  the  police  power.  Indeed, 
the  court  based  its  favorable  decision  on  the  fact  that  work 
in  mines  and  smelters  was  not  like  ordinar}'  employment, 
but  that  the  operative  was 

" .  .  .  deprived  of  fresh  air  and  sunlight  and  is  subject 
to  the  foul  atmosphere  and  a  very  high  temperature,  or  to 
the  influence  of  noxious  gases." 

But  the  judges  dealt  not  only  with  the  hazards  of  these 
employments.  They  struck  a  loftier  note  which  rises  clear 
and  strong  above  the  technical  argument.  The\-  were  pre- 
occupied with  something  larger  than  the  single  law  in  dispute. 
It  was  the  state  which  figured  before  them — a  congregate 
whole  which  was  only  as  great  as  "the  sum  of  all  its 
parts."     These  parts,  they  said  in  stirring  words,  did  not 

*  Ritchie  v.  People,  155  111.  98  (1895). 
t  Holden  v.  Hardy,  169  U.  S.  366  (1898). 

245 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Stand  upon  an  equality  with  one  another  in  the  economic 
scale,  and  therein  lay  both  the  need  and  the  justification  of 
the  state's  intervention. 

"  But  the  fact  that  both  parties  are  of  full  age,  and  com- 
petent to  contract,  does  not  necessarily  deprive  the  state  of 
the  power  to  interfere,  where  the  parties  do  not  stand  upon 
an  equality,  or  where  the  public  health  demands  that  one 
party  to  the  contract  shall  be  protected  against  himself. 
The  state  still  retains  an  interest  in  his  welfare,  however  reck- 
less he  may  be.  The  whole  is  no  greater  than  the  sum  of  all 
the  parts,  and  when  the  individual  health,  safety,  and  welfare 
are  sacrificed  or  neglected,  the  state  must  suffer." 

It  is  significant,  as  the  court  pointed  out  also  in  this  de- 
cision, that  such  cases  as  the  one  at  bar  have  not  been  brought 
by  working  people  eager  to  secure  their  "right"  to  labor  any 
number  of  hours,  but  by  the  employers  to  whose  advantage 
it  is  for  them  so  to  labor.  "The  argument,"  said  the  court, 
"  would  certainly  come  with  better  grace  and  better  cogency 
from  the  other  class." 

These  two  decisions,  then,  set  forth  clearly  the  issue 
between  personal  liberty  and  the  police  power.  In  the 
Ritchie  decision  the  judges  set  a  theoretical  freedom  above 
concrete  realities.  1  n  Holden  v.  Hardy  the  law  appeared  to  be 
justified  by  its  necessity. 

The  Lochner  Case.  The  next  case  to  be  considered 
is  the  only  other  one  in  which  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  has  rendered  an  opinion  as  to  the  validity  of  a  law 
limiting  the  hours  of  adult  men  in  private  employment.* 
This  was  the  New  York  law  for  bakers,  restricting  the 
hours  of  labor  in  bakeries  to  ten  hours  in  one  day,  or  sixty 
hours  in  one  week,  overtime  being  allowed  for  the  purpose 
of  shortening  the  last  day  of  the  week.  In  1901  the  law  was 
attacked  as  unconstitutional  by  a  master  baker.  It  was 
sustained  by  the  New  York  courts  and  then  appealed  to  the 

*  Lochner  v.  New  York.  198  U.  S.  45  (1905). 
246 


LABOR    LAWS   AND   THE   COURTS 

Supreme  Court  at  Washington  which  declared  it  unconstitu- 
tional. 

Here  we  have  the  same  court  which  upheld  the  validity 
of  the  Utah  law  dismissing  the  New  York  law  as  one  of  the 
"  mere  meddlesome  interferences  with  the  rights  of  the  indi- 
vidual." 

Where  the  Utah  decision  took  a  firm  stand  in  behalf  of 
those  who  did  not  "  stand  upon  an  equality,"  the  decision  in 
the  Lochner  case  repudiates  the  idea  that  bakers  are  in  any 
sense  wards  of  the  state.*  The  judges  were  again,  as  in  the 
earlier  Illinois  case,  unable  to  see  any  connection  between  the 
proposed  limitation  of  hours  and  the  public  health  and  wel- 
fare. Bakeries,  unlike  mines  and  smelters,  did  not  seem  to 
them  dangerous  enough  to  regulate.  Doubtless  it  will  be 
genuinely  surprising  in  the  future  to  reflect  that,  in  this  sig- 
nificant case,  a  majority  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
could  find  no  "reasonable  ground"  to  justify  the  New  York 
bakers'  law.  A  majority  opinion  of  the  New  York  Court  of 
Appeals  had  dwelt  upon  the  dangers  to  health  arising  from 
excessive  hours  in  the  heated,  dust-laden  atmosphere  of  the 
bakeries.  A  concurring  opinion  had  cited  medical  authori- 
ties at  length  to  show  the  unhealthful  nature  of  such  hours 
of  work.  Yet  the  reaction  is  more  apparent  than  real.  In 
substance  the  Lochner  decision  does  not  over-rule  the  court's 
previous  sanction  of  the  Utah  law.  The  way  was  still  left 
open  for  the  justification  of  other  laws  limiting  the  workday, 
if  the  judges  could  be  shown  "  that  there  is  material  danger 
to  the  public  health,  or  to  the  health  of  the  employe,  if  the 
hours  of  labor  are  not  curtailed." 

The  Williams  Case  and  its  Challenge.  Unfortun- 
ately, in  the  next  decision  we  are  to  examine,  legal  technicali- 
ties again  predominated  in  the  minds  of  the  judges  over  the 

*  In  a  valuable  article  on  Legislative  Restriction  of  Hours  of  Labor, 
Bulletin  of  the  New  York  Labor  Department,  No.  46,  March,  1911,  John  A. 
Fitch  draws  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  was  Judge  Peckham,  who  had  dis- 
sented from  the  opinion  of  the  court  in  Holden  v.  Hardy,  who  wrote  the 
opinion  in  Lochner  v.  New  York. 

247 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

simple  facts  of  industrial  life,  of  which  they  were  evidently 
unaware.  Two  years  after  the  bakers'  law  had  been  upheld 
by  New  York's  highest  court,  the  same  bench,  in  the  Williams 
case,  declared  invalid  a  law  prohibiting  the  employment  of 
women  in  factories  between  9  p.  m.  and  6  a.  m.*  This  case 
was  of  deep  significance  for  the  cause  of  women.  It  was  the 
first,  and  is  the  only  decision  by  any  court,  which  deals  with 
women's  night  work.  As  we  have  seen,  there  were  in  1907 
only  four  state  laws  existent  on  the  subject. f  For  our  coun- 
try has  lagged  conspicuously  behind  the  rest  of  the  world  in 
seeking  to  control  night  work,  the  form  of  labor  most  fraught 
with  possibilities  of  injury  to  the  human  frame,  particularly 
to  the  health  of  women.  Yet  the  New  York  Court  of  Ap- 
peals deliberately  ignored  all  the  broader  implications  of 
the  case;  all  those  intricate  social  aspects  of  night  work,  its 
effects  upon  health  and  the  home  and  general  welfare,  which 
European  statesmen  had  been  studying  for  years,  and  which 
had  culminated  in  the  Berne  International  Convention  on 
Night  Work  eight  months  previous  to  the  Williams  case — all 
these  wider  issues  were  not  even  touched  upon.  We  seek  in 
vain  for  that  freer  air  of  statesmanship  and  understanding 
which  breathes  from  the  decision  of  Holden  v.  Hardy.  In 
the  Williams  case  the  court  deliberately  limited  itself  to  con- 
sidering "solely"  whether  work  at  10:20  p.  m.  (as  in  the  case 
at  bar)  was  injurious  enough  to  warrant  interference  with 
women's  "freedom  of  contract."  They  were  genuinely  con- 
cerned because,  under  the  existing  law,  no  woman  could  be 
employed  within  the  prohibited  hours  for  any  period  of  time 
"no  matter  how  short."X 

But  the  real  issue  did  not  center  on  this  single  narrow 
aspect  of  the  matter.  It  stands  to  reason  that  work  at 
10:20  p.  m.  is  not  in  itself  inherently  injurious.  But  night 
work,  as  it  exists  in  reality,  does  not  consist  of  such  isolated 
theoretical  employment.    As  we  have  seen,  it  means,   in 

*  People  V.  Williams,  189  N.  Y.  131  (1907). 

t  In  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Nebraska,  and  Indiana. 

J  Italics  added. 

248 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

practice,  either  overtime  work  prolonged  into  the  evening 
after  and  in  addition  to  the  normal  day,  or  employment  on 
continuous  night  shifts.  Both  these  forms  of  night  work  the 
judges  in  the  Williams  case  expressly  deplored;  but  in  their 
anxiety  to  preserve  women's  "freedom"  to  work  a  theoret- 
ical short  period  after  9  p.  m.,  on  the  assumption  that  such 
work  was  neither  long  nor  overtime,  they  opened  the  way  for 
precisely  the  evils  which  they  themselves  condemned!  And 
we  have  had,  in  consequence,  such  formidable  examples  of 
night  work  as  in  the  binderies  running  twenty-four  hours  at  a 
stretch,  quoted  in  a  previous  chapter.  These  have  been  the 
direct  results,  the  corollaries  of  the  Williams  decision. 

Now  the  writer  of  that  decision  had  gone  so  far  as  to 
state  specifically:  "I  find  nothing  in  the  language  of  the 
section  which  suggests  the  purpose  of  promoting  health  ex- 
cept as  it  might  be  inferred  that  for  a  woman  to  work  dur- 
ing the  forbidden  hours  of  the  night  would  be  unhealthful." 
Here  was  an  explicit  challenge  thrown  down  by  the  learned 
writer  of  this  opinion.  If,  indeed,  the  language  of  the  law 
contained  nothing  which  suggested  to  the  court  the  purpose  of 
promoting  health,  clearly  that  purpose  should  have  been  made 
clear,  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  in  the  law's  defense. 

In  defending  the  cases  which  we  have  reviewed  up  to  this 
point,  the  arguments  and  citations  of  the  lawyers  had  been 
almost  wholly  confined  to  the  purely  legal  aspects  of  those 
actions.  Briefs  of  counsel  had  discussed  in  infinite  detail  the 
power.  But  the  point  at  issue  had  in  fact  wholly  shifted  from 
relation  between  the  fourteenth  amendment  and  the  police 
the  state's  abstract  right  to  restrict  individual  rights,  to  the 
practical  necessity  for  every  such  restriction.  The  ques- 
tion was  no  longer  abstract  and  legal,  but  rather  in  a  deep 
sense  social  and  medical.  It  followed  that  the  purely  legal 
defense  of  these  laws  was  falling  wide  of  the  mark.  It  had 
long  been  unreasonable  to  expect  that  judges,  trained  in 
schools  remote  from  factories  and  workshops,  should  be 
conversant  with  those  underlying  practices  and  conditions 

249 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

which  alone  could  justly  weight  the  scales.  The  men  upon 
the  bench  needed  for  their  guidance  the  empirical  testimony 
of  the  working  woman's  physician,  the  factory  inspector,  and 
the  economist.     They  needed,  in  a  word,  to  know  the  facts. 

For  some  years  previous  to  the  Williams  decision,  many 
persons  interested  in  labor  legislation,  and  particularly  the 
Consumers'  League,  had  been  following  in  detail  the  in- 
fluence of  successive  court  decisions.*  in  an  earlier  case, 
involving  the  validity  of  certain  sections  of  the  New  York 
child  labor  law,t  the  writer  of  these  pages  had  been  called 
upon  to  furnish  the  presiding  judge  with  testimony  from  the 
New  York  Factory  Inspectors'  reports,  relative  to  the  social 
value  of  such  legislation. 

Before  the  Williams  case  had  been  carried  to  the  New 
York  Court  of  Appeals,!  the  writer  had  made  an  effort  to 
obtain  some  expressions  of  opinion  from  physicians,  on  the 
subject  of  women's  employment  at  night,  comparable  with 
the  findings  of  European  physicians.  It  was  hoped  that 
some  prominent  medical  men  in  New  York  might  be  induced 
to  state  their  views  of  the  physical  injuries  incident  to  in- 
dustrial night  work,  just  as  in  1892  a  group  of  distinguished 
and  public-spirited  British  physicians  had  presented  to 
Parliament  a  memorial  on  the  injuries  from  overlong  hours 
in  shops,  in  support  of  Sir  John  Lubbock's  Early  Closing 
Bill.§ 

But  from  among  ten  prominent  New  York  physicians 
who  were  approached,  only  two  were  willing  to  express  them- 
selves publicly.    One  of  these  was  a  physician  grown  old  in 


*  See  Kelley,  Florence:  Some  Ethical  Gains  Through  Legislation. 
New  York,  Macmillan,  1905.  Goldmark,  Josephine:  The  Necessary  Sequel 
of  Child  Labor  Laws,  Amer.  Jour,  of  Sociology,  pp.  312-325.  Nov.,  1905; 
Workingwomen  and  the  Laws.  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Po- 
litical and  Social  Science,  pp.  261-276.     Sept.,  1906. 

t  The  City  of  New  York  v.  Chelsea  Jute  Mills.     43  Misc.  266.  (1904). 

X  The  law  had  been  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  Appellate  Divi- 
sion of  the  New  York  Supreme  Court,  two  out  of  five  judges  dissenting. 

§  British  Sessional  Papers,  1892.  Vol.  XII,  p.  238.  Among  the 
signers  of  the  memorial  are  such  weilknown  names  as  Sir  Andrew  Clark, 
Sir  Richard  Quain,  and  298  others.     See  Part  II  of  this  volume,  p.  515. 

250 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

service  whose  life-long  practice  had  made  him  as  familiar 
with  the  dire  effects  of  industrial  overwork  as  of  excessive 
idleness.  The  other  was  a  younger  man  whose  active  part 
in  the  tuberculosis  campaign  had  brought  forcibly  to  his 
notice  some  of  the  contributory  causes  of  overstrain  among 
working  people.  The  striking  fact  in  the  refusal  of  the  other 
physicians  to  share  in  any  arraignment  of  the  night  shift 
or  late  overtime  work  for  women,  was  their  general  remote- 
ness from  the  common  facts  of  what  seemed  almost  like  a 
different  order  of  existence.  The  speed,  the  strain,  and  the 
long  hours  of  factory  life  belonged  to  a  chapter  of  human  life 
wholly  outside  of  their  own  crowded  and  specialized  lives. 
Not  one  of  them  raised  the  objection  that  a  public  expression 
of  medical  opinions  might  be  construed  as  an  attempt  to 
prejudice  the  case.  They  were  unacquainted  with  the  facts 
at  first  hand  and,  indeed,  for  the  most  part,  doubted  their 
existence. 

This  modest  attempt,  then,  failed.  But  when,  in  1907, 
the  decision  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  in  the  Williams  case  ex- 
plicitly stated  the  court's  inability  to  see  the  purpose  of  the 
law,  it  became  more  than  ever  apparent  that  a  new  emphasis 
was  needed  in  the  defense  of  labor  legislation,  and  we  awaited 
the  opportunity  in  which  to  put  this  belief  into  practice. 

The  Oregon  Case  and  a  New  Line  of  Defense. 
Such  an  opportunity  offered  in  the  very  same  year.  A 
laundryman  was  arrested  for  violation  of  the  Oregon  law 
fixing  a  ten-hour  day  for  women  employed  in  factories  and 
laundries.  The  validity  of  the  law  was  affirmed  by  the 
Oregon  courts,  and  in  December,  1907,  an  appeal  was  taken 
to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  at  Washington,  Here, 
then,  was  an  opportunity  to  present  the  real  issue  to  the 
highest  court  in  the  land,  concerned  for  the  first  time  in  its 
history  with  a  statute  limiting  the  workday  of  adult  women. 
By  good  fortune,  the  active  interest  of  a  distinguished  lawyer* 

*  Mr.  Louis  D.  Brandeis  of  Boston,  who  has  given  his  invaluable  ser- 
vices unpaid  in  these  cases. 

251 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

was  enlisted  and  he  proposed  to  put  these  issues  before  the 
court  in  a  new  way.  His  argument  and  brief  marked  a  radi- 
cal departure  in  the  defense  of  labor  laws.  It  confined  itself 
to  the  tangible  human  elements  involved — health,  welfare, 
and  economic  efficiency.* 

In  a  brief  of  more  than  100  pages,  he  devoted  two  to  the 
legal  aspects  of  the  case,  and  over  100  to  a  new  kind  of  testi- 
mony— mankind's  experience,  physical  and  moral,  with  re- 
spect to  women  in  industry  and  the  duration  of  their  work- 
ing hours.  The  document  was  made  up  from  the  accumu- 
lated mass  of  British  and  Continental  factory  inspectors' 
reports,  commissions  and  enquetes,  as  well  as  the  observations 
of  medical  men  and  economists.  It  was  well  received  by  the 
court,  which  in  its  decision  upheld  the  validity  of  the  Oregon 
law.  Quoting  from  the  new  empirical  evidence  contained  in 
the  brief,  the  court  stated  that  it  "took  judicial  cognizance 
of  all  matters  of  general  knowledge,"  thus  in  a  single  phrase 
warranting  the  new  emphasis  upon  practical  data.f 

The  decision  in  the  Oregon  case  was  indeed  no  narrow 
victory.  It  was  the  most  sweeping  decision  ever  rendered 
by  the  federal  Supreme  Court  in  relation  to  working  hours. 
It  was  not  confined  to  the  consideration  of  the  ten-hour  day 
or  to  a  working  day  of  any  particular  length.  It  left  to  the 
states  the  liberty  to  determine  what  working  hours  were 
wholesome  and  reasonable.  It  went  far  beyond  the  statute 
at  issue,  which  dealt  with  the  employment  of  women  in  fac- 
tories and  laundries,  and  looked  towards  the  protection  of 
women  in  other  employments.  In  a  word,  the  highest  court 
of  the  nation  rejected  the  fiction  of  the  free  contract  as  re- 
gards the  working  woman  and  declared  that  "her  physical 
nature  and  the  evil  effects  of  overwork  upon  her  and  her 
future  children  justify  legislation  to  protect  her  from  the 
greed  as  well  as  the  passion  of  men."  The  new  method  of 
defense  had  amply  justified  itself. 

*  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  October  Term,   1907.     Curt 
MuIIer  V.  the  State  of  Oregon.     Brief  and  Argument  for  Defendant  by 
Louis  D.  Brandeis  and  Josephine  Goldmark. 
tSee  Part  II,  p.  558. 

252 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

The  Second  Ritchie  Case.  It  was  again  to  be  put 
into  practice  and  again  to  be  justified  in  tiie  following 
year  (1909),  immediately  after  the  auspicious  Oregon  deci- 
sion had  in  principle  reversed  the  earlier  Ritchie  decision  of 
the  Illinois  Supreme  Court.  The  way  was  now  open  for  laws 
protecting  women  from  overwork,  and  many  states  enacted 
such  legislation.  Among  others,  the  Illinois  legislature  of 
1909  provided  a  ten-hour  day  for  women  employed  in  laun- 
dries and  factories.  Hence,  fourteen  years  after  the  first 
Ritchie  decision,  a  new  law  was  carried  up  to  the  Illinois 
Supreme  Court  for  its  adjudication.* 

A  wholly  new  bench  of  judges  were  sitting  in  the  case. 
The  widespread  public  curiosity  throughout  Illinois  as  to  the 
outcome  of  this  case,  bore  witness  to  a  new  recognition  of  the 
large  issues  at  stake,  not  only  to  women  in  industry,  but  to  the 
state.  The  court  in  sustaining  the  ten-hour  law  was  not 
deterred  as  the  same  court  had  been  fourteen  years  before  by 
the  freedom  of  contract  theory.  All  that  body  of  "general 
knowledge"  which  the  federal  judges  had  taken  into  cog- 
nizance, was  again  admitted  to  carry  its  due  weight.  In  a 
single  illuminating  sentence  the  Illinois  court  also  responded 
to  the  new  emphasis  upon  the  substantial  and  substantiated 
facts,  remarking,  "what  we  know  as  men  we  cannot  profess 
to  be  ignorant  of  as  judges." 


3.    THE  DISTINCTIONS  OF  SEX 

Now  among  these  facts  known  to  all  men  and  presented 
to  the  court,  were  the  ill  effects  of  industrial  speeding,  strain, 
and  the  like,  upon  working  women,  qua  women.  Their 
physical  organization,  the  greater  morbidity  of  working 
women  compared  with  men  in  the  same  occupations,  and  the 
dependence  of  future  generations  upon  the  health  of  women, 
all  had  been  dwelt  upon  to  justify  the  legal  restriction  of 
their  hours.  This  was  because  the  earlier  decisions,  over- 
throwing the  validity  of  women's  labor  laws,  had  denied  any 

*  Ritchie  &  Co.  v.  Wayman,  244  111.  509  (1910). 
253 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

special  protection  to  women  "on  the  mere  fact  of  sex." 
Women  were  citizens,  hence  their  contractual  powers  could 
not  be  disturbed.  Indeed  the  New  York  Court  of  Appeals 
went  so  far  as  to  say  in  the  face  of  civilized  precedent,  that 
"an  adult  woman  is  not  to  be  regarded  ...  in  any 
other  light  than  the  man  is  regarded,  when  the  question  re- 
lates to  the  business  pursuit,  or  calling." 

This  specious  argument  and  the  alleged  impossibility  of 
differentiating  between  men  and  women  was,  indeed,  long 
an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  securing  women's  laws.  Thus  in 
England  between  1874  and  1901  the  factory  acts  were  in  the 
main  opposed  by  an  important  wing  of  the  women's  rights 
party.  Superficially  viewed,  the  great  movement  to  obtain 
for  women,  in  all  fields,  rights  from  which  they  have  been 
debarred,  might  appear  inconsistent  with  the  effort  to  pro- 
tect one  sex  as  contrasted  with  the  other.  But  this  is  a 
fundamental  misconception.  It  ignores  the  fact  that  pro- 
tection of  health  has  never  been  held  a  bar  to  the  efficiency 
of  men  as  citizens. 

It  has  yet  to  be  suggested,  for  instance,  that  the  miners 
of  13  states — Arizona,  California,  Colorado,  Idaho,  Mary- 
land, Missouri,  Montana,  Nevada,  Oregon,  Oklahoma,  Utah, 
Washington,  and  Wyoming — are  discriminated  against,  be- 
cause the  state  restricts  their  working  hours  to  eight  in 
one  day*  for  the  explicit  purpose  of  protecting  the  health 
of  its  citizens.  It  has  yet  to  be  suggested  that  the  inter- 
state railroad  telegraphers  are  less  valuable  as  citizens  than 
any  other  men  because  Congress,  in  1907,  restricted  their 
work  to  thirteen  hours  by  day  and  nine  hours  by  night. 
This  statute  and  similar  restrictions  in  many  states  were 
enacted  nominally  to  safeguard  the  traveling  public.  But 
its  only  excuse  for  being  is  the  effect  of  excessive  hours  upon 
the  operative's  efficiency.  These  restrictions  upon  men's 
working  hours  have  never  interfered  with  their  value  or 
dignity  as  citizens.     Why  then,  should  similar  restrictions — 

*  Ten  hours  in  one  day  in  Maryland,  applying  to  Allegany  and  Garrett 
counties. 

254 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

wider  and  more  inclusive  for  women — operate  against  their 
dignity  or  value  as  citizens?  Their  physical  endowments  and 
special  functions  make  the  protection  of  their  health  even 
more  necessary  than  the  protection  of  men's  health;  they 
need  even  more  than  men  the  legislative  protection  which, 
as  Justice  Brewer  said  in  the  Oregon  case,  "is  designed  to 
compensate  for  some  of  the  burdens  which  rest  upon"  them. 

It  is  true  that,  as  we  have  seen,  the  restriction  of  men's 
hours  of  labor  has  been  upheld  by  the  courts  only  when  the 
occupations  sought  to  be  regulated  are  manifestly  dangerous 
to  health,  such  as  mines  and  smelters,  or  where  public  safety 
is  directly  concerned,  as  in  railroading.  Yet  in  so  far  as 
prohibition  of  excessive  hours  for  men  has  been  justified  by 
dangers  resulting  to  their  health  and  efficiency,  the  argument 
for  more  inclusive  women's  laws  is  precisely  similar. 

Fortunately  this  view  has  on  the  whole  prevailed  in 
the  United  States,  and  the  steadily  growing  equal  suffrage 
societies  have  taken  a  logical  stand  in  defense  of  the  state's 
responsibilities  towards  working  people,  be  they  men  or 
women. 

Why,  indeed,  should  these  measures,  justifiable  on  the 
broad  ground  of  health  and  welfare,  be  in  the  future  limited 
to  women?  The  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor  has 
recently  published  a  thoughtful  review  of  judicial  decisions 
dealing  with  the  hours  of  labor  of  adult  men.*  The  writer, 
John  A.  Fitch,  has  brought  together  the  most  important 
conservative  dicta  of  the  courts  (typified  by  the  Lochner 
decision  overthrowing  the  bakers'  law)  and  their  most  pro- 
gressive utterances. t     He  concludes  that  while  the  judiciary 

*  Bulletin  of  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  No.  46.  March, 
1911,  p.  90. 

t  Of  such  progressive  utterances  none  are  more  striking  than  the  two 
following  paragraphs,  taken,  respectively,  from  decisions  of  the  New  York 
Court  of  Appeals  and  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Pennsylvania: 

"In  the  interest  of  public  health,  of  public  morals  and  of  public  order, 
a  state  may  restrain  and  forbid  what  would  otherwise  be  the  right  of  a 
private  citizen.  .  .  .  It  may  limit  the  hours  of  employment  of  adults  in 
unhealthy  work,  and  it  may  be  that  it  could  prohibit  the  performance  of  ex- 
cessive physical  labor  in  all  callings."  (People  v.  Orange  County  Road  Con- 
struction Co.,  175  N.  Y.,  84,  87.)     Italics  added. 

255 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

is,  as  a  whole,  on  the  side  of  conservatism,  the  advanced 
sentiments  found  in  sundry  decisions  indicate  "conditions 
other  than  stationary." 

In  upholding  the  validity  of  many  Sunday  laws,  the 
courts  have  repeatedly  declared  that  the  cessation  of  labor 
one  day  in  seven  is  essential  for  health,  morals,  and  general 
welfare.  It  has  not  yet  been  made  manifest  to  the  judges 
that  an  adequate  daily  period  of  rest  for  men  is  as  essential 
as  the  weekly  rest  period.  The  question  arises  whether  laws 
limiting  men's  hours  of  labor  might  not  have  a  more  favorable 
outlook  for  being  sustained  by  the  courts  "if  an  effort  were 
made  similar  to  the  effort  in  the  Oregon  and  Illinois  women's 
cases,  to  present  evidence  with  respect  to  long  hours  of  work 
in  industries  where  men  are  employed."  Could  not  such 
evidence  readily  be  found  to  justify  laws  prohibiting  the 
twelve-hour  shifts  in  continuous  industries,  and  requiring 
the  employment  of  three  shifts  instead  of  two?  The  out- 
rageous duration  of  work  in  continuous  industries  *  and  the 
brutalizing  effects  of  the  twelve-hour  day  and  eighty-four- 
hour  week  would  make  this  perhaps  the  most  timely  legisla- 
tion for  men.  Some  laws  embodying  these  principles  already 
exist.  In  Montana  and  Pennsylvania  there  are  eight-hour 
laws  for  hoisting  engineers,  in  mines  operated  sixteen  hours 
or  more  a  day;  and  the  federal  law  has  already  been  re- 
ferred to,  which  provides  for  interstate  telegraphers  a  thirteen 
hour  day  in  offices  open  only  by  day  and  a  nine-hour  period 
in  offices  open  both  day  and  night. 


"A  prohibition  upon  unhealthy  practices,  whether  inherently  so,  or 
such  as  may  become  so  by  reason  of  prolonged  and  exacting  physical  exertion 
which  is  likely  to  result  in  enfeebled  or  diseased  bodies,  and  thereby  directly 
or  consequently  affecting  the  health,  safety,  or  morals  of  the  community, 
cannot,  in  any  just  sense,  be  deemed  a  taking  or  an  appropriation  of  property. 

"The  length  of  time  a  laborer  shall  be  subject  to  the  exhaustive  exer- 
tion or  physical  labor  is  as  clearly  within  legislative  control  as  is  the  govern- 
ment inspection  of  boilers,  machinery,  etc.,  to  avoid  accidents,  or  of  the 
sanitary  conditions  of  factories  and  the  like  to  preserve  the  health  of  labor- 
ers."    (Commonwealth  v.  Beatty,  15  Pa.  Sup.  Ct.,  5,  15.) 

*  See  p.  4. 


256 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

4.    THE  QUESTION  OF  DISCRIMINATION 

One  further  point  regarding  the  validity  of  these  laws 
needs  comment  in  this  brief  chronicle.  This  concerns  another 
section  of  the  fourteenth  amendment,  declaring  that  no 
state  shall  "deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  equal 
protection  of  the  laws."  Under  this,  or  similar  provisions 
in  state  constitutions,  laws  regulating  conditions  of  labor 
have  been  declared  invalid,  as  discriminating  improperly 
between  persons  or  classes,  thus  denying  equal  protection  of 
the  laws. 

Now  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  their  review  of 
legislation,  it  is  the  function  of  the  courts  to  determine 
whether  the  legislature  had  any  reasonable  grounds  for  its 
action ;  not  whether  the  laws  as  enacted  are  inherently  and 
in  themselves  good  or  bad,  but  whether  the  legislature  was 
justified  in  its  conclusions,  as  embodied  in  the  laws. 

Obviously,  in  enacting  any  laws  limiting  hours  of  labor, 
the  legislature  must  use  its  discretion  in  choosing  among 
various  alternatives,  such  as  the  number  of  hours  to  be  fixed, 
the  persons  to  be  protected,  and  other  similar  points.  Op- 
ponents of  these  laws  have  usually  raised  the  contention  that 
they  were  unfairly  discriminatory,  because  certain  persons  or 
classes  of  persons  were  included  or  left  out. 

In  the  Ritchie  case,  for  instance,  it  was  claimed  that  the 
law  was  unfair  "class"  legislation  because  it  included  women 
working  in  factories  and  laundries  and  not  in  other  occupa- 
tions. In  a  more  recent  case  involving  the  Michigan  ten- 
hour  law  for  women*  the  law  was  attacked  as  "class"  legisla- 
tion because  a  different  class  of  workers  were  omitted.  In 
both  these  cases  the  courts  performed  a  great  service  by  up- 
holding and  reasserting  the  freedom  of  the  legislatures  to  use 
their  discretion  as  to  the  scope  of  the  laws.  "  If  all  laws  were 
held  unconstitutional  because  they  did  not  embrace  all 
persons,"  said  the  Illinois  court  (quoting  another  decision), 
"few  would  stand  the  test."  In  each  case  the  court  concluded 
*  Withey  v.  Bloem,  163  Mich.  419.  (1911). 
17  257 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

that  the  law  was  not  "class"  legislation,  although  it  did 
single  out  those  workers  who  seemed  to  the  legislature  most 
in  need  of  protection.  The  Michigan  court  again  throws  the 
responsibility  for  the  scope  of  the  law  squarely  upon  the 
discretion  of  the  legislature,  quoting  with  approval  from 
Cooley's  Constitutional  Limitations  on  this  point,  "the 
legislature  must  judge."  The  law  cannot  be  called  uncon- 
stitutional because  "it  does  not  apply  to  all  callings." 

This  emphasis  upon  the  freedom  of  the 'legislature  should 
be  welcome  to  all  lovers  of  democracy,  even  though  legis- 
latures, like  all  human  agencies,  may  err  and  prove  false  to 
their  trust. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  Michigan  ten-hour  law  which  was 
sustained  by  the  Michigan  Supreme  Court  contains  a  thor- 
oughly vicious  section.  It  excludes  from  the  protection  of 
the  law  all  women  "engaged  in  preserving  perishable  goods 
in  fruit  and  vegetable  canning  establishments."  This  ex- 
ception was  a  weak  concession  to  a  powerful  interest,  a 
yielding  to  undue  pressure.  Yet  only  a  doctrine  of  despair 
would  welcome  the  correction  of  such  legislative  failures 
through  the  agency  of  the  courts.  The  remedy  lies  not  in 
destroying  the  legislative  functions  and  handing  over  to  the 
courts  a  wider  jurisdiction  than  is  their  right.  It  lies  in 
raising  the  caliber  of  legislators  and  in  bringing  to  bear  upon 
the  legislatures  the  power  of  new  ideas,  which,  in  the  long  run, 
never  fails.  For  this  we  need,  primarily,  a  wider  study  and 
knowledge  of  those  fundamental  truths  which  are  the  bases 
of  our  protective  legislation,  and  which  these  chapters  have 
sought  briefly  to  set  forth. 


258 


X 

PROHIBITION    OF    WOMEN'S    NIGHT    WORK:     A 
PRIME  NECESSITY 

1.    THE  INTERNATIONAL  CONVENTION  ON  NIGHT  WORK 

4  S  we  have  seen,  in  June,  1907,  the  New  York  Court  of 
/\  Appeals  by  a  unanimous  decision  struck  from  the 
1  \  statute  books  of  New  York  the  law  against  women's 
night  work,  one  of  the  four  state  laws  on  the  subject  at  that 
date  existent.*  Just  eight  months  before,  in  Berne,  Switzer- 
land, there  had  been  held  a  memorable  meeting,  attended  by 
official  delegates  from  14  European  nations.  This  was  the 
result  of  a  quarter  century's  effort,  a  new  move  in  labor 
legislation:  an  international  convention  of  the  Powers. 
The  subject  of  the  treaty  chosen,  according  to  Professor 
Raoul  Jay,  as  one  of  the  most  urgent,  most  important,  and 
most  easily  solved  of  labor  problems,  was  the  abolition  of 
women's  night  work. 

These  official  acts,  falling  within  the  same  twelve  months 
at  opposite  poles  from  one  another,  are  significant  of  the 
diametrically  opposed  mental  attitudes  prevalent  in  the 
United  States  and  in  Europe,  toward  the  same  phenomenon. 
Yet  the  employment  of  women  at  night  is  not  one  of  the 
subjects  legitimately  differentiated  in  a  democracy  and  under 
other  forms  of  government.  As  we  have  trod  the  same  path 
as  our  elder  kin  abroad  in  other  legislation  reducing  the 
length  of  the  workday,  we  shall  sooner  or  later  find  ourselves 
obliged  to  follow  their  action  in  regard  to  the  employment  of 
women  at  night.     But  whereas  abroad  the  prohibition  of 

*  These  states  were  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Indiana,  and  Nebraska. 
A  New  Jersey  statute  enacted  in  1892  which  prohibited  the  employment  of 
women  in  factories  between  6  p.  m.  and  7  a.  m.  was  held  repealed  by  a 
general  repealing  act  of  1904. 

259 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

women's  night  work  has  gone  hand  in  hand  with  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  day's  work,  and  a  legal  dosing  hour  has  been  found 
an  integral  part  of  effective  laws,  this  issue  has  been  for  the 
most  part  ignored  in  the  United  States.  The  lack  of  a  legal 
closing  hour  has  hampered  the  law  enforcement  in  all  but 
three  of  our  states. 

We  have  seen  that  England  prohibited  night  work  in 
her  first  factory  legislation  for  women  in  1844.  Almost  a 
generation  passed  before  any  other  European  state  took 
action.  In  1864,  the  Swiss  canton  of  Claris  followed  Eng- 
land's example  and  forbade  the  employment  of  women  at 
night  in  factories.  Ten  years  later  a  declaration  in  the  Swiss 
federal  constitution  authorized  the  regulation  of  the  hours  of 
labor  of  all  adults.  The  Swiss  federal  law  of  1877  which 
followed,  contained  a  clause  prohibiting  women's  night  work. 
Many  attempts  were  made  later,  from  time  to  time,  to  ob- 
tain overtime  privileges  for  various  industries,  but,  wrote  the 
eminent  Swiss  factory  inspector  Fridolin  Schuler  twenty- 
five  years  later,  "  no  one  ever  dared  to  suggest  the  repeal  of 
the  night  work  law."  (Ces  dispositions  protectrices  n'ont 
jamais  ete  touchees  .  .  .  personne  n'osa  s'attaquer  au 
travail  de  nuit.)* 

The  prohibition  of  women's  night  work  had  been  intro- 
duced by  the  same  F.  Schuler  in  1887  to  a  wider  audience,  at 
the  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography  at 
Vienna.  This  is  a  body  of  scientists  to  whose  work  we 
have  previously  referred,  who  have  met  at  regular  intervals 
abroad,  and  during  the  past  twenty  years  have  been  devoting 
their  attention  more  and  more  to  the  problems  of  industry  as 
well  as  of  pure  science. f 

*  Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I'lndustrie.  Rapports  sur  son 
importance  et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Prof.  Etienne  Bauer, 
Directeur  de  I'Office  Internat.  du  Travail.  Pp.  343-344.  Jena,  Fischer, 
1903.  This  book  contains  the  investigations  made  by  the  International  As- 
sociation for  Labor  Legislation  into  the  physical,  moral,  and  economic  aspects 
of  night  work.     It  has  been  taken  as  a  basis  for  this  chapter. 

t  In  this  connection  interest  attaches  to  the  first  meeting  of  this  Con- 
gress in  the  United  States,  which  is  to  take  place  in  Washington,  D.  C, 
September,  1912. 

260 


PROHIBITION    OF   NIGHT  WORK 

The  next  important  body  to  discuss  the  employment  of 
women  at  night  was  the  famous  International  Conference  on 
Labor  called  by  the  German  Emperor,  to  the  astonishment 
of  Europe,  in  March,  1890.  The  Swiss  federal  government 
had  been  promoting  international  labor  agreements  during 
the  eighties,  and  had  arranged  a  conference  to  be  held  in 
Berne  in  May,  1890,  when  the  Kaiser  issued  his  rescript 
calling  a  conference  in  Berlin  two  months  earlier.*  The 
rescript  was  in  some  respects  so  radical  that  to  many  persons 
it  stood  for  "state  socialism" — a  deliberate  move  to  forestall 
the  socialist  advance.  Whatever  its  underlying  objects,  the 
Berlin  Conference  resulted  in  no  binding  agreements,  but 
among  its  resolutions  concerning  the  employment  of  women 
and  children,  the  prohibition  of  night  work  was  recom- 
mended.f 

During  the  next  ten  years  the  subject  was  discussed  by 
other  international  meetings,  and  finally  the  International 
Association  for  Labor  Legislation  at  its  first  meeting  of  dele- 
gates in  1901,  determined  to  investigate  the  whole  field:  the 
extent  and  effects  of  women's  night  work  in  the  various 
countries,  and  the  actual  economic  results  of  prohibiting 
night  work  by  law.  A  year  later,  following  this  investiga- 
tion, the  association  appointed  a  commission  to  devise  means 
of  obtaining  a  general  international  prohibition  of  women's 
night  work,  and  the  gradual  reduction  of  evening  overtime 
exemptions.  (Le  Comite  national  charge  une  commission 
de  rechercher  les  moyens  d'introduire  cette  interdiction 
generale,  et  d'examiner  comment  les  exceptions  qui  existent 
encore  a  cette  interdiction  pourraient  etre  progressivement 
supprimees.)J 

After  a  year's  deliberation,  the  commission  recommended 
that  the  Federal  Council  of  Switzerland  be  asked  to  initiate 

*  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  op.  cit.,  p.  270. 

t  Seven  states  voted  affirmatively  on  this  question:  Germany,  Austria, 
Great  Britain,  The  Netherlands,  Sweden,  and  Switzerland.  Five  states 
voted  in  the  negative:  Hungary,  Belgium,  Spain,  Italy,  and  Portugal.  Three 
states  refused  to  vote:  Denmark,  France,  and  Norway. 

J  Bauer:  Preface  to  Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I'lndustrie, 
op.  cit.,  p.  X. 

261 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

an  international  convention  forbidding  women's  night  work 
in  industry.  The  commission  recommended  also  that  a 
memorial  be  sent  to  all  the  powers,  setting  forth  the  reasons 
for  desiring  such  an  international  convention,  which  should 
assure  to  women  who  work  outside  of  their  own  homes  an 
unbroken  period  of  twelve  hours'  rest  at  night,  certain  trades 
and  processes  being  exempted. 

Both  of  these  recommendations  were  carried  out.  In 
response  to  the  invitation  of  the  Swiss  Federal  Council  there 
assembled  at  Berne,  September  26,  1906,  representatives  of 
14  European  powers:  Austro-Hungary,  Belgium,  Denmark, 
France,  Germany,  Great  Britain,  Italy,  Luxemburg,  Portu- 
gal, Spain,  Sweden,  Switzerland,  and  the  Netherlands. 

An  international  agreement  was  submitted  to  the  Con- 
ference. It  bound  the  contracting  states  to  prohibit  the 
industrial  night  work  of  women  without  distinction  of  age. 
The  agreement  applied  to  all  industrial  establishments  em- 
ploying more  than  10  persons.  A  minimum  period  of  eleven 
consecutive  hours  was  set  for  the  duration  of  the  night  rest, 
to  include  the  time  between  10  p.  m.  and  5  a.  m.  in  all  cases. 
In  states  where  such  legislation  had  not  previously  existed, 
the  period  of  uninterrupted  night  rest  might  be  temporarily 
reduced  to  ten  instead  of  eleven  hours,  during  a  period  of 
three  years.* 

Only  two  exceptions  permitting  night  work  were  pro- 
vided. First,  in  case  of  "force  majeure,"  or  the  interrup- 
tion of  work  by  causes  beyond  the  employer's  control,  often 
known  as  the  "Act  of  God";  second,  to  save  raw  material  or 
material  in  course  of  manufacture,  liable  to  rapid  deteriora- 
tion. No  other  concessions  were  made  to  the  seasonal  in- 
dustries, ever  insistent  for  special  privilege.  They  were  not 
exempted  from  the  prohibition  of  night  work.  A  slight 
modification  in  their  favor  was  permission  to  reduce  the 
length  of  the  night  rest  from  eleven  to  ten  hours  during  sixty 
days  in  the  year. 

*The  line  dividing  industry  from  commerce  and  agriculture  was  left 
for  each  country  to  define. 

262 


PROHIBITION    OF   NIGHT   WORK 

The  participating  states  were  required  to  ratify  tiiis 
convention,  to  file  their  ratifications  with  the  Swiss  Federal 
Council  within  a  specified  time,  and  to  adopt  administrative 
measures  for  carrying  out  the  terms  of  the  agreement.  It  was 
to  go  into  effect  two  years  after  ratification. 

By  January  14,  1910,  all  the  participating  states,  ex- 
cepting Spain  and  Denmark,  had  ratified  the  convention.* 
In  accordance  with  a  special  article,  the  French  government 
had  notified  the  Swiss  Council  that  the  terms  of  the  agree- 
ment were  accepted  for  Algiers  and  Tunis.  Similar  notice 
was  given  by  the  British  government  for  Gibraltar,  the  Gold 
Coast,  North  Nigeria,  Uganda,  Ceylon,  New  Zealand,  Fiji 
Islands,  Leeward  Islands,  and  Trinidad. f  Comic  as  it  may 
appear  at  this  date  to  legislate  for  the  South  Seas  and  for  the 
Africa  of  romance  and  adventure,  yet  bitter  experience  has 
taught  the  wisdom  of  so  legislating  before  industry  is  present.! 

Moreover,  the  night  work  treaty  must  be  regarded  as  an 
instrument  of  value  far  beyond  its  own  intrinsic  worth.  It 
marks  a  new  era  in  labor  legislation.  For  the  first  time  the 
powers  have  treated  on  a  plane  with  staples  of  commercial 
value,  as  legitimate  subjects  of  international  agreement  and 
treaty,  such  hitherto  neglected  assets  as  the  health  and  wel- 
fare of  wage-earners. 

The  effect  of  the  treaty  in  modifying  previous  laws  may 
be  illustrated  by  some  of  the  amendments  of  the  German  In- 
dustrial Code  in  1908,  seventeen  years  after  the  first  effective 
German  law  governing  women's  hours  of  labor  had  been  en- 
acted in  1891,  following  the  International  Conference  of  1890. 
This  first  law  had  copied  the  British  model  in  prohibiting  work 
at  night  between  specified  hours,  as  well  as  prohibiting  more 

*  Bulletin  of  the  International  Labour  Office.  English  edition.  Vol. 
I,  1906,  p.  272.  The  original  limit  set  for  the  ratifications  was  December 
31,  1908;  postponed  to  January  14,  1910. 

Additional  leeway  of  ten  years  before  enforcement  is  granted  the 
following  industries:  first,  the  manufacture  of  unrefined  beet  sugar;  second, 
woolcombing  and  weaving;  third,  open  mining  operations  when  climatic 
conditions  stop  operations  at  least  four  months  in  the  year. 

t  Ibid.  Vol.  VI,  1911,  p.  11. 

I  Bills  are  pending  in  Spain  and  Denmark  (March,  1912). 
263 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

than  a  specified  number  of  hours  by  day.  The  employment 
of  women  was  forbidden  between  8:30  p.  m.  and  5:30  a.  m. 
and  after  5:30  p.  m.  on  Saturdays  and  days  preceding  holi- 
days. By  the  amendment  of  December,  1908,*  among  other 
changes,  the  period  of  night  rest  was  lengthened  one  hour, 
work  being  prohibited  from  8  p.  m.  to  6  a.  m.  and  after  5  p.  m. 
on  Saturdays.  At  the  termination  of  the  workday,  an  un- 
interrupted period  of  at  least  eleven  hours  of  rest  was  re- 
quired. 

Such  are  the  general  provisions.  Many  exemptions  for 
overtime  may  be  granted,  for  various  reasons  and  varying 
lengths  of  time,  by  the  German  Federal  Council  and  by  the 
higher  or  lower  administrative  authorities.  But  the  amend- 
ment of  1908  reduced  the  range  of  many  of  these  exemp- 
tions, and  required  the  establishment  of  a  closing  hour  in  cases 
where  it  had  not  previously  been  required. 

Thus  one  section  of  the  complex  German  Code  gives 
special  powers  to  the  Federal  Council  in  regard  to  women's 
hours  of  labor.  For  instance,  in  industries  where  there  is 
seasonal  pressure  of  work  the  Federal  Council  may  grant 
exemptions  forty  times  during  the  year,  but  the  daily  period 
of  work  must  not  exceed  twelve  hours  nor  eight  hours  on 
Saturday. 

Previous  to  1908  there  was  no  fixed  closing  hour  for  such 
exemptions.  The  amendment  of  that  year  specified  that 
the  period  of  rest  following  the  workday  must  amount  to  at 
least  ten  consecutive  hours  and  must  include  the  time  be- 
tween 10  p.  m.  and  5  a.  m.f 

Again,  in  cases  of  exceptional  accumulation  of  work, 
overtime  may  be  granted  by  the  lower  and  higher  adminis- 
trative authorities  a  fixed  number  of  times  during  the  year. 
Previous  to  1908  such  overtime  was  allowed  until  10  p.  m. 
and  a  workday  of  thirteen  hours  was  permitted.     The  amend- 

*  German  Industrial  Code,  Section  137.  Bulletin  of  the  Interna- 
tional Labour  Office.     English  edition,  1908,  p.  335. 

t  German  Industrial  Code,  Section  139  a.  Bulletin  of  the  Interna- 
tional Labour  Office.     English  edition,  1908,  pp.  337  and  338. 

264 


PROHIBITION    OF    NIGHT   WORK 


ment  of  1908  limited  such  overtime  to  twelve  hours  in  the 
day,  changing  the  closing  hour  from  10  to  9  p.  m.,  and  re- 
quired that  the  daily  period  of  rest  must  be  not  less  than  ten 
hours.* 


2.    THE  CASE  AGAINST  NIGHT  WORK  ABROAD 

The  investigations  which  preceded  the  Berne  Conven- 
tion dealt  with  the  physical,  economic,  and  administrative 
aspects  of  night  work.  The  employment  of  women  at  night 
was  scrutinized  by  physicians,  economists,  and  specialists  in 
labor  enforcement,  and  was  found  in  the  first  place  unmis- 
takably dangerous  to  health.  For  all  night  work,  whether 
it  be  carried  on  regularly  in  night  shifts  or  irregularly  in  the 
evenings,  has  certain  characteristic  and  unavoidable  effects. 
Of  these  the  most  obvious  are  the  loss  of  sleep  and  sunlight, 
and  the  hygienic  argument  against  night  work  centers  upon 
the  inevitable  physiological  deficits  due  to  this  lack  of  sleep 
and  sunlight. 

We  have  seen,  in  a  previous  chapter,  that  during  work 
the  chemical  products  of  activity  increase.  The  internal 
combustion  is  more  active.  In  the  famous  experiment  of 
the  physiologists  Voit  and  Pettenkoffer,  a  man  was  shown 
to  expire  almost  twice  as  much  carbon  dioxide  during  a  day 
of  work  as  during  a  day  of  rest.  But  during  rest  at  night  the 
processes  of  tissue  repair  are  in  the  ascendant.  This  is  one 
of  the  reasons  why  loss  of  sleep  is  so  detrimental  to  the  organ- 
ism. This  is  also  the  reason  why  all  forms  of  night  work, 
inevitably  resulting  in  loss  of  sleep,  are  in  the  long  run  bound 
to  be  injurious. 

Besides  loss  of  sleep  and  rest,  another  characteristic 
of  both  night  work  and  evening  overtime  is  the  loss  of  sun- 
light. Sunlight  appears  to  benefit  all  our  bodily  functions. 
It  stimulates  growth  and  assists  in  the  elimination  of  toxic 
wastes.  Loss  of  sunlight  therefore  reacts  disastrously. 
Animal  experimentation  shows  that  the  blood  of  animals 

*  Ibid.,  p.  336. 
265 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

kept  in  the  dark  suffers  a  loss  of  the  red  coloring  matter. 
Investigation  among  night  workers  also  shows  the  ill  effects 
resulting  from  the  lack  of  sunshine  in  impoverished  blood: 
the  term  "baker's  anaemia"  tells  its  own  story.* 

More  than  twenty  years  ago  the  German  factory  in- 
spectors found  a  marked  excess  of  in  illness  among  night 
workers,  as  compared  with  day  workers  in  similar  occupa- 
tions, even  though  the  hours  of  labor  at  night  were  shorter 
than  by  day.f  The  French  commission  of  1890,  which  in- 
vestigated the  industrial  employment  of  girls  and  women  in 
France  before  the  first  effective  French  law  of  1892,  reported 
especially  on  the  injuries  to  childbirth,  and  the  high  infant 
mortality  among  women  employed  on  night  shifts. J  Physi- 
cians as  well  as  factory  inspectors  of  all  nations  agree  that 
after  a  shorter  or  longer  period,  women  habitually  employed 
at  night  suffer  from  all  those  symptoms  which  betoken  low- 
ered vitality:  loss  of  appetite,  headache,  anaemia,  and  weak- 
ness of  the  female  functions. 

Dr.  L.  Carozzi,  in  a  more  recent  limited  but  intensive 
study  of  night  workers  in  an  Italian  spinning  mill,  bears  out 
the  testimony  of  earlier  investigators.  The  night  workers 
whom  he  examined  all  showed  marked  signs  of  anaemia  and 
general  debility.  He  found  among  them  a  "continual  sense 
of  fatigue,  of  heaviness,  breakage,  of  exhaustion — in  a  word  a 
sense  of  chronic  tire,  which  weighs  upon  the  workers  and 
undermines  their  lives." § 

The  injury  to  health  from  night  work  is  the  greater  be- 

*  Wiener  klinisch-therapeutische  Wochenschrift.  Vol.  XI 11.  Nr.  27, 
1906.  Gardenghi,  Dr.  G.  F.  (Director  of  the  Institute  of  Hygiene,  Parma): 
Veranderungen  des  Blutes  durch  Nacht  Arbeit. 

Ibid.,  No.  28,  1906. 

Proceedings  of  the  First  International  Congress  on  Industrial  Diseases. 
Milan,  June,  1906.  Bolettino,  Dr.  L.  (Lecco):  Sull'  Influenza  deila  Luce 
Naturaie  nel  Lavoro,  p.  100. 

t  Amtliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  mit  Beauf- 
sichtigung  der  Fabriken  Betrauten  Beamten,  1889,  p.  93. 

X  Documents  Parlementaires.  Chambre  des  Deputes,  10  Juin,  1890. 
Annexe  649.  Waddington,  M.  R. :  Rapport  fait  sur  le  travail  des  enfants, 
des  fiUes  mineures,  et  des  femmes,  etc.,  p.  1088. 

§  Carozzi,  Dr.  Luigi:  I  Danni  del  Lavoro  Notturno.  Lavoro.  Vol. 
in.     Milan,  1905. 

266 


PROHIBITION    OF    NIGHT   WORK 

cause  sleep  lost  at  night  by  wage-earners  can  rarely  be  made 
good  in  the  daytime.  In  the  first  place,  for  reasons  not  well 
understood,  sleep  in  the  daytime  appears  to  be  generally  less 
restorative  than  by  night.  It  is  less  potent  to  accomplish 
its  office  of  repair  and  refreshment. 

But  even  if  day  sleep  could  habitually  compensate  for 
the  inversion  of  nature's  order,  it  is  not  within  the  wage- 
earner's  reach.  Quiet  and  privacy  for  sleep  by  day  are 
unattainable  luxuries.  Upon  returning  home  in  the  middle 
of  the  night  or  at  dawn,  the  workers  can  snatch  at  most  a 
few  insufficient  hours  of  rest.  Women  who  work  at  night 
fare  particularly  ill.  Those  who  are  married  cannot  post- 
pone the  regular  household  necessities  which  await  them  in 
the  morning,  such  as  cooking  breakfast,  dressing  and  caring 
for  the  children,  and  the  like.  Unmarried  women,  too, 
whether  they  live  at  home  or  are  thrown  upon  their  own 
resources,  can  rarely  avoid  a  certain  amount  of  household 
work,  which  combines  with  the  lack  of  quiet  to  make  im- 
possible adequate  sleep  by  day  after  night  work. 

In  thus  destroying  home  life,  night  work  militates  against 
morals  as  well  as  against  health.  Clearly,  no  form  of  women's 
work  so  interferes  with  their  domestic  relations  as  enforced 
absence  from  home  in  the  evenings,  the  only  time  when  wage- 
earning  families  are  together.  Young  women  who  work  at 
night  are  deprived  of  all  the  restraining  influences  of  home 
life.  When  the  mother  of  a  family  spends  the  night  or  even- 
ing in  work,  disorder  is  almost  unavoidable,  and  the  comfort 
of  the  men  as  well  as  of  the  children  dependent  upon  her 
ministrations,  is  lost. 

These,  then,  were  some  of  the  hygienic  and  moral  ob- 
jections to  night  work  found  in  actual  experience  abroad. 
The  advocates  for  prohibition  next  examined  its  economic 
value.  They  found  a  consensus  of  opinion  that  wherever 
night  work  had  been  abolished  long  enough  for  industry  to 
adjust  itself  to  the  change,  prosperity  had  not  suffered.  This 
was  because,  in  a  word,  night  work  is  inferior  to  day  work. 
Output  deteriorates  in  both  quality  and  quantity.     Defects 

267 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

occur  more  easily  at  night,  and  more  easily  escape  detection. 
In  weaving  and  in  industries  where  colors  must  be  distin- 
guished, work  by  artificial  light  is  never  satisfactory.  The 
profits  of  plants  running  uninterruptedly  day  and  night  are 
reduced  by  the  wear  and  tear  on  equipment  and  the  increased 
running  expenses.  But  chief  of  all,  they  are  reduced  by  the 
impaired  efficiency  of  the  workers.  Just  as  after  a  limited 
period  of  overtime,  efficiency  steadily  declines,  so  after  night 
work  the  workers  tend  to  deteriorate.  Many  mill  owners 
stated  to  the  investigators  who  preceded  the  Berne  Conven- 
tion that  in  the  long  run  night  work  had  proved  financially 
unsuccessful. 

Hence,  as  we  have  seen,  the  margins  of  overtime  have 
been  gradually  reduced,  and  the  laws  against  night  work, 
first  bitterly  opposed  in  most  countries,  are  being  gradually 
accepted.  The  Dutch  factory  inspector's  account  of  the 
gradual  acceptance  of  the  night-work  law  by  the  proprietors 
of  the  laundries  in  Holland  is  especially  interesting.*  A 
tempest  of  indignation  was  aroused,  wrote  T.  H.  Van 
Thienen,  by  the  Dutch  law  of  1889,  which  prohibited  work 
after  7  p.  m.  in  laundries  using  motor  power.  It  was  called, 
as  all  regulation  is  first  called,  the  ruin  of  the  industry  (la 
ruine  de  leur  profession).  To  abandon  the  traditional  modes 
of  work,  to  change  the  hours  of  the  arrival  and  delivery  of 
linen,  to  interfere  with  the  workers'  irregular  habits  (I'habi- 
tude  de  se  lever  tard  et  de  se  mettre  tard  a  I'ouvrage) — all 
this  aroused  the  resentment  of  employers,  accustomed  to  keep 
their  establishments  open  until  late  at  night.  But,  accord- 
ing to  Van  Thienen,  most  of  these  fears  were  imaginary 
(n'existaient  que  dans  I'imagination),  and  proved  to  be 
groundless  when  work  was  reorganized  so  as  to  end  at  7  p.  m. 
as  required  by  the  statute.  He  reported  that  the  law  still 
needed  careful  watching  (une  surveillance  rigoureuse)  in 
1903,  twelve  years  after  it  had  been  enacted,  but  concluded 
that  the  results  of  prohibiting  night  work  had  been  "ex- 
tremely favorable." 

*Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I'lndustrie.     Op.  cit.,  p.  304  flf. 

268 


PROHIBITION    OF    NIGHT    WORK 

This  account  is  typical  of  the  evidence  as  to  the  operation 
of  night-work  prohibitions,  contained  in  the  official  reports  of 
the  International  Labour  Office.  The  evidence  all  tended  to 
prove  that  the  prohibition  of  night  work,  like  the  reduction 
of  day  work,  was  in  the  long  run  a  benefit  to  industry.  It 
contributed  to  raise  the  efficiency  both  of  the  management 
and  of  the  employes. 

3.    NIGHT  WORK  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

In  contrast  now  to  the  Berne  Convention  of  1906  and  the 
legislation  of  European  states  bringing  their  laws  into  con- 
formity with  its  terms,  the  status  of  women's  night  work  in 
the  United  States  is  a  cause  for  deep  concern. 

We  have  seen  that  the  New  York  Court  of  Appeals 
failed  to  apprehend  its  true  significance.  But  more  unfor- 
tunate than  this  decision  (for  there  is  good  reason  to  believe 
that  the  court  might  take  a  different  view  if  the  real  issues 
were  more  clearly  brought  to  its  attention) — more  unfortu- 
nate than  the  court's  decision,  is  the  widespread  public  indif- 
ference in  regard  to  the  practice  of  working  women  at  night. 

The  United  States  was  not  able  to  take  part  officially 
in  the  Berne  Convention,  since  the  federal  government  can- 
not bind  the  individual  states  to  enact  legislation  restricting 
hours  of  labor.  But  far  from  aiming  at  the  same  goal, — pro- 
hibition of  night  work,  of  their  own  initiative, — American 
states  are  drifting  in  a  precisely  opposite  direction. 

While  all  the  civilized  (and  some  uncivilized)  nations  of 
the  world  are  abolishing  work  at  night,  and  cutting  down  the 
margins  of  overtime,  American  states  are  for  the  first  time 
granting  special  overtime  privileges  to  one  great  industry — 
canning — and  are  deliberately  recognizing  the  employment 
of  women  on  night  shifts.  The  legislature  of  the  enlightened 
state  of  Wisconsin  in  1911  enacted  its  first  effective  law  limit- 
ing the  working  hours  of  adult  women,*  and  in  the  same 

*  The  early  Wisconsin  law  of  1867  was  not  enforceable,  since  it  pre- 
scribed a  penalty  only  for  employers  who  compelled  women  to  work  more  than 
ten  hours  in  one  day. 

269 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Statute  it  legalized  an  eight-hour  night  shift  for  women  be- 
tween 8  p.  m.  and  6  a.  m.  This  provision  requires  that  work 
at  night  be  two  hours  less  than  the  legal  day's  work,  but  it 
is  none  the  less  true  that  this  law  specifically  authorizes  the 
employment  of  women  during  that  period  of  the  night  set 
apart  by  the  Berne  Convention  as  a  minimum  time  for  rest. 

Connecticut  passed  a  law  similar  to  that  of  Wisconsin 
in  1908,  and  bills  containing  similar  provisions  were  intro- 
duced in  Maryland  and  New  Jersey  in  1912.*  No  other 
states  have  specifically  legalized  night  work  for  women, 
but  such  work  is  permissible,  because  not  prohibited,  in 
all  other  American  states  excepting  three — Massachusetts, 
Indiana,  and  Nebraska. 

The  forces  which  make  for  night  work, — accepting  the 
enactment  of  such  legislation  as  in  Wisconsin,  defeating 
bills  aimed  to  prohibit  night  work  in  other  states, — may  be 
gauged  by  their  activities  during  the  sessions  of  1911. 

Legislatures  sat  in  40  states.  In  most  of  these  states 
some  bill  was  introduced  affecting  women's  conditions  of 
labor.  So  unpopular  and  so  little  regarded  was  the  prohibi- 
tion of  night  work  that  in  only  two  states — Delaware  and 
New  Jersey — besides  the  District  of  Columbia,  were  attempts 
made  to  include  a  legal  closing  hour  in  the  proposed  legisla- 
tion. These  three  bills  all  failed  to  become  laws,t  and  while 
this  fact  is  not  in  itself  conclusive, — for  many  bills  failed  in 
other  states, — it  is  significant  that  these  bills  had  admittedly  no 
chance  of  passage  until  the  closing  hour  had  been  eliminated. 

in  Delaware,  for  instance,  the  original  bill  prohibited  all 
night  work  after  10  p.  m.  After  many  deliberations  and 
efforts  at  persuasion  the  bill  emerged  from  conference, 
shorn  almost  beyond  recognition.  The  following  places  of 
employment  had  been  specially  allowed  to  employ  women 
without  restraint  at  night:  laundries,  canneries,  the  telephone 
service,  restaurants,  candy  stores,  ice  cream  saloons,  and 

*  Enacted  in  Maryland,  March,  1912. 

t  The  Delaware  bill  was  passed  with  amendments,  but  Gov.  Pennewill 
failed  to  sign  it. 

270 


PROHIBITION    OF  NIGHT  WORK 

Stores  between  December  Uth  and  25th — all  those  places  in 
which  the  employment  of  women  at  night  is  an  entrenched 
custom.  Where  night  work  is  not  customary  or  is  not  at 
present  needed,  its  prohibition  was  not  opposed. 

Thus  the  special  interests  which  desire  to  employ  women 
at  night  are  awake  and  untiring;  public  appreciation  of  the 
issue  is  dead  or  not  yet  born.  Hence,  in  the  United  States 
today,  legislation  restraining  employers  from  requiring  women 
to  work  at  night  is  the  most  difficult  to  secure,  though  the 
reduction  of  the  day's  work  gains  ground  each  year. 

So  little  has  the  subject  been  regarded  that  we  do  not 
even  know  the  extent  of  this  dangerous  form  of  employment, 
sprung  up  almost  like  the  armies  of  Cadmus,  overnight.  We 
do  know  that  the  custom  of  evening  overtime,  extending  to 
late  evening  hours,  is  prevalent  in  most  industries  to  a  de- 
gree unsuspected  by  most  persons. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  appalling  dura- 
tion of  night  work  found  by  the  federal  investigators  in  a  very 
limited  study  of  binderies  in  New  York  City.  Of  13  women 
who  worked  on  night  shifts  in  such  establishments,the  hours 
of  four  girls  are  specifically  stated.  They  were  employed 
respectively  16^4,  20J4,  22>^  and  24^  hours  once  and  some- 
times twice  a  week,  during  a  long  period  of  the  year,  that 
is,  from  four  to  almost  seven  months.  The  girl  whose  rec- 
ord of  hours  was  most  appalling  worked  24>^  hours  twice 
in  21  weeks.     Her  usual  long  day  was  20>^  hours.* 

Official  reports  of  the  outrageous  duration  of  night  work 
in  laundries  are  also  available.  An  inquiry  into  the  causes  of 
a  strike  of  laundry  employes  in  New  York  City  was  conducted 
in  February,  1912,  by  the  Bureau  of  Arbitration  of  the  New 
York  State  Department  of  Labor.  At  public  hearings,  em- 
ployes testified  under  oath  as  to  their  hours  of  labor.  It  ap- 
peared that  work  until  1  a.  m.  was  on  occasions  not  unknown, 
and  that  work  until  midnight  was  more  often  found  to  exist. 

*  Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the 
United  States.  Vol.  V,  p.  205.  Senate  Document  No.  645,  61st  Congress, 
2d  Session,  1911. 

271 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

The  three  following  schedules  of  "long  weeks"  reported  in 
the  stenographic  minutes  of  evidence,*  though  they  need  not 
be  regarded  as  typical,  illustrate  to  what  extremes  the  night 
work  of  women  in  laundries  is  carried,  when  there  is  no  legal 
closing  hour  for  work. 

SOME   INSTANCES   OF   EXTREMELY    LONG   HOURS   IN   NEW 
YORK    LAUNDRIES 


Day  of  week 


Monday.  .  , 
Tuesday.  . 
Wednesday 
Thursday.  . 
Friday.  .  .  . 
Saturday.  . 


IVoman  who  has 

worked  2  years 

in  laundries 

A.M. 

P.  M. 

12- 

12 

9- 

11:30 

9- 

9:30 

9- 

7 

9- 

6:30 

IVoman  who  has 

worked  5  years 

in  laundries 


A.M.        P.M. 

12-12 
9-  11:30 
9-    9 
9-    7 
9-    6 


Woman  who  has 

worked  11  years 

in  laundries 


A.M.        P.M. 
?  _    9a 
9-11 
9-    8 
9-    7:30 
9-    6 


*  Sometimes  until  10  p.  m.  or  later.     Latest  1  a.  m. 


We  know  also  that  in  one  great  occupation — the  tele- 
phone service — a  host  of  girls  and  women  are  regularly  em- 
ployed at  night  and  all  night,  where  only  a  few  years  ago  the 
night  service  was  performed  by  men  and  boys.  It  is  true 
that  the  telephone  companies  find  it  necessary  to  make  better 
provision  for  the  comfort  and  safety  of  their  night  workers 
than  other  employers.  Rest  rooms  are  provided,  and  the 
night  shift  is  not  exposed  to  the  objectionable  late  return 
home,  being  kept  on  duty  almost  invariably  from  10  p.  m. 
to  5  or  6  o'clock  in  the  morning.  But  the  fundamental 
physiological  objections  to  night  work  remain  the  same: 
the  workers'  lack  of  sleep  and  sunlight;  their  inability  to 
make  up  adequate  sleep  by  day.  The  shifting  army  of  "  tele- 
phone girls"  keeps  changing;  often  the  service  holds  them 


*  Not  yet  published  at  date  of  writing. 
the  New  York  Commissioner  of  Labor. 

272 


Reproduced  by  courtesy  of 


PROHIBITION    OF    NIGHT   WORK 

less  than  two  years,  a  trade  life  of  extraordinary  brevity*; 
and  no  one  is  the  wiser  as  to  the  effects  upon  them  of  this 
exacting  occupation,  of  which  night  work  is  a  regular  incident. 

The  recent  federal  investigation  of  wage-earning  women 
and  children  gives  little  more  than  sidelights  and  hints  as  to  the 
extent  and  effects  of  employment  at  night.  But  even  these 
scattered  data  are  all  in  accord  with  the  facts  as  to  health, 
morals,  and  efficiency  found  earlier  by  the  European  in- 
vestigators. 

In  the  investigation  of  the  cotton  textile  industry,  mills 
were  found  operating  at  night  in  North  and  South  Carolina.! 
According  to  the  Census!  there  were,  in  1908,  293  cotton  mills 
in  North  Carolina;  59  of  these  were  covered  by  the  investiga- 
tion. Thirty-one  mills  operated  by  night,  not  counting  two 
which  had  discontinued  night  shifts  during  the  year.  The 
number  of  women  and  children  under  sixteen  years  employed 
on  night  shifts  was  848,  nearly  equalling  the  number  of  men, 
874,  employed  at  night.  In  South  Carolina,  the  investiga- 
tion covered  36  of  the  existing  150  cotton  mills.  Five  mills 
were  found  operating  at  night;  188  women  and  children 
under  sixteen  years  were  employed,  and  155  men. 

The  agents  of  the  government  visited  workers  who  were 
employed  in  North  Carolina  cotton  mills  during  the  twelve 
hours  from  six  in  the  evening  until  six  in  the  morning.  At 
eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning  they  were  sitting  drowsily 
over  scant  fires,  too  listless  to  seek  sleep.  When  they  did 
lie  down,  the  inevitable  noises  in  thinly  partitioned  wooden 
houses,  where  every  sound  can  be  heard  from  room  to  room, 
made  sound  sleep  impossible.     "Usually  they  arose  at  four 

*  The  Railroad  Commission  of  Wisconsin  found  that  in  seven  large 
exchanges  of  the  Wisconsin  Telephone  Co.  in  Milwaukee,  290  operators  were 
employed  on  Jan.  15,  1907,  with  22.72  months'  average  length  of  service; 
on  Jan.  15,  1908,  407  operators  were  employed  with  18.52  months'  average 
length  of  service.  Senate  Document  No.  390.  Investigation  of  Telephone 
Companies,  p.  51. 

t  Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the 
United  States,  Vol.  I,  Cotton  Textile  Industry,  p.  284.  Senate  Document 
No.  645,  61st  Congress,  2d  Session,  1910. 

t  Census  Bulletin  No.  97,  1908,  p.  10. 
i8  273 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

or  five  in  the  afternoon  and  again  took  their  seats  before  the 
fire,  too  weary  and  sluggish  to  think  of  a  walk  in  the  open 
air."* 

Shocking  abuses  were  found  by  the  investigation,  in 
connection  with  night  work  in  two  small  mills  in  North 
Carolina.  While  these  cases  are  not  cited  as  typical,  they 
are  given  "  to  show  the  extremes  to  which  unregulated  labor 
of  women  and  children  can  go  in  the  absence  of  legal  regula- 
tion or  of  efficient  means  of  enforcement."! 

In  one  of  these  mills  it  was  common  for  night  workers 
who  had  worked  all  Friday  night  to  continue  until  3:30 
o'clock  on  Saturday  afternoon,  "working  approximately 
twenty  and  one-half  out  of  twenty-one  and  one-half  consecu- 
tive hours."  The  day  workers  were  "frequently  requested 
to  return  to  the  mill  immediately  after  supper  and  work  until 
midnight,  and  frequently  some  one  was  sent  to  the  homes  of 
employes  early  in  the  evening  or  at  midnight  to  request  day 
workers  to  come  and  work  half  the  night.  Some  employes 
usually  declined  to  do  overtime  work.  Others  worked 
alternate  nights  as  a  regular  custom." 

Among  those  who  thus  worked  at  night  after  and  in 
addition  to  a  twelve-hour  day,  was  a  family  of  five  children, 
consisting  of  three  boys,  aged  ten,  fifteen  and  seventeen 
years,  and  two  little  girls  of  eleven  and  thirteen  years.  Their 
names  were  entered  upon  both  the  day  roll  and  the  night 
roll  of  the  mill. 

"It  was  found,"  says  the  report,  "that  during  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  eight  months  that  this  family  had  been 
at  this  mill,  these  children  had  worked  two  or  three  half 
nights  each  week,  in  addition  to  day  work.  After  working 
from  6  a.  m.  to  6  p.  m.  with  35  minutes  for  dinner,  they  had 
returned  to  the  mill  usually  every  other  night  immediately 
after  supper,  and  worked  until  midnight,  when  they  went 
home  for  four  or  five  hours  of  sleep  before  beginning  the 
next  day's  work;  or,  they  had  been  aroused  at  midnight  and 
sent  to  the  mill  for  the  second  half  of  the  night,  where  they 

♦Senate  Document,  No.  645,  Op.  cit.  Vol.  1,  p.  289. 
t  Ibid.     Vol.  I,  pp.  290-291. 
274 


PROHIBITION    OF    NIGHT   WORK 

remained  until  six  o'clock  the  following  afternoon,  except 
when  eating  breakfast  and  dinner.  In  either  case,  they  were 
on  duty  for  a  working  day  of  seventeen  hours,  with  no  rest 
period  save  for  meals.  Those  who  worked  the  second  half 
of  the  night  went  home  for  a  hurried  breakfast  just  before 
6  a.  m. 

"The  father  of  the  family  was  apparently  an  active, 
hardworking  man.  He  expressed  the  opinion  that  night 
work  in  addition  to  day  work  was  rather  hard  on  the  children, 
but  said  that  he  was  trying  to  get  money  to  buy  a  home. 
.     .     .     No  member  of  this  family  could  read  or  write." 

The  government  agents  found  the  homes  of  many  night 
workers  as  dismal  and  neglected  as  similar  homes  were  found 
by  investigators  abroad.  In  several  cases  when  both  parents 
worked  on  night  shifts,  the  children  came  to  the  mill  to  sleep 
on  boxes  and  rolls  of  cotton, — pitiable  drifts  and  strays  de- 
prived of  anchorage.*  Or  when  the  mother  of  a  family 
worked  on  a  night  shift  and  also  attended  to  her  home  duties, 
including  the  weekly  washing  and  ironing,  she  had  to  spend 
"one  day  at  least  .  .  .  from  18  to  24  hours  without 
sleeping." 

Of  the  moral  degeneration  due  to  night  work,  the  govern- 
ment report  on  the  glass  industry  gives  lurid  instances. f 
Women's  work  in  glass  making  is  confined  for  the  most  part 
to  the  finishing  department  and  to  the  lehr-room,  where  glass- 
ware is  removed  from  the  lehr  or  annealing-oven  in  which  it 
has  been  slowly  cooled  after  firing.  In  four  factories,  how- 
ever, negro  women  are  employed  as  substitutes  for  boys  in 
the  furnace  rooms.  Here,  during  the  night  shift  and  at  dawn 
when  work  stops,  are  found  at  their  worst  the  coarseness  and 
immoralities  resulting  from  the  close  association  at  night,  of 
men  and  women  hardened  by  the  most  exhausting  and  hot- 
test labor. 

If  the  character  of  these  poor  negro  women  in  the  glass- 
houses be  held  responsible  for  the  excesses  of  the  night  shift 
and  the  perils  of  their  lonely  return  home,  what  shall  be  said 

*  Ibid.     Vol.  I,  pp.  289  and  293. 
t  Ibid.     Vol.  III.     The  Glass  Industry,  p.  177  ff. 
275 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

of  the  similar  perils  and  alarms  of  refined  women  employed 
in  night  restaurants,  whose  return  home  at  midnight  or 
thereabouts  is  compulsory?  Can  there  be  any  doubt  that 
such  a  necessity  is  unworthy  of  any  community  calling  itself 
civilized?* 

Such,  then,  are  some  of  the  documentary  evidences, 
though  insufficient  and  merely  suggestive  of  the  existing 
night  work  of  women.  If  we  turn  now  to  our  fragmentary 
data  as  to  the  economic  value  of  night  work,  it  seems  also 
to  corroborate  European  experience.  Just  as  the  silk  mill 
owners  of  the  Vosges  and  Rhone  found  weaving  by  artificial 
light  unsatisfactory,  so  it  is  beginning  to  be  found  in  the  silk 
centers  of  America. f  Just  as  night  work  was  abandoned 
by  many  European  employers  because  of  its  lesser  pro- 
ductivity and  the  decreased  efficiency  of  their  workers,  so, 
says  a  recent  publication  of  the  South  Carolina  Department 
of  Agriculture,  Commerce  and  Immigration,  night  work 
"seems  to  be  generally  regarded  as  a  losing  proposition."! 

Cotton  mill  owners  in  North  Carolina  who  had  volun- 
tarily discontinued  night  work  and  were  therefore  disin- 
terested witnesses,  were  unanimous  in  declaring  to  the  govern- 
ment investigators  that 

"it  did  not  pay.  They  asserted  that,  as  a  rule,  they 
could  induce  only  an  inferior  class  of  employes  to  work  on  the 
night  shifts,  with  a  constant  lowering  in  the  quality  of  prod- 
uct, while  at  the  same  time  a  higher  rate  of  wages  than  usual 
was  required  to  secure  even  this  class  of  help;  that  continu- 
ous operation  resulted  in  more  than  ordinary  'wear  and 
tear'  on  machinery,  and  that  there  was  a  disposition  to  neg- 
lect the  care  of  machinery  when  used  jointly  by  two  shifts. 
The  manager  of  a  mill  in  Georgia,  which  had  carried  on  night 
v/ork  for  a  year  and  abandoned  it,  expressed  the  feeling  tersely 
by  saying,  '  It  was  hard  on  the  people  and  hard  on  the  ma- 
chinery.'" § 

*  Ibid.     Vol.  V.     Wage-Earning  Women  in  Stores  and  Factories,  p.  75. 
t  Ibid.     Vol.  IV.     The  Silk  Industry,  p.  143. 

t  The  Cotton   Mills  of  South  Carolina.     Published   by   the   South 
Carolina  Department  of  Agriculture,  Commerce,  and  Immigration.     1907. 
§  Senate  Document  No.  645.     Op.  cit..  Vol.  I,  p.  285. 
276 


PROHIBITION    OF    NIGHT   WORK 

"The  indications,"  says  the  federal  report,  "are  strong 
enough  to  warrant  the  conclusion  that  overtime  runs  to 
dangerous  Hmits  in  both  mercantile  and  manufacturing  es- 
tabhshments,  in  the  absence  of  restrictive  laws  not  only 
setting  definitely  a  limit  to  the  hours  of  labor  per  day  and 
per  week,  but  fixing  the  dosing  hours."* 

The  legal  closing  hour  which  has  been  found  the  only 
practicable  device  to  check  unscrupulous  night  work,  is  the 
most  immediate  need  in  our  legislation  for  working  women. 
It  must  be  made  an  integral  part  of  all  laws  reducing  the 
length  of  the  workday  if  they  are  to  be  enforceable  and  if  they 
are  to  protect  the  workers  in  fact  as  well  as  in  theory. 

The  special  interests  are  strong  enough  today  to  obscure 
the  issues  and  secure  for  themselves  special  license  to  invert 
nature's  order  of  life  for  thousands  of  working  women. 
Nature's  revenges  for  the  infraction  of  her  inviolable  law  will 
teach  another  generation  better  wisdom,  unless  reason  can 
in  our  day  prevail  over  indifference  and  greed,  and  restore 
to  wage-earning  girls  and  women  the  night  for  sleep. 

*  Senate  Document  No.  645.  Op.  cit..  Vol.  V.  Wage-Earning  Wo- 
men in  Stores  and  Factories,  p.  215.     Italics  added. 


277 


M 


XI 

CONCLUSION 

ANY  persons  who  have  followed  our  argument  to 
this  point  may  be  inclined  to  resent  the  predominat- 
ing role  assigned  to  overwork  and  fatigue.  They  may 
contend  that  this  stress  on  the  length  of  working  hours  is 
wholly  irrational;  that  overstrain  is  altogether  too  limited  a 
cause  to  assign  for  the  breakdown  of  health  and  efficiency. 
"The  really  fundamental  basis  of  health,"  these  critics  will 
say,  "is  contingent  upon  the  total  standard  of  living.  The 
causes  of  breakdown  cannot  be  isolated,  but  lie  in  the  total 
disabilities  of  working  people.  Their  dark  and  unsanitary 
homes,  their  overcrowding  and  lack  of  privacies,  their  bad 
food  and  unpalatable  cooking, — all  these  things  are  more 
important  for  health  than  the  mere  number  of  hours  spent  at 
work.  And  on  the  industrial  side,  probably  wages  and  in- 
come have  a  much  more  direct  relation  to  health  than  a  few 
hours  more  or  less  of  work.  In  curtailing  work,  therefore," 
our  critic  continues,  "you  are  further  lessening  productivity 
and  income,  and  so  are  merely  making  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence harder." 

Some  conscientious  critics  go  even  further  than  this  and 
contend  that  leisure  is  mere  temptation  to  go  wrong,  when 
people  live  in  wretched,  crowded  homes,  with  only  the  street 
and  the  saloon  to  satisfy  desire.  A  shortened  workday,  they 
say,  gives  the  workers  just  so  much  more  opportunity  for 
dissipation. 

Now  it  is,  in  large  degree,  this  point  of  view  on  the  part 
of  many  persons  which  is  responsible  for  much  of  the  pre- 
valent indifference  and  ignorance  concerning  the  active  in- 
juries of  overwork,  in  industry  as  it  exists  today. 

278 


CONCLUSION 

In  a  previous  chapter  we  have  dwelt  upon  the  economic 
fallacy  in  this  criticism,  and  have  shown  how  output  and 
wages  tend  to  rise  rather  than  fall  with  shortened  working 
hours,  so  that  income  is  in  the  long  run  increased,  not  cur- 
tailed. 

So  far  as  regards  temperance  and  the  whole  general  tone 
of  working  communities,  we  need  not  rely  on  theories  and 
speculations.  We  need  only  appeal  to  that  body  of  historical 
fact  to  which  we  have  so  often  turned  for  light.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  what  has  been  the  effect  on  working  people  of  in- 
creased leisure?  How  have  they,  on  the  whole,  spent  the 
added  hour  or  hours  of  freedom  from  work? 

The  answer  to  this  question  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  most 
encouraging  chapters  in  industrial  history:  the  response  to 
opportunity,  the  rapidity  with  which  working  people  have 
learned  the  uses  of  leisure.  Where  cynics  prophesied  mere 
drunken  idleness  and  rowdyism,  fairer  observers  found  a  kind 
of  regeneration.  There  was  no  sudden  millennium  but  where- 
ever  sufficient  time  has  elapsed  since  the  establishment  of  a 
more  humane  workday,  allowing  a  wider  margin  of  leisure, 
the  workers  have  made  extraordinary  advance  in  physique 
and  morals.*  The  gradual  emergence  of  the  English  mill 
operatives  from  the  physical  and  moral  degeneration  into 
which  they  had  sunk  in  the  thirties  of  the  last  century,  is  not 
exceptional  but  typical. f  It  is  a  humble  chronicle,  but  full 
of  meaning  to  any  reader  who  loves  the  fullness  of  human 
nature.  Gardening,  sewing,  the  out-of-doors  on  summer 
evenings,  evening  schools  in  winter,  time  for  the  "endearing 
trivialities  of  home  life," — these  were  some  of  the  simple, 
yet  enduring  things  at  which  mill  workers  learned  to  spend 
their  leisure. 

Of  the  benefits  accruing  from  the  change,  none  have  been 
greater  than  the  increase  in  temperance.  Nor  is  this  sur- 
prising.    No  thoughtful  observer  can  seriously  ascribe  to 

*  See  Part  II  of  this  volume,  pp.  290-317. 

t  British  Sessional  Papers,  1847-48,  Vol.  XXVI,  p.  9;  1849,  Vol. XXII, 
p.  7;  1850,  Vol.  XXIII,  pp.  48-49;  1868-69.  Vol.  XIV,  p.  83,  etc. 

279 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

man's  natural  depravity,  the  domination  of  liquor  with  all 
its  attendant  miseries.  The  truth  is  that  among  industrial 
workers  the  desire  for  drink  has  often  sprung  from  sheer 
physical  exhaustion.  To  a  wholly  unappreciated  extent  the 
sway  of  alcohol  has  been  due  to  the  worker's  craving  for  some 
stimulant  or  support  for  exhausted  energies. 

Thus,  for  instance,  in  such  places  of  work  as  the  laun- 
dries, which  make  the  heaviest  demands  on  muscular  and 
nervous  strength,  where  hours  are  long  and  overtime  lasts 
late  into  the  night,  drink  is  the  resource  of  ph\-sical  debility. 

Sir  Thomas  Oliver,  the  eminent  English  expert  on  in- 
dustrial diseases,  dwells*  upon  this  condition  of  affairs  in 
England,  and  the  same  may  be  observed  in  our  own  country. 

"Imagine  the  amazement  of  the  master  of  a  mill  or 
weaving  factory  if  his  employes  were  to  stop  in  a  body  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  twice  a  day  between  meals  to  drink  beer! 
Yet  in  many  laundries  the  beer  is  kept  on  the  premises  for 
the  purpose.  ...  A  woman  who  is  expected  on  Thurs- 
da^■s  or  Fridays  to  be  in  the  laundry  from  8  or  8:30  in  the 
morning  till  9  or  10  or  11  at  night,  may  claim  with  some  show 
of  reason  that  only  by  some  kind  of  spur  can  she  keep  her 
overtired  body  from  flagging." 

On  the  other  hand,  by  releasing  the  workers  before  the 
very  exhaustion  of  fatigue  overtakes  them  and  inclines  them 
to  the  strong  stimulant  of  drink,  the  shorter  workday  has 
been  a  powerful  influence  toward  greater  sobriety  and  self- 
control. 

No  thinking  person  can  deny  that  in  the  last  resort  health 
is  determined  by  the  total  standard  of  living;  that — besides 
long  hours — poverty  and  low  wages,  unsanitary  tenements 
and  bad  food,  dirt  and  overcrowding,  are  the  tangled  causes 
of  lowered  vitality  and  illness.  Nor  would  we  minimize  the 
physical  effects  of  mental  distress  and  worry  among  work- 
ing people  who  are  only  a  few  months  off  from  real  destitu- 
tion, when  a  short  loss  of  employment  may  mean  starvation. 

*  Oliver,  Thomas:  Dangerous  Trades,  p.  672.  New  York,  E.  P. 
Dutton  and  Co.     London,  j.  Murray,  1902. 

280 


CONCLUSION 

We  would  freely  grant  all  that  our  critics  can  possibly  say  of 
these  evils.  They  cannot  be  too  strongly  stated.  Yet,  so  far 
as  the  overworked  are  concerned,  all  these  causes  of  dis- 
tress might  be  removed — wages,  food,  housing,  and  sanitation, 
all  be  raised  to  a  higher  level — and  yet  the  essential  cause  of 
breakdown  would  be  untouched  so  long  as  the  "few  extra 
hours  of  work"  remain,  as  our  supposed  critics  would  call 
them.  The  shorter  workday  and  relief  from  overstrain  are 
not  in  themselves  the  cure  for  the  ills  we  have  considered; 
but  they  are  the  sine  qua  non  without  which  no  other  cure 
is  possible  or  conceivable.  Just  because  a  fatigued  person  is 
a  poisoned  person,  poisoned  by  the  accumulation  of  his  own 
waste  products,  nothing  can  fundamentally  cure  the  ex- 
hausted worker  which  does  not  eliminate  the  cause  of  such 
accumulated  poisoning.  As  we  have  seen,  after  exhaustion 
has  set  in  nothing  but  rest  and  repose  permits  the  organism 
to  expel  its  poisons  from  day  to  day. 

In  Professor  Lee's  impressive  words: 

"  Mankind  at  present  can  administer  no  food  or  drug 
that  can  push  the  wearied  cells  up  the  metabolic  grade  either 
simultaneously  with  their  descent  or  quickly  after  the  de- 
scent has  ceased.  Only  the  assimilation  and  detoxication 
that  normally  come  with  rest,  and  best,  rest  with  sleep,  are 
capable  of  adequate  restoration  of  working  power."* 

It  would  be  no  more  unreasonable  to  expect  to  cure  a 
lead  or  arsenic-poisoned  worker  by  higher  wages,  good  food, 
and  a  clean  house  while  he  was  continuing  daily  to  absorb  the 
arsenic  or  lead  which  was  poisoning  him,  than  to  expect 
better  food  and  housing  to  cure  any  worker  who  is  habitually 
accumulating  within  himself  the  chemical  poisons  of  fatigue, 
generated  at  every  breath.  Nothing  can  cure  him  and  restore 
the  buoyant  resistance  from  which  alone  health  springs, 
which  does  not  allow  the  actual  time  of  from  work,  for  repair 
and  recuperation. 

It  is  true  that  the  psychologists  tell  us,  and  with  them 

*The  Harvey  Lectures,  1905-06,  p.  179.  Philadelphia,  Lippincott 
Co.,  1908. 

281 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  nerve  specialists,  that  to  a  certain  degree  the  fatigue 
threshold  may  be  made  to  shift;  that  we  may  discipline  our- 
selves to  endurance  so  as  to  tap  new  levels  of  energy,  "  masked 
until  then  by  the  fatigue  obstacle  usually  obeyed." 

The  most  famous  of  American  psychologists,  who  was 
also  one  of  the  "  best  practical  knowers  of  the  human  soul," 
has  written  upon  this  phenomenon  of  "second  wind,"  in  an 
essay  of  characteristic  insight  and  felicity  which  has  some- 
times been  quoted  as  though  in  defense  of  any  kind  of  over- 
exertion:* 

"We  have  to  admit,"  says  James,  "the  wider  potential 
range  and  the  habitually  narrow  actual  use.  We  live  sub- 
ject to  arrest  by  degrees  of  fatigue  which  we  have  come  only 
from  habit  to  obey.  Most  of  us  may  learn  to  push  the  barrier 
farther  off,  and  to  live  in  perfect  comfort  on  much  higher 
levels  of  power.     .     .     . 

"Stating  the  thing  broadly,  the  human  individual  thus 
lives  usually  far  within  his  limits;  he  possesses  powers  of 
various  sorts  which  he  habitually  fails  to  use.  He  energizes 
below  his  maximum,  and  he  behaves  below  his  optimum." 

Why  not  assume,  then,  it  has  been  argued,  that  the 
workers  who  are  subject  to  industrial  overpressure  learn  to 
push  their  fatigue  barriers  farther  off  and  sustain  the  inten- 
sity of  their  tasks  in  proportion  to  their  new-found  powers? 

But  such  an  argument  strangely  distorts  the  doctrine 
of  second  wind,  which  is  something  far  deeper  and  more 
"qualitative"  than  a  stress  upon  mere  bodily  exertions 
and  activities. 

"When  I  speak  of  'energizing'  and  its  rates  and  levels 
and  sources,  1  mean  therefore  our  inner  as  well  as  our  outer 
work.  ...  To  relax,  to  say  to  ourselves  (with  the 
'new  thoughters')  'Peace!  be  still!'  is  sometimes  a  great 
achievement   of   inner  work." 

Far  from  justifying  even  remotely  the  industrial  strains 

*  James,  William:  The  Energies  of  Men.  Memories  and  Studies, 
p.  227.     New  York,  Longmans,  Green  and  Co.,  1911. 

282 


CONCLUSION 

and  stresses  such  as  we  have  been  considering,  James  speci- 
fically limits  his  plea  for  deeper  and  more  intensive  living  by 
the  proviso  "so  long  as  decent  hygienic  conditions  are  pre- 
served." 

But  our  quarrel  with  the  conditions  of  industrial  labor 
is  precisely  that  they  are  not  "decent  hygienic  conditions." 
They  are  not  normal  media  for  human  living,  and  they  never 
can  be  so  long  as  they  continue  to  infract  the  first  mandates 
of  hygiene,  the  laws  of  metabolic  equilibrium. 

There  is  a  practical  consideration  also  for  putting  first 
among  the  forces  which  undermine  health,  the  length  of  the 
workday.  The  cure  for  this  injury  lies  at  hand.  Shortening 
the  workday  is  something  that  legislation  can  effect  for 
women  and  children  today,  for  men  doubtless  in  the  future. 
But  better  conditions  within  the  home — better  sanitation, 
better  nutrition  and  hygiene — can  never  be  enforced  by  out- 
side authority  and  can  come  only  by  slow  process  of  educa- 
tion as  people  gradually  learn  to  recognize  such  needs.  The 
community  can  demand  and  enforce  the  requirement  that 
workers  be  dismissed  from  factory  and  store  at  a  given  time. 
It  can  never  enforce  the  requirements  of  hygiene  at  home  ex- 
cept when  their  neglect  becomes  a  public  danger,  through 
infection  and  the  like.  Hence  the  establishment  of  a  shorter 
day  is  an  immediate  and  practicable  as  well  as  an  indispen- 
sable step  towards  conserving  health. 

But  this  practical  consideration  fades  into  insignificance 
beside  the  fact  that  the  "few  extra  hours  of  work"  which  our 
casual  critic  so  under-rates,  can  wholly  undo  the  benefits  of  a 
higher  standard  of  living,  even  were  it  assured  by  long  hours. 
Consider,  for  instance,  the  vital  matter  of  nutrition.  It  is 
well  known  that  digestion  is  one  of  the  first  bodily  functions 
to  suffer  in  exhaustion.  Exhaustion,  as  it  drains  our  nervous 
energies,  deranges  the  unconscious  reflex  activities  of  the 
nervous  system  which,  as  we  have  seen,  regulate  the  uncon- 
scious actions  of  our  organs — heart,  stomach,  intestines,  and 
the   rest.    Their  normal   action   is   impaired   or   retarded. 

283 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

What,  then,  is  the  benefit  of  a  more  ample  diet  if  the  or- 
ganism is  not  in  a  fit  condition  to  digest  what  is  offered  it? 
The  habitually  exhausted  person  scarcely  profits  from  the 
increased  food  which  larger  wages  afford,  if  after  excessive 
work  he  literally  cannot  digest  it.  It  has  been  too  dearly 
bought.  So,  too,  the  nervous  heart  troubles  and  palpitations 
among  working  people  of  which  Dr.  Liibenau  and  the  others 
write, — what  are  they  but  derangements  of  the  nervous 
mechanism  which  regulates  our  most  vital  organ?  What 
good  to  the  worker  are  the  higher  standards, — better  food, 
clothing,  and  shelter — so  long  as  over-fatigue  continues  to 
limit  or  destroy  his  capacity  of  enjoying  them? 

Thus  fatigue  does  mischief  negatively  as  well  as  posi- 
tively: lowering  vitality  and  breeding  disease  is  its  active  and 
positive  aspect.  Shutting  out  the  exhausted  from  their  right- 
ful heritage,  contracting,  binding,  inhibiting,  is  its  negative. 
Other  faculties  suffer  as  well  as  the  vital  bodily  functions. 
For  as  exhaustion  nullifies  the  benefits  of  better  food  and 
shelter,  so,  too,  it  paralyzes  the  higher  activities,  all  that  feeds 
man's  mental  and  spiritual  needs.  The  higher  standard  of 
living  includes  besides  food  and  drink  and  clothing,  better 
education,  saner  amusements,  nobler  recreation.  But  as 
the  over-fatigued  digestion  fails,  so  over-fatigued  hearing  is 
blunted,  over-fatigued  attention  and  appreciation  flag.  Offer 
what  opportunities  you  will  to  the  exhausted  organism,  they 
fall  upon  literally  deafened  ears.*  Fatigue  so  closes  the 
avenues  of  approach  within,  that  education  does  not  educate, 
amusement  does  not  amuse,  nor  recreation  recreate.  Books 
and  learning,  pictures,  music,  play — all  these  enfranchise- 
ments of  the  spirit  lose  their  power.  "Our  fires  are  damped, 
our  drafts  are  checked."  The  wings  of  freedom  are  clipped, 
wings  that  soar  above 

"  the  heavy  and  the  weary  weight 
Of  all  this  unintelligible  world." 

*  Archivio  Italiano  di  Otologia,  Rinologia  e  Laringolavia,  July,  1907. 
No.  4.  Delia  Influenza  della  fatica  sull'organo  dell'udito.  Dr.  Luigi 
Ragani  and  Dr.  Vincenzo  Frazola. 

284 


CONCLUSION 

To  be  so  crippled  is  deplorable  enough  for  any  members 
of  society.  It  is  the  more  so  for  industrial  workers  because, 
with  industry  as  it  exists,  their  development  as  human  beings 
is  more  and  more  dependent  upon  the  use  of  leisure.  It  is  the 
peculiar  sin  of  monotonous  and  subdivided  labor  that  it 
destroys  what  we  inadequately  call  pleasure  in  work, — the 
ever-so-slight  satisfaction  of  man's  creative  sense,  his  dimmest 
feelings  of  mastery  or  self-expression  in  work,  often  more  pain 
than  joy. 

The  stress  upon  spontaneity  and  joy  in  work  in  the  fore- 
going extracts  from  foreign  insurance  studies  cannot  have 
failed  to  strike  the  reader.  It  is  the  language  of  Ruskin  and 
Morris  on  the  lips  of  German  insurance  physicians.  They 
actually  talk  as  though  there  were  after  all  a  palpable  con- 
nection between  machine  routine  and  deterioration,  between 
health  and  the  love  of  work.  And  these  are  not  merely 
aesthetic  considerations  by  theorists  or  dreamers.  These 
physicians  are  not  dealing  with  the  stuff  that  dreams  are 
made  of.  They  are  not  seeking  to  evolve  new  theories  or 
schemes  of  industry.  They  are  as  yet  merely  individual 
scientific  observers,  struck  by  brute  facts  which  cannot  be 
escaped:  the  enormous  increase  of  certain  forms  of  disease 
and  suffering  among  working  people  year  by  year. 

In  time  to  come,  means  may  again  be  found  for  the  play 
of  individuality  in  work,  for  some  freedom  of  the  human  agent 
from  the  machine.  Industrial  training  tends  in  this  direc- 
tion by  giving  the  young  some  perspective,  and  teaching  the 
relation  of  circumscribed  tasks  to  wholes  of  which  they  are 
parts.  A  medical  examination  of  young  persons  before  em- 
ployment which  would  start  them  towards  work  for  which 
they  are  physically  fit,  and  the  restriction  of  all  workers  from 
tasks  for  which  they  are  clearly  unfit,  will  also  help  to  em- 
phasize the  human  element  in  manufacture  and  commerce. 
The  wiser  scientific  management  of  businesses  also  offers 
vistas  of  betterment. 

But  in  the  main,  and  viewing  the  whole  trend  of  in- 
dustry, we  cannot  conceal  from  ourselves  that  its  prodigious 

285 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

processes  are  deadening  to  spontaneity,  and  that  they  are 
becoming  more  so.  We  can  no  more  check  subdivision  and 
monotony  than  the  pace  of  the  machines.  But  we  can  seek 
to  imbue  the  purely  economic  view  of  the  workers,  as  units 
of  production,  by  a  broader  physiological  spirit.  Our  studies 
in  fatigue  have  shown  that  human  power  is  not  a  static  thing, 
which  can  be  screwed  up  to  the  sticking  place  and  remain 
there.  The  workers'  muscular  powers  may  be  raised  to 
what  seems  like  the  nth  degree,  and  yet  they  may  fail, 
broken  and  unstrung,  at  an  age  when  working  capacity  should 
still  be  at  its  height. 

It  is  a  truism  that  trade  life  in  America  has  been  shorter 
than  in  foreign  countries,  where  the  pace  is  slower.  The 
race  is  to  the  swift  in  a  sense  never  dreamt  of  before,  and  in 
our  industries  the  swift  are  necessarily  the  young,  even  the 
very  young. 

The  pace  has  indeed  been  kept  so  high  in  many  great 
trades,  partly  because  the  steady  flow  of  immigration  keeps 
bearing  to  our  shores  at  intervals  of  time,  young  laborers  of 
new  immigrant  races,  able  to  replace  those  workers  who  have 
broken  under  the  strain.  So  long  as  immigration  streams 
westward  it  may  be  expedient,  from  a  narrow  economic  point 
of  view,  to  press  all  workers  to  their  physical  limits,  and  to 
dismiss  them  so  soon  as  efficiency  shows  signs  of  failing-. 
What  shall  we  say  from  the  physiological  or  racial  point  of 
view? 

We  must  bear  in  mind  throughout  that  the  essence  of 
this  newer  view  is  its  insistence  on  conserving  the  energies  of 
men.  In  this  the  physiologist  voices  a  larger,  intrinsic  de- 
mand of  Democracy  itself.  He  cannot  consider  man's  out- 
put separate  from  himself,  nor  this  year's  nor  next  year's 
efficiency  apart  from  its  effects  on  future  health  and  energy. 
Ten  years'  continuance  at  a  maximum  pace  is  in  itself  no 
criterion  at  all  for  the  physiologist.  Even  one  whole  genera- 
tion is  too  short  to  measure  the  ravages  of  anti-physiological 
living;  and  when  overwork  unfits  man  or  woman  for  normal 
parenthood,  it  is  in  a  deep  sense,  anti-physiological  and  anti- 

286 


CONCLUSION 

social.  It  touches  not  alone  the  welfare  but  the  very  fibre  of 
human  society,  that  congregate  "whole,"  which  it  should  be 
our  passionate  concern  to  recognize,  in  the  stirring  words  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  as  "no  greater  than  the  sum  of  all  its 
parts,"  for  "when  the  individual  health,  safety  and  welfare 
are  sacrificed  or  neglected,  the  state  must  suffer." 

Granting  the  truth  of  the  Industrial  Commission's  con- 
clusion ten  years  ago — that  no  program  for  reducing  the 
intensity  of  exertion  can  succeed — there  remains  another 
horn  of  the  dilemma,  the  reduction  of  the  work  day. 

The  workers'  time  and  vitality  need  not  be  all  consumed 
in  their  tasks.  In  leisure  other  ranges  of  the  spirit  are  un- 
folded: "another  race  hath  been,  and  other  palms  are  won." 
The  limitation  of  working  hours,  therefore,  which  assures 
leisure,  is  not  a  merely  negative  program.  It  limits  work, 
indeed,  to  make  good  the  daily  deficits,  and  to  send  back  the 
worker  physiologically  prepared  for  another  day.  It  frees 
the  worker  from  toil  before  exhaustion  deprives  leisure  of  its 
potentialities.  It  thus  fulfils  a  reasoned  purpose.  As  the 
physiological  function  of  rest  is  to  repair  fatigue,  so  the  func- 
tion of  the  shorter  day  is  to  afford  to  working  people  physio- 
logical rest — with  all  that  is  implied  further  by  way  of  leisure. 


287 


INDEX 


Abbe,  E.:  eflSciency  and  length  of 
workday,  155,  163;  the  opti- 
mum of  production,  165;  work- 
ing capacity  and  its  adjust- 
'ment  to  speed,  206 ;  Zeiss  Opti- 
cal Works  study,  155-167 

Accidents,  industrial,  and  their 
hours  of  incidence:  activity 
rate,  relation  to,  78;  American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  75;  Bel- 
gian statistics,  74;  cotton  mills, 
76,  77;  earliest  statistics  as  to 
hours  of  incidence,  72;  factors, 
78-79;  fatigue,  71-72,  78-79; 
French  factory  statistics,  74; 
general  manufacture,  76,  77; 
German  statistics,  72-74; 
hours  when  most  frequent,  73- 
76;  Illinois  accidents  by  hour  of 
day,  75;  Imbert,  Prof.,  74;  In- 
diana, 76,  77;  insurance  sta- 
tistics, 72-74;  Italian  railroad 
machine  shops,  75;  metal 
workers,  76,  77;  need  of  scien- 
tific examination,  79 ;  speed  fac- 
tor, 78-79;  United  States,  75, 
76,  77;  Wisconsin  Bureau  of 
Labor,  75,  76 

Acidity  of  Fatigued  Muscle,  25 

Act  of  God,  202 

American  Journal  of  Sociology:  in- 
dustrial accidents,  75 

American  Telephone  and  Tele- 
graph Company,  49 

Anabolism,  12,  21 

Animals:  death  from  exhaustion, 
13;  measurement  of  muscular 
fatigue,  14-18 

Anti-toxin  of  Fatigue,  26,  27 

Arsenal,  Watertown,  201-202 

Art  of  Cutting  Metals,  195 

19  289 


Ashley,  Lord  (Shaftesbury),  6,  72; 
argument  against  long  hours, 
128;  leadership  in  legislation 
in  1844,  124,  129 

Atlantic  Mills:  Lawrence,  Mass., 
131-132 

Attention:  definition,  68-69;  ef- 
fect of  noise,  69;  fatigue  of,  69; 
fatigue  in  school  children,  117 

Auditing:  overtime,  87 

Augmentation  of  Working  Pow- 
er, 35-36,  38 

Australia:  shorter  hours,  167-168 

Austrian  Sickness  Insurance  So- 
cieties: morbidity,  42 

Automatic  Adaptation  of  worker 
to  shorter  hours,  163,  165 

Bakers'  Ten-hour  Law,  246-247 
Baltimore  Canneries,  63 
Bargaining:   collective   208-210 
Barth,  C.  G.,  197 
Basket  making:  Delaware  law,  187 
Beelitz  Sanitarium,  102,  103,  104, 

105 
Belgium.     See     Engis     Chemical 

Works 

Bell  Telephone  Company:  To- 
ronto controversy,  7,  48-49,  108 

Belting:   maintenance,  207-208 

Berlin:  Beelitz  sanitarium,  102; 
factory  inspectors'  examina- 
tion, 238;  heart  disease  among 
working  people,  105;  labor  con- 
ference, March,  1890,  261 

Berne  International  Convention 
on  Night  Work,  248,  259-265; 
United  States'  position,  269 

Bethlehem  Steel  Works,  195-200 


INDEX 


BiDDEFORD,  Maine:  infant  mortal- 
ity, 91,  92 

BlNSWANGEE,  103 

Birds:  exhaustion  after  flight,  31 

Birth  Rate,  95-96 

Bituminous  Coal  Mining  in 
United  States:  table  of  out- 
put, 170-172 

Blood:  effect  of  diminished  circu- 
lation, 31;  medium  for  carr>-- 
ing  nutritive  materials,  12,  23; 
medium  for  carrjang  chemical 
wastes,  12,  15,  17,  2+ 

Bookbinding  Trade:  overtime,  84, 
85,271 

Borderland  of  Illness,  108,  iii 

Box  Making.  See  Paper  box  mak- 
ing 

Bovs:  long  hours  still  legal,  4;  in 
rubber  goods  manufacturing, 
234 

Brandeis,  L.  D.:  new  defense  of 
labor  laws,  252;  Oregon  case, 
251-252;  scientific  manage- 
ment, 192,  194 

Breakdown:    contributory  causes, 
278,281;  data  lacking  in  United 
States,  loo-ioi 
Brewer,  Justice,  255 
Bricklaying:  efficiency  under  scien- 
tific management,  193 
Brickmaking,  145-146 
Bright,  John,  124-125,  129 
British  .Admiralty,  142-143 
British  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement OF  Science:   legis- 
lation and  regularity  of  work, 
184;    opinion  on  regulation  of 
hours,  128 
British  Factory  Inspectors:  first 
appointment,    129;     on    over- 
time,    88-89;      providing     in- 
formation, 130,  229 
British     Government     and     the 
Eight-hour  Day,  141-142 

British  Interdepartmental  Com- 
mittee on  Physical  Degen- 
eration, 113 

British  War  Office,  141-142 


Broggi,  U.:    fecundity  of  working 

women,  96 
Burckhardt,  a.  E.:    morbidity  of 

women,  40-41 

Bureau  of  Arbitration.    See  New 
York  State  Department  of  Labor 


Caisson  Work,  120 

California:  canneries,  63,  186; 
unjustified  overtime  in  canner- 
ies, 187 

Cantsieries:  California,  63;  Cali- 
fornia, lack  of  records,  186;  Cal- 
ifornia overtime,  187;  capping, 
61-63;  constrained  attitudes, 
61-62;  Delaware  law,  187;  dis- 
organization of  the  labor  force, 
185-186;  feeding  corn  cutters, 
62;  general  description,  60; 
machiner}',  60;  Mar>'land,  63, 
185;  New  York  state,  60-62; 
overtime,  185;  season,  62-63; 
sorting,  60-61;  special  over- 
time privileges,  269;  state 
legislation,  223 

Carbon  Dioxide,  22,  23-24,  25,  265 

Carl  Zeiss  Foundation,  156, 157 

Carozzi,  L.  :  night  workers  in  Italy, 

266 
Carrier  Pigeons:    exhaustion  in, 

31 

CaTABOLISM,  12,  21 

Cell:  distinctive  property,  11 

Change:  of  habits  in  purchasing, 
180-182;  in  fashions,  189;  of 
work,  value,  107 

Chemical  Workers,  144-155 

Chemistry:  of  fatigue,  12,  13;  of 
muscular  contraction,  21-25 

Child  Labor,  232;  inspection  of 
health,  235;  validity  of  New 
York  law,  250 

Children's  Employment  Commis- 
sion, 127 

Cbcristmas  Trade:  auditing,  87; 
Consumers'  League  work,  183; 
exemptions  in  state  laws,  223; 
hours  unlimited  in  New  York, 
4;   overtime,  84,  87 


290 


INDEX 


Civil    Service    Examination    for 

inspectors,  237 
Civil  War  Veterans  as  inspectors, 

237 
Class  Legislation,  257-258 
Closing  Hour:  fixed,  211,  214,  216, 

217,  224-225,  226,  261,  277 
Cloth   Folding:    efficiency  under 

scientific  management,  193 
Coal    Mining:     machinery,    171- 

172;    results  of  shorter  hours, 

169-172 
Coal  Shoveling:    efficiency  under 

scientific  management,  142 
COBDEN,  124,  128 

Colorado    Mantjfactxjrers'    As- 
sociation, 123 
Committee  of  One  Hundred  on 

National  Health,  115 
Commons,  J.  R.:    Organized  labor 

and  efficiency,  208-210 
Complexity     of     Industry.    See 

Speed  in  manufacture 
Compositors  :     Pieraccini's     study, 

134-136 
Concentration  of  Work,  59 
Consciousness  of  Fatigue,  38 
Conservation  of  Human  Energies, 

286 
Constitution:  United  States,  243- 

244 
Constitutionality  of  Laws,  242 

Consumers:    policy  of  persuasion, 

182-184 
Consumers'  League,  181,  183,  184; 

court  decisions,  250 
Contract:   freedom  of,  243-244 
Contraction:  muscular,  chemistry 

of,  21-25;    study  of,  14-20 

Cooley's  Constitutional  Limita- 
tions, 258 

Cotton  Goods  Manufacture:  ef- 
ficiency imder  scientific  man- 
agement, 193 

Cotton  Mills:  night  work  of 
women  and  children  in  North 
and  South  Carolina,  273-276; 
scientific  management  and 
women  workers,  205;   study  of 


Cotton  Mills  {Continued) 

children  in,  232;   weaving  room 
study,  201, 204 

Court  Decisions:  as  to  constitu- 
tionality of  state  labor  laws, 
etc.,  231-232;  Consumers' 
League  and,  250;  Holden  vs. 
Hardy,  245-246;  judicial  cog- 
nizance of  general  knowledge, 
252,  253;  Lochner  case,  246- 
247;  Oregon  case,  251-252; 
Ritchie  case,  first,  243-244; 
Ritchie  case,  second,  253;  sex 
distinctions,  253-256;  Wil- 
liams case,  247-251 

Courts:  labor  laws  and,  242-258 

Cranberries:  Simday picking,  188, 
189 

Cltlare:  use  in  study  of  nervous 
fatigue,  30 

Curve  of  Effort,  33 

Curve  of  Fatigue,  20,  2>2„  3>S,  38, 

134-136 
Customers:   adaptation  to  change, 

180-182 


Dancing  :  rhythmic  element,  80 
Degeneration.    See    Race 

eration 

Delaware:  canning  law,  187 
Denis,  H.  :  right  to  rest,  39 
Department  Stores:  shifting  of 
employes,  206;  states  allow- 
ing exemptions  at  Christmas 
time,  223;  states  limiting  hours 
for  women,  5 

Devine,  Edward  T.:  minor  ail- 
ments, importance,  116-117 

Dextrose,  21,  22 

Digestion,  283-284 

Discrimination  in  the  laws,  257 

Disease  :  general  predisposition 
among  working  people,  111-112 

Diseases:  industrial,  11 2-1 15; 
Milan  clinic  for  industrial,  113; 
minor  ailments,  11 5-1 17;  oc- 
cupational, 233-234;  trade,  112, 
115;   white  lead  industry,  238 

Domestic  Duties:  women's,  55, 
267 


291 


INDEX 


Doubling  up,  213,  214 

Draper   Looms:     number    tended, 

56-58 
Dressmaking:  overtime,  176-177 
Drive,  200,  206,  209 


Early  Closing  Bill,  250 

Economic  Ruin:  fear  of,  121-122, 
124 

Efficiency,  156;  Germany,  165-166; 
in  administration  of  labor  laws, 
228;  maximum  of  individuals, 
165.  See  also  Fatigue;  Output; 
Scientific  management;  Shorter 
hours 

Efficiency  Engineers,  196-208 

Effort:   vmder  fatigue,  33-34 

Eight-hour  Day:  141,  143;  Aus- 
tralia, 167-168;  bituminous 
coal  mining  in  United  States, 
170-172;  Engis  chemical  works, 
144-154;  Germany,  164;  women, 
169.     See  also  Shorter   hours 

Eight-hour  Law:  first  Ritchie  case, 
Illinois,  243-244;  Montana, 
256;    Pennsylvania,  256 

Elastic  Law:  Great  Britain,  218- 
223;  United  States,  223-227 

Emergencies:  overtime  allowance 
for,  184-190 

Emerson,  H.:   belting,  207-208 

Employment:  regularity  of,  175- 
191 

Enforcement  OF  Labor  Laws:  an- 
nual report  of  labor  depart- 
ments, 228-229;  desiderata, 
211;  elastic  law,  218-227; 
Great  Britain,  216-218;  in- 
spectors' difficulties,  226;  in- 
spectors' opinions  on,  231; 
Massachusetts  textile  law,  212- 
216;   non- textile  acts,  218 

Engis  Chemical  Works:  reorgani- 
zation and  effect  of  reduced 
hours,  144-155 

England:  early  factory  legisla- 
tion, 6;  night  work  for  women, 
260;  ten  hours  movement,  123- 
131.    See  also  Great  Britain 


Epidemics:  contribution  of  over- 
fatigue, III 

Equalizing  Seasons  in  Trade, 
178-180 

Ergograph,  18-20,  33-34 

EUKLES,  14 

Evening  Work.     See  Overtime 
Exhaustion,  9,  23,  in,  114,  115, 
281,  283-284;   birds,  31 

Eyeletting  Shoes,  66 

Eyes:  strain  on,  54,  61,  63,  109 


Factory  Inspectors:  armual  re- 
ports, 228-232;  character  and 
fitness,  236-238;  England's 
first,  129;  inspection  of  health, 
233;  New  York  state,  227; 
physicians  as,  233;  Prussian 
training,  238;  past  services, 
129-130 

Factory  Legislation  as  to  hours  of 
work.     See  Legislation 

Fall  River,  Massachusetts:  in- 
fant mortality,  91,  92 

Fashion:  changes  in,  189;  changes 
work  hardship  to  piece-workers, 
83-84 

Fatigue:  accumulation  of  waste 
products,  11-14;  accumulation 
in  overtime,  87;  anti-toxin  of, 
26,  27;  as  a  danger  of  occupa- 
tion, 118;  consumption  of 
energy-yielding  substance,  20- 
25;  curve  of,  20;  effect  on  di- 
gestion, 283-284;  fundamental 
factors,  20,  21;  individuality 
in,  19;  in  industry,  need  of  new 
study,  II 7-1 20;  International 
Congress  of  Hygiene,  113;  Ital- 
ian study  of,  113-115;  meas- 
urement of  muscular  fatigue, 
14-20;  nature  of  products,  25- 
27;  nervous  nature,  27-33; 
new  study  of,  in  industry,  112- 
115;  normal  and  abnormal,  31; 
passive,  164;  physiology  of, 
11-38;  poison  of,  13,  28,  36, 
281;  predisposition  to  disease 
in  general,  111-112;  present 
day  relation  to  output,  133; 
rhythm  of  machinery  an  ele- 


292 


INDEX 


Fatigue  (Continued) 

ment,  79-82;  specific  toxin  of, 
26,  27.  See  also  _  Nervous  fa- 
tigue;  Output 

FiSH-CTTRiNG  in  Great  Britain,  220- 
221 

Fisher,  Irving:  overfatigue,  115 

Fitch,  John  A.:  court  decisions  on 
hours  of  labor,  255;  example  of 
eight-hour  day,  168 

Flax  Scutch  Mells,  222 

Florence,  Italy:  compositors,  134- 
136;  Dr.  Giglioli,  114;  Pro- 
fessor Pieraccini,  133 

Folksongs:  rhythm,  80 

Foster,  Sir  Michael:  nature  of 
cell'jiar  Hfe,  12;  poisons  of  fa- 
tigue, 13 

Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  243-244 

Freedom:  labor's,  to  contract,  243- 
244;   restraint  of,  242-243 

French  Factory  Inspectors:  on 
overwork  and  military  service, 
99 

Freund,  Ernst  :  police  power,  243 

Frog:  fatigue  in  muscle  contrac- 
tion, 14-18,  35 

Fromont,  L.  G.:  reorganization  of 
Engis  works,  144-155 

Fruit-preserving  Establishments 
in  Great  Britain,  220,  221 

Gantt,  H.  G.:  efiiciency  under 
scientific  management,  200,  201, 
205 

General  Knowledge:  judicial 
cognizance  of,  252,  253 

German  Emperor,  261 

German  Industrial  Code,  263-264 

German  Workingmen:  fitness  for 
military  service,  99 

Germany:   economic  efi&ciency,  165 

Gibson,  M.,  126 

Giglioli,  G.  Y.:  pathology  of  la- 
bor, 114 

Glass  Workers:  moral  degenera- 
tion, 275 


I  Glycogen:  how  supplied  and  con- 
sumed, 21-23 

Graham,  J.,  128 

Great  Britain:  elastic  laws,  218- 
223;  fish-curing,  220-221;  flax 
scutch  mills,  222;  fruit-pre- 
serving, 220,  221;  laundry 
legislation,  221-222;  rigid  law 
development,   216-218 

Grigg,  W.  C:  injiiry  of  long  hours, 

95-96 
Gun  Carriages,  202 
GtJTERGtnrz  Samtartum,  102 


Habits:  possibility  of  changing, 
180-182 

Hale-holiday,  225 

Hans.ard's  Parliamentary  De- 
bates, 124,  125 

Hardy.     See  Holden  v.  Hardy 

Hapjrison,  a.     See  Hutckins,  B.  L. 

Health:  obser\'ation  of,  in  indus- 
trial establishments,  233-236; 
minors,  234 

Heart  Disease:  Berlin  working 
people,  105 

Helmholz,  H.  von:  myograph  and 
i  frog  experiments,  17 

I  Henderson,  C.  R.:    European  in- 
dustrial insurance,  loi 

i  Hipps'  Chronometer,  69 

;  History  of  Factory  Legislation: 
I  the  standard, 123 

Holden  v.  Hardy,  245-246 

i  Holland  :  night  work  for  women  in 

laundries,  268 

;  Hospit.als:   as  sources  for  study  of 

'  industrial      fatigue,      118-119; 

i  value  of  cases  and  records,  120 

!  Hours  of  the  D.ay  when  accidents 

i  occur.     See  Accidents 

Human  Element  in  Work,  127, 137, 
140,  141 

Hume,  124, 127 

Hutchins.  B.  L.:  legislators'  igno- 
rance of  industrial  experience, 
123 

93 


INDEX 


Illinois:  bituminous  coal-mining, 
1 71-172;  Manufacturers'  As- 
sociation, 1 2  2-1 23 ;  ten-hour  law, 
180.  253 
State  Department  of  Factor>'  In- 
spection: accidents  by  hour  of 
day,  75 
Supreme  Court:  eight-hour  law 
for  women,  243-244;  second 
Ritchie  case,  253;  ten-hour  law 
decision,  1910,  and  its  value,  4 

Imbert,  Professor:  accidents,  74 

lMinGR.\TION,  286 

In'Cidence  OF  Accidents.     See  Ac- 
cidents 
IyDL\NA:   accident  statistics,  76,  77 
Indivtduality :    in  fatigue,  20,  137 

Industrial  Accidents.  See  Acci- 
dents 

Industrial  CoiiiiissiON,  Wiscon- 
sin, 239-240 

Industrialism:  English  beginnings, 
124,  125 

Industrial  Rltn:  cry  of,  1 21-12 2, 
124 

Infant  Mortalit\-:  cotton  mill 
towns,  91;  factors.  91;  Great 
Britain,  textile  and  non-textile 
towns,  92-94;  United  States, 
91-92 

Inspectors.     See  Factory  inspectors 

Insltlance  Societies.  See  Sick- 
ness insurance  societies 

International  Associ.ation  for 
Labor  Legislation,  261 

International  Commission  on 
Tr.\de  Diseases,  114 

in-ternation.a.l  conference  on 
Labor, 261 

International  Congress  of  Hy- 
giene, 113,  260 

Interst.ate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion, 192,  208 

Iron  .ant)  Steel  Industry:  long 
hours  of  workers  in  the  United 
States,  4 

Irregularity  of  Employment:  in- 
jurious effect,  no,  175,  176,  191 

Italian  Joltinal  of  Social  Medi- 
cine, 114 


It.alians:   prominent  place  in  study 
of  fatigue,  113-115 


James,  Wm.:  effect  of  noise  on  re- 
action time,  69-70;  second 
wind,  282 

January  "White  S.\le,  "178 

Jay,  Raodx,  259 

Jena,  Germany:  Zeiss  Optical 
Works,  155-167 

Je\\'elry  Case  and  box  making,  180 

Kearsley,  England:  death  rate,  94 
Kentvedy,  J.  L.,  127 
Kentucky:  commission  on  working 
women,  50 

Labor  Bureaus:  annual  report, 
value,  228-232;  lateness  of  re- 
ports, 229-230 

L.abor  Laws.  See  Enforcement  of 
labor  laws;   Legislation 

Labor  Legislation.  See  Legisla- 
tion 

Labor:  organized,  attitude  toward 
scientific  management,  208-210 

Lancashire,  England:  cotton  spin- 
ners' position,  218;  death  rate, 
94;  factor>-  conditions  early  in 
the  nineteenth  centurj',  6;  long 
hours  and  output,  127 

L.AST  Hol-rs  of  Work,  126 

Lal'Ndries:  British  legislation,  221- 
222;  intemperance,  280;  night 
work  in  Holland,  268;  Oregon 
case,  251-252;  overtime  and 
irregularity,  181;  overtime  in 
New  York  City,  271-272 

Laundrymen's  Associations,  122, 
123 

Lawp^^ence,  Massachusetts:  Atlan- 
tic mills,  reduced  hours,  131- 
132;   infant  mortality,  92 

Laws,  Labor:  constitutionality, 
242;  courts  and,  242-258;  dis- 
crimination, 257-258;  first 
Ritchie  case,  243-244;  freedom 
of    contract    theory,    243-244; 


294 


INDEX 


Laws,  Labor  (Continued) 

Holden  v.  Hardy,  245-246; 
Lochner  case,  246-247;  new  de- 
fense by  Brandeis,  L.  D.,  251- 
252;  Oregon  case,  251-252; 
police  power,  242-243;  second 
Ritchie  case,  253;  sex  distinc- 
tions, 253-256;  validity,  256- 
258;  Williams  case,  247-251. 
See  also  Enforcement  of  labor 
laws;  Legislation 

League.     See  Consumers'  League 

Lee,  Frederic  S.:  fatigue,  17,  19, 
25>  32,  281 

Legislation:  aim,  6;  a  new  basis, 
3,  9;  benefits,  128,  130,  132- 
133;  class,  257-258;  closing 
hour,  211,  214,  216,  217,  224- 
225,  226,  270,  277;  converts  in 
England,  128-129;  England, 
early,  6;  inspector's  record  of 
effects,  130;  Massachusetts,  131- 
132,  212-216;  need,  182,  184; 
non-textile,  218;  organizations 
and  associations  opposing,  122- 
123;  part  played  by  factory  in- 
spectors, 129;  physicians'  testi- 
mony in  England,  6;  rigid  law, 
development  in  Massachusetts, 
212-216,  in  Great  Britain,  216- 
218;  similarity  of  history,  121- 
123;  source  of  opposition  to, 
5-6,  121-122,  124;  United 
States,  inclusive  of  all  manu- 
facture, 224;  women's  rights 
party's  position,  254;  Wright, 
C.  D.,  131.  See  also  Enforce- 
ment of  Labor  Laws;  Laws 

Legislatures:  freedom  of,  257-258 

Leipzig:  sickness  insurance  society, 
112 

Leisure:  effect  on  working  people, 
278-280 

Liberty.    See  Freedom 

Li£ge.    See  Engis  Chemical  Works 

Lighting  or  Workrooms,  239 

Limbering-up,  36,  78,  136 

Limitation  of  Hours:  physiolog- 
ical necessity,  9 

Liver:  function,  22,  23 

Loading  Cars  :  efficiency  under  sci- 
entific management,  193, 195-196 


Lochner  Case,  246-247 

Long  Hours:  Griggs,  W.  C,  95-96; 
in  continuous  industries  for 
men,  256;  iron  and  steel  v/ork- 
ers,  4;  physicians'  and  medical 
schools'  neglect  of,  117;  profits 
and,  130 

Looms:  number  tended,  56-57 

Lowenfeld,  103 

Lubbock,  Sir  John,  250 

Lubenau,  Dr.,  104-105,  284 

Machinery:  coal  mining,  1 71-172; 
fatiguing  effect,  68-69;  inven- 
tions and  improvements,  172- 
1 73 ;  manufactiure,  efficiency  un- 
der scientific  management,  193; 
shoe  making,  64 

Machine  Shop  Work:  efficiency 
under  scientific  management, 
193 

Maggiora,  a.  :  amount  of  rest  after 
fatigue,  33-34,   88 

Mahaim,  E.:  results  of  eight-hour 
day  in  Belgium,  146 

Management.  See  Scientific  man- 
agement 

Manchester,  England:  Salford  ex- 
periment, 138-143 

Manchester  School,  124-125 

Martineau,  H.,  97 

Maryland:  carmeries,  63,  186 

Massachusetts:     first   official   re- 
turns on  occupational  diseases, 
233;  history  of  rigid  law,  212- 
216;     legislation    and    output, 
131-132;      state    inspector    of 
health,  233 
Bureau  of    Statistics   of   Labor; 
shorter  hours  and  output,  131 
General  Hospital,  120 
Supreme       Court:        cranberry- 
picking,  188 

Mather  and  Platt:  experiment  in 
shortening  hours,  138-143 

Medical  Inspection.  See  Physi- 
cians 

Metabolism,  12 

Michigan  ten-hour  law  for  women, 
257-258 


295 


INDEX 


MiDVALE  Steel  Works,  196 

Milan:  clinic  for  industrial  dis- 
eases, 113 

Military  Recruiting:  testimony 
as  to  race  degeneration,  97-98 

Mines  and  Smelters,  245 

Mining:  eight-hour  laws,  254;  Mon- 
tana law,  256;  Pennsylvania 
law,  256 

Minor  Ailments:  importance,  116- 
117 

Minors:  emplojrment  in  IMassa- 
chusetts,  234;  inspecting,  235; 
manufactures  injurious  to  the 
health  of,  234 

Monotony:  canneries,  59-64;  ef- 
fects, 106-107;  industrial  tend- 
ency, 285-286;  light  and  easy 
work,  68;  manufacturing 
hinges,  64;  means  of  relief,  67; 
packing  small  wares,  66-67; 
paper  boxes,  63-64;  physiolog- 
ical basis,  67-68;  shoe  making, 
64-67 

Morality:  danger  of  night  work, 
267,  275-276 

Morbidity  of  Women:  greater 
than  men's,  39-42;  statistics, 
40-42 

Mosso,  A. :  effect  of  noise  on  reac- 
tion time,  69;  ergograph,  18; 
exhaustion  of  birds,  31;  fatigue 
studies  in  man,  16,  18-20;  fa- 
tigued dog  experiment,  15; 
ponometer,  33;  recuperative 
effect  of  rest,  34;  Sicilian  sul- 
phur workers,  98 

Motor  Entj-plate,  31 

Muscular  Contraction:  chemis- 
try of,  21-25 

Muscular  Fatigue:  nature,  meas- 
urement, 14-21 

Myograph,  17 

National  Conservation  Commis- 
sion, 115 

Needle  Trades.     See  Sewing 
Nerve  Fibers:  two  groups,  29;  un- 
fatiguable,  29,  30 


Nervous  Diseases:  contributing 
causes,  106-107;  German  sani- 
taria, statistics,  103-106;  in- 
crease, 103-110;  Liibenau,  Dr., 
104-105;  Roth,  E.,  105,  106- 
107;  St.  Louis  garment  work- 
ers, no;  telephone  strain,  108- 
iic;    Treves,  Z.,  107-108,   in 

Nervous  Energy:  effect  of  train- 
ing on,  37;  form  of  electric  ac- 
tivity, 27 

Nervous  Fatigue  :  consciousness 
of,  38;  destructiveness,  27,  32; 
double  origin,  28;  location,  29- 
T,y,  Maggiora,  A.,  28;  Mosso, 
A.,  28;  nature  of  nerve  im- 
pulse, 27;  over-stimulation,  38; 
relation  to  muscular  fatigue, 
27,  28;    unsettled  problems,  32 

Nervous  System:  description,  28- 
29 

Neurasthenia.  See  Nervous  dis- 
eases; Nervous  fatigue 

Newman,  G.:  infant  death  rate  and 
women  in  industry  in  Great 
Britain,  92-94 

New  York  City:  bindery  overtime, 
85,  271;  Christmas  rush  and 
Consumers'  League,  183;  over- 
time in  laundries,  271-272;  re- 
tail Dry  Goods  Merchants'  As- 
sociation, 123;  working  girls, 
54-56 

New  York  Mercantile  Inspector, 
226 

New  York  State:  bakers'  ten-hour 
law,  246-247;  factory  inspect- 
ors graded,  237;  factory  law, 
226-227;  medical  inspector  of 
factories,  233 
Court  of  Appeals,  247,  248,  250, 

251,  254,  259,  269 
Department  of  Labor,  255;  laun- 
dries, 271-272 

Night  Work  for  Women:  Berne 
convention,  259-265;  binderies 
in  New  York  City,  271;  Caro- 
lina cotton  mills,  273-276; 
Carozzi,  L.,  266;  Delaware, 
270-271;  Dutch  factory  in- 
spectors' account,  268;  effi- 
ciency reduced,  268,  276;  Eng- 
land, 260;   exceptions  provided 


296 


INDEX 


Night  Work  for  Women:  (Con- 
tinued) 
atBeme,  262;  extent,  271;  first 
court  decision,  248;  France, 
266;  Georgia  null,  276;  Ger- 
many, 266;  glass  making,  275; 
Holland,  268;  inferiority  of 
output,  267-268,  276;  injuri- 
ous effects,  86,  265-269;  Inter- 
national Association  for  Labor 
Legislation,  261;  International 
Conference  on  Labor,  261;  In- 
ternational Congress  of  Hygiene 
etc.,  260;  Italy,  266;  laundries 
in  New  York  City,  271-272; 
laws  in  United  States,  1907, 
248,  259;  moral  injury,  86,  267, 
275-276;  prohibition  a  benefit, 
259-269;  public  indifference, 
269-271;  Schuler,  F.,  260; 
silk  weaving,  276;  Switzerland, 
260;  telephone  service,  272- 
273;  United  States,  269-277; 
Wisconsin  legislation,  269-270 

Noise:  canning,  62;  effect  on  re- 
action time,  69;  getting  used 
to,  71;  machines,  effect  of,  68- 
69;  Mosso,  A.,  69;  sewing  ma- 
chines, 54 

Non-textile  Legislation,  218 

Normal  Day,  183,  217,  222 

North  Carolina:  cotton  mills, 
night  work,  273-276 

Northrup  Looms,  57 


Observation  of  Health  in  indus- 
trial establishments,  233-236 

Occupational  Diseases.  See  Dis- 
eases, industrial 

Oliver,  Sir  T.:  beer  in  laundries, 
280;  industrial  poisoning,  Scot- 
land, 143 

Optimitm;,  198,  206,  282 

Orders:  customers'  adaptation  in 
giving,  180-182;  refusing,  190 

Oregon  Ten-hour  Law,  123,  231, 
251-252 

Organized  Labor.    See  Labor 


Output:  Ashley,  Lord,  128;  Brit- 
ish Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  128;  British 
government,  141-143;  cash  re- 
lation to  fatigue,  137-138,  143; 
coal  mining  in  United  States, 
170-172;  effect  of  regulation  of 
hours  on  wages,  173-174;  Eng- 
land, 123-131;  Engis  Chemical 
Works,  Belgium,  144-155;  ex- 
amples of  extraordinary  in- 
crease, 193;  increase  with 
shorter  hours,  139,  149,  159; 
inferiority  of  night  work,  267- 
268,  276;  laboratory  study, 
value,  121;  Massachusetts 
Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor, 
131;  Pieraccini,  G.,  133-137; 
profit  by  regulation,  130;  rela- 
tion between  long  hours  and 
spoiled  work,  128;  relation  to 
fatigue,  123-133;  Salford  Iron 
Works,  138-143;  United  States' 
experience  in  regulation  of 
hovurs,  131-133;  Zeiss  Optical 
Works,  155-167 

Overfatigue,  9;  Fisher,  I.,  115; 
physicians'  neglect  to  study, 
117;  public  and  social  menace, 
in;  society's  failure  to  appre- 
ciate, 117 

Overproduction,  190 

Overstimulation:  deceptive  na- 
ture of,  38 

Overtime:  ailments  after,  88;  al- 
lowances and  exemptions,  213— 
214,  219;  basis  for,  177-178; 
British  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  184; 
British  factory  inspectors,  88- 
89;  British  tobacco  factories, 
88;  canneries,  185-186;  Chi- 
cago, 85-86;  cranberry-picking, 
188-199;  deterioration  of  prod- 
uct, 163;  economic  evils,  176- 
177;  emergencies,  184-190;  es- 
sential injury  to  health,  86-87 
evil  effect  of  allowing,  185,  191 
extent,  271;  extreme  forms,  84 
Federal  investigation,  85;  fre- 
quency, 85;  gradual  restriction 
in  Great  Britain,  219-223;  key 
to  regulation  of  hours,  211; 
laundries,  180-182;    legal  clos- 


297 


INDEX 


Overtime  (Continued) 

ing  hour,  211;  legal  prohibi- 
tion, 184-191;  likenesses  to  the 
long  day,  176;  minors  in  Great 
Britain,  223;  necessity  for,  188- 
189,  igr;  New  York.  City,  85; 
night  dangers,  86;  paper-box 
making,  85-86;  physiological 
evils,  176;  power  of  persuasion 
182-184;  regularity  and,  175- 
191;  Roth,  E.,  89;  telephone 
service  in,  49-51;  variation  in 
different  establishments,  190 

Overtraining,  37 

Overwork:  new  medical  study  of, 
1 1 2-1 15;  school  children,  117; 
to  check,  6 

Owen,  Robert:  argument  against 
long  hours,  128 

Oxygen:  for  combustion,  21;  how 
supplied  for  muscular  contrac- 
tion,   23-25 


Pace-makers,  83 

Paper-box  Making,  180;    Chicago 

hours,  85-86 
Parliamentary  Debates,  124,  125 
Passive  Fatigue,  164 
Pathology  of  Work,  113-115,  120 
Peckham,  Justice,  247 

Pennsylvania:  labor  ofl&cial,  231- 
232 

Perishable  Goods,  187,  220-223 

Persuasion  by  Consumers,  182- 
184 

Pettenkofer,  24 

Physicians:  as  health  inspectors  in 
industrial  establishments,  233; 
neglect  of  industrial  overstrain, 
117;  nervous  diseases,  testi- 
mony as  to  increase,  103-110; 
testimony,  6,  7,  48 

Piece-work:  abuses,  82-83;  as  af- 
fected by  shorter  hours,  140; 
danger,  84;  excessive  strain, 
107;  fashion  changes,  83-84; 
hardships,  83;  merit,  82;  pace- 
makers, 83;  St.  Louis  garment 
workers,  no;  sewing  trades, 
82;    shoe  industry,  82;    speed- 


PiECE-woRK  (Continued) 

ing  up,  82;  statistics  before  and 

after    reduced    hours    in    Zeiss 

works,  157-162 
PiERACCiNi,  G.:  output  study  and  its 

value,  133-135 
Pig  Iron  Handling,  195-199 

Poison  of  Fatigue.  See  Fatigue; 
Toxin 

Police  Power  of  the  State,  242- 

243 
ponometer,  ^s 
Ponometric  Curve,  33 
Postponement  of  Rest,  88 

Preston,  England:  infant  death 
rate,  94 

Prevention  of  Disease,  102-103, 
115,  118-119,  239 

Prinzing,  F.,  42 

Products  of  Fatigue:  nature,  25- 

27 

Prohibition:  of  night  work  for 
women,  259-269;  of  overtime, 
184-191 

Prussian:  factory  inspectors'  train- 
ing, 238 

Purchasers:  adaptation  to  change, 
180-182 


Quail:  exhaustion  after  long  flight, 
31 


Race  Degeneration,  113;  Ascher, 
Dr.,  99;  England,  1830-1840, 
97;  factory  population,  97; 
France,  99;  German  working- 
men,  99;  military  statistics, 
97-98;  Mosso,  A.,  98;  Schuler, 
F.,98;  sub-normal  children,  97; 
Switzerland,  98-99 

Ramazzini,  B. 


112 
Ramazzini,  II,  114 
Ranke,    J.:     experiment 


fa- 


with 
tigued  frog  muscle,  14-15 
Reaction  Time:    individual  differ 
ences,  69 


298 


INDEX 


Regularity  of  Employment,  175- 
191;  best  incentive,  191;  pro- 
moted by  law,  182,  184;  two 
examples,  179-180 

Regxjlation:  basis  of  opposition  to, 
121-122,  124;  effect  on  wages, 
173-174;  English  conversions  to 
the  principle,  128-129;  United 
States  experience,  131-133 

Rest:  balancing  exertion,  12,  34, 
38,  197;  daily  need,  256;  es- 
sential value,  88;    weekly,  256 

Resting-time:  telephone  service, 
no 

Retail  Dry  Goods  Merchants' 
Association  of  New  York  City, 
123 

Rhythm:  an  element  in  fatigue,  79- 
82;  dance  and  song,  80;  human,- 
80;    machinery,  81-82;    physi-^ 
ology  of,  81;  value,  80-91 

Rigid  Law:  effect,  217;  Great  Brit- 
ain, 216-218;  Massachusetts, 
212-216 

Ritchie  Case:  first,  244-245;  sec- 
ond, 253 

Roebuck,  Mr.,  128-129 

Roth,  E.:  nervous  diseases  among 
working  people,  105,  106-107; 
overtime,  89 

Royal  Canadian  Commission,  7, 
48-49 

Rubber  Goods  Manutacture,  234 

Sadler's  Committee,  6 

Safety:  problems,  239 

St.  Louis  Jewish  Dispensary: 
neurasthenia  among  garment 
workers,  no 

Salford  Iron  Works:  economic 
results  of  shorter  hours,  138- 
143 

Sanitaria  for  Working  People  in 
Germany,  102 

School  Children:  overwork  and 
fatigue,  117 

ScHULER,  F.:  morbidity  of  women, 
40-41;    night  work  law,  260 


Schwab,  C.  M.,  200 

Schwab,  Dr.  S.  I.,  no 

Scientific  Management:  Abbe,  E., 
206;  benefits,  201-203;  Beth- 
lehem Steel  Works,  195-200; 
charges  against,  200;  collective 
bargaining,  208-210;  dangers, 
200,  203-208;  definition,  192; 
difference  from  ordinary,  194; 
effecton  workers,  204-208;  Em- 
erson, H.,  207-208;  examples 
of  increased  efficiency,  193; 
Gantt,  H.  G.,  200,  201,  205; 
loading  a  freight  car,  195-196; 
need  of  study,  206;  organized 
labor,  208-210;  physical  sur- 
roundings of  workers,  203; 
speed,  199-200;  stimuli,  194, 
198-199;  Taylor,  F.  W.,  195; 
tiring  effects  of  heavy  labor, 
196;  training  a  worker,  197; 
Watertown  (Mass.)  Arsenal, 
201-202;  weaving,  201;  wo- 
men workers,  205;  workers,  ef- 
fect on,  204-208;  working 
capacity,  204;  Wyatt,  E.,  205 

Seasonal  Trades:  canning,  62; 
shoes,  179-180 

Seasons:  efforts  to  equalize,  178- 
180 

Second  Wind,  282 

Senior,  N.  W.:  theory  of  last  hours 
of  work,  126,  127 

Sewing  Industries:    evils,  54-55; 

irregularity,  54-55;  legal  hours, 

New  York,  54;   long  hours,  55; 

pay,  54-55;    speed  and  strain, 

53-56 
Sewing     Machines  :        increasing 

speed  and  strain,  lo-ii,  54 

Sex  Distinctions,  253-256 

Sex  Function  of  Women,  40 

Shaftesbury,  Lord.  See  Ashley, 
Lord 

Shoe  Manufacturing:  equalizing 
seasons,  179-180;  eyeletting, 
66;  machinery,  64;  monotony, 
64;  piece-work,  82;  subdivision 
of  labor,  64;  United  States  In- 
dustrial Commission,  64;  up- 
per trimming  machine,  65 


299 


INDEX 


Shorter  Hours:  Australia,  167- 
168;  automatic  adaptation,  163, 
165;  Belgiiun,  144-154;  Denis, 
H.,  39;  diagram  of  health  im- 
provement, 1 51-155;  economic 
benefits,  122;  effect  on  piece- 
work, 140;  Engis  Chemical 
•  Works,  144-155;  England,  138- 
143;  Germany,  155-167;  in- 
crease of  output,  139,  151, 158- 
159;  market  value,  143;  men's, 
168-169;  purpose,  287;  Salford 
experiment,  138-143;  scientific 
basis,  38-39;  slow  movement 
toward,  168;  temperance,  279- 
280;  United  States,  167-174; 
United  States  coal  mining,  170- 
172;  United  States  Industrial 
Commission,  169;  United  States 
lack  of  data,  167;  uses  of  lei- 
sure, 279;  various  industries, 
167,  169;   women's,  168-169 

Sicilian  Sulphur  Workers,  98 
Sickness  Insurance  Societies:  an 
American  study  of,  106;  com- 
monest diseases,  103;  duration 
of  illness,  41-42;  German  sys- 
tem and  its  opportunities  for 
study  of  workingmen,  101-102; 
Leipzig,  112;  morbidity  statis- 
tics, 41-42;  preventive  treat- 
ment, 102;  trade  diseases,  1 1 2 

Sleep:  loss  of,  265-267 
South    Carolina:     cotton    mills, 
night  work,  273-276 

Speed  in  Manufactltre:  American, 
286,287;  gain  of,  199-200;  how 
gained,  59;  increase,  10- 11; 
sewing,  53-56;  telephone  service, 
43-53;    textile  industry,  56-58 

Speeding-ut>,  193,  199;  sewing 
trades,  etc.,  82 

Spoiled  Work,  176;  in  twelve-hour 
day  and  afterward,  127-128 

StanTl)ING:  injury  to  young  women, 
95 

State's  Need  of  Preserving 
Health,  286-287 

Steel  Industry.  See  Iron  and 
steel  ifidustry 

Stitching  Trades.    See  Sewing 

Stop-watch,  138,  192,  196,  200,  208 


Strain,  34;  new  industrial,  43-89 
scientific  management,  204-208 
three  ways  of  reacting,  91 
United  States  lack  of  data,  100- 

lOI 

Subdivision  of  Labor:  shoemak- 
ing,  64,  65,  66 

SuT-PHUTR  Workers,  98 

Sulphuric  Acid,  144 

Sunday:  cranberry  picking,  188- 
189;    telephone  service,  51 

Sunday  Laws:  courts  and,  256 

Sunshine:  lack  of,  265-266 

Surmenage,  115,  145 

Switzerland: 

Factory    workers:     morbidity   of 
women,  40;    unfitness  for  mili- 
tary service,  98-99 
Federal  Council,  262,  263 
Mutual  insurance  societies:    mor- 
bidity, 41-42 

Taylor,  F.  W.:  scientific  manage- 
ment, 195-200 

Telegraphers:   interstate  railroad, 

254,  256 

Telephone  SER\acE:  American 
Telephone  and  Telegraph  Com- 
pany, 49;  Bell  Company  of 
Canada,  48-49;  breaking  point, 
52;  cities  of  excess  calls,  table, 
53;  excess  loading,  52;  ex- 
change, 45-47;  hardships,  49- 
52;  hours,  Toronto,  48-49; 
hours,  United  States,  49-51; 
Kentucky,  50;  length  of  ser- 
vice, 273;  nervous  exhaustion, 
108-110;  New  York,  49,  51; 
night  work,  272-273;  operat- 
ing, 45-48;  overtime,  49-51; 
physical  effects,  48;  resting 
periods,  51-52;  Sunday  work, 
51;  switchboard,  45-46;  To- 
ronto, Canada,  48-49;  United 
States,  49-51;  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor,  49 

Temperance:  effect  of  leisure,  279- 
280;  growth  with  shorter  hours 
of  work,  154 


300 


INDEX 


Ten-hotjrs  Mo\t;m;ent  in  England, 
123-131;  effect  in  Europe,  166; 
English,  opposition,  124,  125 

Textile  Industry:  Draper  looms, 
56-58;  Great  Britain,  infant 
death  rate,  92-94;  looms  tend- 
ed, 56-57;  Northrup  looms,  57; 
speed  and  complexity,  56-58 

Textile  Law:  Great  Britain,  216- 
218;  Massachusetts,  212-216 

Tiring  Epfects  of  Hea\^'  Labor, 
196-199 

Tobacco  Factories  :  ailments  after 
overtime,  88 

Toronto,  Canada:  Asylum,  109; 
Bell  Telephone  controversy,  7, 
48-49;  physicians  on  telephone 
strain,  108-110;  telephone  re- 
port, 108 

Toxin  of  Fatigxte,  13,  26,  27,  281 

Trade  Diseases:   special,  11 2-1 15 

Trades:    dangerousness,  120 

Trade  Unions:    basis  in  collective 

bargaining,  208-209;  physical 
condition  of  members,  100 
Traintng:  cost,  37;  limits,  37;  na- 
ture, 35-39;  nervous  and  mus- 
cular strength,  37;  overtrain- 
ing, 37;  physiological  basis,  36; 
Treves,  Z.,  37;   value,  36 

Treppe, 35,  134-136 

Treves,  Z.:  injury  of  excessive 
drain  of  energy,  35;  overstrain 
among  working  people,  107-108, 
III 

Turin  School,  19,  33 
Twelve-hour  Day,  4,  126,  256 


Unconsciousness  of  Fatigue,  38 

Unxformity  of  Hours:  need,  184; 
promoted  by  law,  182,  184 

Union  Labor.     See  Labor 

Unt:ted  States:  administration  of 
labor  laws,  228;  elastic  law, 
223-227;  inclusiveness  of  legis- 
lation, 224;  trend  toward 
shorter  hours,  167-174 


Unt:ted  States  Bureau  of  Labor: 
inquiry  as  to  eight-hour  day  in 
Salford  Iron  Works,  141;  tele- 
phone hours  of  servdce,  49 

Untted  States  In-dustrial  Com- 
mission: on  advantages  of  re- 
duced hours,  169-170;  shoemak- 
ing,  64 

United  States  Supremx  Court: 
Holden  v.  Hardy,  245-246; 
Lochner  case,  246-247;  Ore- 
gon case,  231,  251-252 

Utah:  eight-hour  law  for  men  in 
mines  and  smelters,  245 


Van  Thienen,  T.  H.:    night  Dutch 

work,  268 
Vienna,  260 
Vitality:  national,  115 
Vorr,  24 


Wage-earners:  value  of  study  of 
diseases,  120 

Wages:  effect  of  reduced  hours  on, 
173-174;  loss  by  delays  and 
waiting,  203 

Washington,  D.  C:  International 
Congress  of  Hygiene,  etc.,  26 

Waste:  accumulation  in  the  blood, 
11-14,  18 

Watertowts",  Mass.:  Arsenal,  201- 
202 

WEA\aNG:  efficiency  under  scien- 
tific management,  201,  204 

Webb,  S.:  effect  of  rigid  law,  218; 
factorj'  legislation,  123;  textile 
and  non- textile  laws,  222 

Weekly  Rest,  256 

Weichardt,  W.:  toxin  of  fatigue, 
25-26 

White  Lead  Intdustry,  238 

Williams  Case,  247-251 

Wisconsin:  industrial  commission, 
239-240;  limiting  women's 
working  hours,  269-270;  night 
work  for  women,  270 

Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor:  ac- 
cident statistics,  75,  76,  77 


301 


INDEX 


Women:  freedom  of  contract,  244- 
24s,  248-252;  health  and  citi- 
zenship, 254-255;  morbidity, 
39-42;  night  work,  224-225, 
259-277;  physical  differences, 
39-40;  scientific  management, 
205;  state's  duty  to  protect 
health,  254-255.  See  also  Nighl 
work  for  ■women 

Women's  Rights  Party  and  fac- 
tory legislation,  254 

WooLRicH  Arsenal,  141,  156 
Worcester,      Mass.:       employes' 
health,  235 

Work:  human  element,  127;  in- 
dividuality in,  285;  pathology 
of,  113-115;   rhythm,  79-82 


Working  Capacity:  rise  and  fall, 
33-39 

Working  tinder  Fatigue:  effort, 
33-34 

Wright,  C.  D.:  effect  of  the  ten- 
hour  law  in  Massachusetts,  131 

Wundt:  shortening  of  reaction 
time,  69-71 

Wyatt,  E.:  scientific  management 
and  working  women,  205 

Zacher,    Dr.:     German    industrial 

insurance,  101-102 
Zehlendort  Sanitarium,  105,  107 
Zeiss  Optical  Works:   experiences 

of  shorter  hours,  155-167 


302 


PART   II 

THE  WORLD'S  EXPERIENCE  UPON  WHICH  LEGISLA- 
TION LIMITING  THE  HOURS  OF  LABOR  FOR 
WOMEN  IS  BASED 
Part  II  consists  of  the  material  contained  in  four 
briefs  submitted  by  Louis  D.  Brandeis  and  Josephine 
Goldmark  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
(1908),  the  Supreme  Court  of  IlHnois  (1909),  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Ohio  (1911),  and  again  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Illinois  (1912).  These  briefs  were  submitted  in  the 
following  cases,  in  defense  of  the  ten-hour  laws  of  Oregon 
and  Illinois,  of  the  fifty-four-hour  law  of  Ohio,  and  of  the 
amended  ten-hour  law  of  Illinois: 

Muller  V.  Oregon,  208  U.  S.,  412;  Ritchie  v.  Way- 
man,  et  al.,  244  111.,  509;  Anna  Hawley,  ex  parte.  In  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Ohio,  December,  1911;  People  v.  Elder- 
ing,  In  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  Febru- 
ary term,  1912. 


THE  WORLD'S  EXPERIENCE  UPON  WHICH  THE  LEGIS- 
LATION LIMITING  THE  HOURS  OF  LABOR  FOR 
WOMEN  IS  BASED 


L  THE  DANGERS  OF  LONG  HOURS 

A.  Causes 

(1)    Physical  Differences  between  Men  and  Women 

The  dangers  of  long  hours  for  women  arise  from  their 
special  physical  organization  taken  in  connection  with  the 
strain  incident  to  factory  and  similar  work. 

In  structure  and  function  women  are  diflFerentiated  from 
men.  Besides  anatomical  and  physiological  diiferences, 
physicians  are  agreed  that  women  are  in  general  weaker 
than  men  in  muscular  strength  and  in  nervous  energy. 
Overwork,  therefore,  which  strains  endurance  to  the  ut- 
most, is  more  disastrous  to  the  health  of  women  than  of 
men,  and  entails  upon  them  more  lasting  injury. 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XV.     1831-2.     Report  from  the  Select  great 
Committee  on  the  "Bill  to  regulate  the  Labour  of  Children  in  the  Mills  BRITAIN 
and  Factories  of  the  United  Kingdom." 

Samuel  Smith,  Esq.,  member  of  College  of  Surgeons  and  practising 
surgeon  in  Leeds: 

10385.  Are  not  the  females  still  less  capable  of  sustaining  this  long 
labour  than  males  would  be  of  a  similar  age? — No  doubt  whatever  of 
it;  because  in  the  female  neither  the  bony  nor  the  muscular  system  is  so 
strongly  developed  as  it  is  in  the  male;  in  fact,  the  whole  body  is  more 
delicately  formed. 

10386.  Is  the  peculiar  structure  of  the  female  form  so  well  adapted 
I*  I 


2  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  to  long  continued  labour,  and  especially  which  is  endured  standing,  as 

BRITAIN  J5  ^^^^  Qf  ^  male?— No,  it  is  not.     (Page  503.) 

10453.  You  stated  that  females  were  not  as  competent  to  sustain 
the  labour  of  the  factories  as  males  of  the  same  age;  is  it  not  considered 
that  females  attain  to  full  maturity  and  full  strength  much  earlier  than 
males? — They  do. 

10454.  And  would  they  not  be  so  able  to  do  the  labour  proportioned 
to  their  strength  as  the  males  of  the  same  age? — No,  I  think  not;  the 
female  is  altogether  a  more  delicate  being  than  the  male.     (Page  510.) 

Thomas  Young,  Esq.,  M.D.,  physician  at  Bolton: 

10600.  Will  you  state  whether  the  female  can  bear  labour  as  well  as 
the  male? — I  think  females  cannot  endure  labour  as  well  as  males.  (Page 
522.) 

John  Malyn,  Esq.: 

10678.  Do  you  conceive  that  the  evils  that  result  from  the  factory 
system  are  such  as  would  fall  with  still  greater  severity  upon  the  female 
sex,  as  compared  with  the  male? — I  think  they  would,  from  the  greater 
degree  of  delicacy  of  the  female  frame,  and  from  their  having  less  resiliency 
than  man  when  acted  upon  by  disease.  I  have  already  in  an  early  part 
of  my  evidence  stated  the  probable  effect  of  too  early  employment  on 
the  pelvis  of  that  sex.     (Page  532.) 

10698.  You  have  already  said  that  its  effect  would  be  more  per- 
nicious to  the  females,  and  consequently  that  they  need  at  least  an  equal 
protection,  and  that,  coupled  with  the  circumstances  of  the  majority  of 
those  employed  in  mills  and  factories  being  females,  strengthens  you  in 
your  conclusion  as  to  the  necessity  of  a  legislative  measure  on  behalf  of 
those  individuals? — Yes,  for  three  reasons:  first,  they  are  naturally  of 
a  weaker  constitution  than  the  male;  secondly,  injuries  during  growth 
might  be  of  serious  moment  at  the  time  of  parturition;  and,  thirdly,  their 
propensities  are  developed  earlier  than  in  the  male, — which  might  be 
counteracted,  if  time  or  means  were  afforded  for  mental  cultivation. 
(Page  533.) 

James  Blundell,  Esq.,  M.D.,  lecturer  on  physiology  and  midwifery  in 
the  school  of  Guy's  Hospital: 

10874.  .  .  .  Will  you  state  whether  the  female  sex  is  as  well  fitted  to 
sustain  long  exertion,  especially  in  a  standing  position,  as  the  male,  either 
in  respect  of  the  peculiar  structure  of  certain  parts  of  the  skeleton  or  of 
muscular  power? — Decidedly  females  are  not  so  well  fitted  to  bear  those 
exertions  as  the  males;  and  the  standing  position  long  continued  is,  from 
the  peculiarities  of  the  womanly  make,  more  especially  injurious  to  them. 
(Page  544.) 


PHYSICAL    DIFFERENCES    BETWEEN    MEN    AND    WOMEN  3 

Sir  Anthony  Carlisle,  F.R.S.,  surgeon  in  the  Westminster  Hospital:  great 

11067.     A   considerable   majority   of   those   employed   in    mills   and   ^^'^''^^ 
factories  are  females;  do  you  conceive  that  the  female  sex  is  as  well  fitted 
to  endure  labour  of  the  description  alluded  to  as  males? — Oh,  no,  certainly 
not;  they  are  by  nature  less  muscular,  and  1  would  say  there  is  less  sen- 
sorial power  about  them,  and  less  animal  vigour.     (Page  561.) 

Peter  Mark  Roget,  Esq.,  iM.D.,  F.R.S.,  practising  physician  in  London, 
consulting  physician  to  the  Northern  Dispensary,  consulting  physician 
to  Queen  Charlotte's  Lying-in  Hospital: 

11167.  It  is  known  that  a  considerable  majority  of  persons  employed 
are  females;  do  you  think  the  female  constitution  is  as  well  adapted  to 
labour  of  the  description  alluded  to  as  that  of  the  male? — I  think  it  is 
not  as  well  adapted,  certainly.     (Page  570.) 

Sir  William  Blizard,  F.R.S.,  surgeon  to  the  London  Hospital  and 
lecturer  on  surgery,  anatomy,  and  physiology: 

11220.  It  is  a  known  fact,  and  often  referred  to  as  a  sort  of  an  apology 
for  this  system,  that  it  affords  employment  to  females  principally;  would 
you  conceive,  arguing  on  physiological  principles,  that  the  female  is  as 
well  calculated  to  endure  long  and  active  labour  as  the  male? — Certainly 
not;  and  universal  observation  would  confirm  that  opinion.     (Page  574.) 

Sir  George  Leman  Tuthill,  F.R.S.,  physician  to  the  Westminster 
Hospital  and  Bethlem  Hospital: 

11334.  ...  Do  you  conceive  that  the  constitution  of  the  female  is 
as  well  calculated  to  sustain  long  and  fatiguing  labour  as  the  male? — 
I  do  not.     (Page  582.) 

Joseph  Henry  Green,  Esq.,  F.R.S.,  surgeon  of  St.  Thomas's  Hospital 
and  professor  of  surgery  at  King's  College: 

11380.  ...  Do  you  conceive  that  the  female  frame  and  constitution 
is  as  well  adapted  to  long-continued  and  strenuous  exertion  as  that  of  the 
male? — 1  do  not. 

11381.  So  the  protection  becomes  the  more  necessary,  when  we  refer 
to  the  fact  of  females  being  the  principal  operatives  in  such  works? — Yes. 
(Pages  587-588.) 

Charles  Aston  Key,  Esq.,  surgeon  at  Guy's  Hospital: 

11441.  .  .  .  Do  you  consider  that  the  female  sex  is,  generally  speaking, 
as  well  calculated  to  endure  labour  and  fatigue  as  the  male  sex? — Much 
less  able  to  endure  labour  than  the  male  sex.     (Page  593.) 

James  Guthrie,  Esq.,  F.R.S.,  vice-president  of  Royal  College  of  Sur- 
geons, surgeon  to  Westminster  Hospital  and  to  Westminster  Eye  Hospital: 

11488.  .  .  .  Will  you  state  whether  the  female  sex  is  as  well  fitted  to 
sustain  long  exertion,  especially  in  a  standing  position,  as  the  male,  either 


4  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  in  respect  of  the  peculiar  structure  of  certain  parts  of  the  skeleton  or  of 

BRITAIN  ,  D       1^   •  ^        /n  cn^  \ 

muscular  power? — it  is  not.     (Page  596.) 

Benjamin  Travers,  Esq.,  F.R.S.,  senior  surgeon  to  St.  Thomas's  Hos- 
pital in  Southwark: 

11603.  It  is  alleged  that  a  great  majority  of  the  young  persons  em- 
ployed are  of  the  female  sex;  do  you  think  females  as  competent  to  sus- 
tain labour  as  males? — I  should  think  not,  in  general.     (Page  606.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXVIII.     1844.     Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories  for  Half-year  ending  31st  Dec.  1843. 

Twelve  hours'  daily  work  is  more  than  enough  for  any  one;  but  how- 
ever desirable  it  might  be  that  excessive  working  should  be  prevented, 
there  are  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  legislative  interference  with  the 
labour  of  adult  men.  The  case,  however,  is  very  different  as  respects 
women,  for  not  only  are  they  much  less  free  agents,  but  they  are  physically 
incapable  of  bearing  a  continuance  of  work  for  the  same  length  of  time  as 
men,  and  a  deterioration  of  their  health  is  attended  with  far  more  injurious 
consequences  to  society.     (Page  4.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII.     1892.     Select  Committee  on  Shop 
Hours  Bill. 

Witness,  Mr.  Thomas  Sutherst,  barrister,  and  author  of  "Death  and 
Disease  behind  the  Counter": 

1358.     You  have  taken  the  evidence  of  173  male  shop  assistants? — Yes. 

1360.  If  all  these  men,  with  hardly  an  exception,  complain  of  the 
conditions  of  shop  life,  must  it  not  be  harder  upon  the  women  than  upon 
the  men? — Very  much  harder.     (Page  60.) 

Ihid.     Report  of  Lancet  Sanitary  Commission  on  Sanitation  in  the  Shop. 

Without  entering  upon  the  vexed  question  of  women's  rights,  we 
may  nevertheless  urge  it  as  an  indisputable  physiological  fact  that,  when 
compelled  to  stand  for  long  hours,  women,  especially  young  women,  are 
exposed  to  greater  injury  and  greater  suffering  than  men.     (Page  248.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XII.     1895.     Report  of  Select  Committee 
on  Shops  (Early  Closing)  Bill. 

Witness,  Dr.  Percy  Kidd,  M.D.,  University  of  Oxford,  Fellow  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Member  of  the  College  of  Surgeons;  attached 
to  the  London  Hospital  and  the  Brompton  Hospital: 


PHYSICAL    DIFFERENCES    BETWEEN    MEN    AND    WOMEN  5 

5282.  Are  those  symptoms  (debility  of  the  nervous  system,  indi-  great 
gestion,  constipation)  more  marked  in  women  than  in  men? — I  think  they 
are  much  more  marked  in  women.  I  should  say  one  sees  a  great  many 
more  women  of  this  class  than  men;  but  1  have  seen  precisely  the  same 
s\"mptoms  in  men,  I  should  not  say  in  the  same  proportion,  because  one 
has  not  been  able  to  make  an\'thing  like  a  statistical  inquiry.  There  are 
other  symptoms,  but  I  mention  those  as  being  the  most  common.  An- 
other symptom  especially  among  women  is  ansemia,  bloodlessness  or 
pallor,  that  I  have  no  doubt  is  connected  with  long  hours  indoors.  (Page 
215.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  VI .     1901.     Report  from  the  Select  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Lords  on  Early  Closing  of  Shops. 

Witness,  Sir  \V.  MacCormac,  President  of  the  Ro_\al  College  of  Sur- 
geons: 

2470.  Would  you  draw  a  distinction  between  the  evil  resulting  to 
women  and  the  evil  resulting  to  men? — You  see  men  have  undoubtedly  a 
greater  degree  of  physical  capacity  than  women  have.  Men  are  capable 
of  greater  effort  in  various  ways  than  women.  If  a  like  amount  of  physical 
toil  and  effort  be  imposed  upon  women,  the\'  suffer  to  a  larger  degree. 
(Page  120.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  X.  1904.  Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops.  Report  on  the  Thirteenth  International 
Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography. 

Dr.  Treves  cited  the  case  of  a  machine  capable  of  giving  33,000  blows 
per  diem,  at  which  the  men  employed  utilize  on  an  average  18,000  to 
20,000,  while  the  women,  less  inured  to  fatigue  and  less  capable  of  atten- 
tion, utilize  but  13,000.     (Page  298.) 


History  of  Factory  Legislation.     B.   L.   Hutchins  a^id  Amy  Harrison. 
London,  King,  1903. 

Women  are  "not  onl\-  much  less  free  agents  than  men,  but  they  are 
physically  incapable  of  bearing  a  continuance  of  work  for  the  same  length 
of  time  as  men,  and  a  deterioration  of  their  health  is  attended  with  far 
more  injurious  consequences  to  society.     (Page  84.) 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


CANADA 


6  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Man  and  Woman.  A  Study  of  Human  Secondary  Sexual  Characters. 
Havelock  Ellis.     London,  Scott,  1904. 

In  strength  as  well  as  in  rapidity  and  precision  of  movement  women 
are  inferior  to  men.  This  is  not  a  conclusion  that  has  ever  been  contested. 
It  is  in  harmony  with  all  the  practical  experience  of  life.  It  is  perhaps  also 
in  harmony  with  the  results  of  those  investigators  (Bibra,  Pagliani,  etc. 
Arch,  per  I'Antrop.,  Vol.  VI,  p.  173)  who  have  found  that,  as  in  the  blood 
of  women,  so  also  in  their  muscles,  there  is  more  water  than  in  those  of 
men.  To  a  very  great  extent  it  is  a  certainty,  a  matter  of  difference  in 
exercise  and  environment.  It  is  probably,  also,  partly  a  matter  of  or- 
ganic constitution.     (Page  167.) 

The  motor  superiority  of  men,  and  to  some  extent  of  males  generally, 
is,  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted,  a  deep-lying  fact.  It  is  related  to  what  is 
most  fundamental  in  men  and  in  women,  and  to  their  whole  psychic 
organization.     (Page  169.) 

Toronto  University  Studies  in  Political  Science.  First  Series,  No.  3.  The 
Conditions  of  Female  Labour  in  Ontario.  Jean  Thomson  Scott,  B.A. 
Toronto,  Warwick,  1892. 

In  the  struggle  for  existence  women  must  recognize  that  whatever 
they  are  or  may  become  intellectually,  physically  they  are  not  men; 
...  A  girl  who  had  lost  her  health,  and  finally  was  obliged  to  give  up  her 
situation,  on  account  of  continuous  application  to  work,  which  after  some 
years'  experience  proved  beyond  her  strength,  said  to  me,  "We  do  not 
know  at  the  time  and  do  not  believe  that  we  are  over-exerting  ourselves." 
Isolated  cases  of  women  having  shown  themselves  able  to  stand  a  severe 
physical  strain  cannot  refute  the  fact  that  a  vast  majority  of  women  are 
of  a  weaker  mould  than  men,  and  that  overwork  has  in  many  cases  been 
the  cause  of  a  life  of  semi-invalidism.  It  is  nothing  short  of  criminal  to 
permit,  let  alone  to  exact,  an  undue  exertion  of  physical  strength  from 
women;  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  government  to  prevent  it.  That  women 
are  willing,  nay,  even  anxious  sometimes,  to  attempt  hard  physical  labour, 
is  no  reason  for  their  being  permitted  to  do  so.     (Page  29.) 


GERMANY         Verhandlungen  des  Deutschen  Reichstags.     103.  Sitiung.     18.  April,  1891. 
[Proceedings  of  the  German  Reichstag.     103d  Session,  April  18,  1891.] 

Representative  Bebel: 

Workers,  both  men  and  women,  who  realize  the  true  relations  of  life 
and  labor  are  everywhere  united  in  endeavoring  to  shorten  the  hours  of 


PHYSICAL    DIFFERENCES    BETWEEN    MEN    AND    WOMEN  7 

labor  as  much  as  is  possible.  .  .  .  Even  those  who  refuse  to  listen  to  this  Germany 
request  from  working  men  are  inclined  to  take  a  different  attitude  in  re- 
gard to  working  women.     (Pages  2418-2419.) 

Amtliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerhe-AufsicMs- 
heamten.  XXII.  1897.  [Official  Information  from  the  Reports 
of  the  {German)  Factory  Inspectors,  1897.]     Berlin,  Bruer,  1898. 

The  inspector  from  Baden  writes: 

The  present  11-hour  day,  requiring  constant  standing,  in  weaving  and 
spinning  rooms,  is  far  more  destructive  to  the  organism  of  women  than  it 
is  to  men.  The  undermining  effects  of  the  long  hours  mentioned  upon 
health  are  clearly  noticeable  in  the  appearance  of  the  middle-aged  women. 
(Pages  241-242.) 

Hygiene  of  Nerves  and  Mind  in  Health  and  Disease.  August  Forel,  M.  D. 
Formerly  Professor  of  Psychiatry  in  the  University  of  Zurich.  Trans, 
from  the  German  by  Austin  Aikens,  Ph.D.     London,  Murray,  1907. 

The  nervous  hygiene  of  women  demands  special  consideration  because 
certain  periods  of  their  life  require  extraordinary  precautions  in  view  of 
the  special  predisposition  to  nervous  troubles  caused  by  menstruation, 
pregnancy,  confinement,  and  the  climacteric.     (Page  320.) 

It  is  of  special  importance  to  accentuate  the  injuriousness  of  certain 
kinds  of  fine  hand-work  which  overstrain  the  attention  and  irritate  the 
brain,  especially  long-continued  sewing  and  similar  sedentary  occupations 
that  strain  the  mind.  The  one-sided  over-doing  of  such  work  makes 
many  women  nervous  and  psychopathic  or  exaggerates  bad  tendencies 
which  are  already  present.     (Page  321.) 

Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  1875.  united 

states 

Mr.  D ,  the  publisher  of  a  well-known  periodical,  says: 

I  have  had  hundreds  of  lady  compositors  in  my  employ,  and  they  all 
exhibited,  in  a  marked  manner,  both  in  the  way  they  performed  their 
work  and  in  its  results,  the  difference  in  physical  ability  between  them- 
selves and  men.  They  cannot  endure  the  prolonged  close  attention  and 
confinement  which  is  a  great  part  of  type-setting.  I  have  few  girls  with 
me  more  than  two  or  three  years  at  a  time;  they  must  have  vacations,  and 
they  break  down  in  health  rapidly.  I  know  no  reason  why  a  girl  could 
not  set  as  much  type  as  a  man,  if  she  were  as  strong  to  endure  the  demand 
on  mind  and  body.     (Page  91.) 


8  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Report  of  the  New    York   Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  1884.     Hygiene  of 

STATES  Occupation,  by  Dr.  Roger  S.  Tracy,  Sanitary  Inspector  of  the  Board 

of  Health,  New  York. 

Since  the  dangers  due  to  various  occupations  have  been  brought  to 
public  notice,  it  has  become  a  grave  question  how  far  the  employment  of 
women  and  children  in  factories  should  be  allowed.  Women  are  certainly 
more  delicately  organized  than  men,  less  capable  of  sustained  muscular 
exertion,  and  more  susceptible  to  many  of  the  poisons  used  in  the  arts  and 
manufactures.  As  the  physical  condition  of  women  has  such  an  important 
bearing  on  the  welfare  of  the  race,  and  on  the  health  of  future  generations, 
it  becomes  fairly  a  question  of  government  control.     (Page  199.) 


Report  of  the  Maine  Bureau  of  Industrial  and  Labor  Statistics,  1888. 

Let  me  quote  from  Dr.  Ely  Van  der  Warker  (1875): 

Woman  is  badly  constructed  for  the  purposes  of  standing  eight  or 
ten  hours  upon  her  feet.  1  do  not  intend  to  bring  into  evidence  the  pecu- 
liar position  and  nature  of  the  organs  contained  in  the  pelvis,  but  to  call 
attention  to  the  peculiar  construction  of  the  knee  and  the  shallowness  of 
the  pelvis,  and  the  delicate  nature  of  the  foot  as  part  of  a  sustaining 
column.  The  knee-joint  of  woman  is  a  sexual  characteristic.  Viewed 
in  front  and  extended,  the  joint  in  but  a  slight  degree  interrupts  the  gradual 
taper  of  the  thigh  into  the  leg.  Viewed  in  a  semi-flexed  position,  the  joint 
forms  a  smooth  ovate  spheroid.  The  reason  of  this  lies  in  the  smallness 
of  the  patella  in  front,  and  the  narrowness  of  the  articular  surfaces  of  the 
tibia  and  femur,  and  which  in  man  form  the  lateral  prominences,  and  thus 
is  much  more  perfect  as  a  sustaining  column  than  that  of  a  woman.  The 
muscles  which  keep  the  body  fixed  upon  the  thighs  in  the  erect  position 
labor  under  the  disadvantage  of  shortness  of  purchase,  owing  to  the  short 
distance,  compared  to  that  of  man,  between  the  crest  of  the  ilium  and  the 
great  trochanter  of  the  femur,  thus  giving  to  man  a  much  larger  purchase 
in  the  leverage  existing  between  the  trunk  and  the  extremities.  Com- 
paratively the  foot  is  less  able  to  sustain  weight  than  that  of  man,  owing 
to  its  shortness  and  the  more  delicate  formation  of  the  tarsus  and  meta- 
tarsus.    (Pages  142-143.) 

Report  of  the  Nebraska  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics,  1901-1902. 

They  (women)  are  unable,  by  reason  of  their  physical  limitations,  to 
endure  the  same  hours  of  exhaustive  labor  as  may  be  endured  by  adult 


PHYSICAL    DIFFERENCES    BETWEEN    MEN    AND    WOMEN  9 

males.     Certain  kinds  of  work  which  may  be  performed  by  men  without  united 

injury  to  their  health  would  wreck  the  constitution  and  destroy  the  health 

of  women,  and  render  them  incapable  of  bearing  their  share  of  the  burdens 

of  the  family  and  the  home.     The  State  must  be  accorded  the  right  to 

guard  and  protect  women  as  a  class  against  such  a  condition,  and  the  law 

in  question  to  that  extent  conserves  the  public  health  and  welfare.     (Page 

52.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Department  of  Labor.  Report  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Labor,  1908.  C.  T.  Graham-Rogers,  M.D.,  Medical  Inspector  of 
Factories. 

The  average  healthy  woman  is  very  much  inferior  in  physical  strength 
and  endurance  to  the  average  man.  Her  physical  conformation  is  dif- 
ferent, and  the  physiological  and  social  parts  that  she  plays  in  life  differ 
from  those  played  by  man,  therefore  we  find  her  more  susceptible  to  the 
effects  of  hard  labor  and  prolonged  or  sedentary  occupation,  which  sus- 
ceptibility is  increased  during  the  child-bearing  period.     (I.  73.) 

Reference  Handbook  of  the  Medical  Sciences.  Hygiene  of  Occupation. 
Vol.  VI.  1903.  George  M.  Price,  M.D.,  Medical  Sanitary  Inspec- 
tor, Health  Department  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

In  many  industries  .  .  .  female  labor  is  very  largely  employed;  and 
the  effect  of  work  on  them  is  very  detrimental  to  health.  The  injurious 
influences  of  female  labor  are  due  to  the  following  factors:  (1)  The  com- 
parative physical  weakness  of  the  female  organism;  (2)  The  greater  pre- 
disposition to  harmful  and  poisonous  elements  in  the  trades;  (3)  The 
periodical  semi-pathological  state  of  health  of  women;  (4)  The  effect  of 
labor  on  the  reproductive  organs;  and  (5)  The  effects  on  the  offspring. 
As  the  muscular  organism  of  woman  is  less  developed  than  that  of  man,  it 
is  evident  that  those  industrial  occupations  which  require  intense,  con- 
stant, and  prolonged  muscular  efforts  must  become  highly  detrimental  to 
their  health.  This  is  shown  in  the  general  debility,  anaemia,  chlorosis, 
and  lack  of  tone  in  most  women  who  are  compelled  to  work  in  factories  and 
in  shops  for  long  periods. 

The  increased  susceptibility  of  women  to  industrial  poisons  and  to 
diseases  has  been  demonstrated  by  a  great  number  of  observers.  The 
female  organism,  especially  when  young,  offers  very  little  resistance  to 
the  inroads  of  disease  and  to  the  various  dangerous  elements  of  certain 
trades.     Hirt  says,  "  It  must  be  conceded  that  certain  trades  affect  women 


10  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  a  great  deal  more  injuriously  than  men";  and  he  mentions,  among  others, 

STATES  ^j^g  effects  of  lead,  mercury,  phosphorus,  and  other  poisons.     Even  where 

there  are  no  special  noxious  elements,  work  may  produce,  as  already  men- 
tioned, harmful  effects  on  the  health  of  women;  but  when  to  the  general 
effects  of  industrial  occupation  are  added  the  dangers  of  dust,  fumes,  and 
gases,  we  find  that  the  female  organism  succumbs  very  readily,  as  com- 
pared with  that  of  the  male.  Schuler  found  the  frequency  of  sickness  in 
females  under  eighteen,  as  compared  with  that  of  men  of  the  same  age,  as 
174  to  100.  Miss  Mary  E.  Abrams  (Oliver:  "Dangerous  Trades") 
found  that  out  of  138  lead-poisoning  cases  in  Newcastle,  where  the  number 
of  men  and  women  workers  was  about  the  same,  there  were  ninety-four 
cases  among  the  women  and  forty-one  among  the  men.  She  also  found 
that  out  of  the  twenty-three  deaths  from  plumbism  in  the  years  1889- 
1892,  twenty-two  were  women  and  only  one  was  a  man.  The  women  were 
all  between  seventeen  and  thirty  years  of  age.  These  figures  are  sub- 
stantiated by  Hirt,  Arlidge,  C.  Paul,  Tardieu,  and  others.  The  predis- 
position of  women  in  industrial  occupations  to  disease  in  general  is  greater 
than  it  is  in  men,  as  was  proven  by  Hirt  in  his  statistics  of  tuberculosis 
among  workers.  The  effect  of  work  on  the  physical  development  of 
women  was  found  to  be  very  detrimental,  especially  when  they  were  very 
young.  Arlidge  says  that  in  those  who  from  their  youth  work  in  high 
temperatures,  the  bones  and  joints  are  imperfectly  developed,  and  that 
they  are  liable  to  female  deformities  and  to  narrow  pelves.  Herkner  found 
in  his  studies  of  Belgian  female  workers  that  girls  who  are  engaged  in 
mines  suffered  from  deformed  joints,  from  deformities  of  the  spinal 
column,  and  from  narrow  pelves. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  out  of  every  one  hundred  days  women  are 
in  a  semi-pathological  state  of  health  for  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  days. 
The  natural  congestion  of  the  pelvic  organs  during  menstruation  is  aug- 
mented and  favored  by  work  on  sewing-machines  and  other  industrial 
occupations  necessitating  the  constant  use  of  the  lower  part  of  the  body. 
Work  during  these  periods  tends  to  induce  chronic  congestion  of  the  uterus 
and  appendages,  and  dysmenorrhoea  and  flexion  of  the  uterus  are  well- 
known  affections  of  working  girls.     (Page  321.) 

(2)    The  Greater  Morbidity  among  Women 
(a)  General  Morbidity 

The  need  of  protecting  the  health  of  working  women  by 
limiting  their  working  hours  is  emphasized  by  statistics  of 


GREATER   MORBIDITY    AMONG    WOMEN  I  I 

the  relative  morbidity  of  men  and  women.  In  all  countries 
where  such  statistics  have  been  kept  by  sickness  insurance 
societies,  the  morbidity  of  women  has  been  found  to  be 
higher  than  that  of  men. 

Sixth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.     Vienna,  1887.   switzer- 
Part  XIV,   Vol.  I.     Fabrikhygiene  und  Geset{gebung.     [Factory  Hy- 
giene and  Legislation.]     Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Swiss  Factory  In- 
spector.    Vienna,  1887. 

At  time  of  menstruation,  during  pregnancy,  and  after  childbirth,  the 
woman  is  especially  liable  to  infectious  and  other  diseases.  This  has  been 
proved  by  the  statistics  of  morbidity  in  Switzerland  in  those  industrial 
establishments  where  men  and  women  are  at  work  together  in  the  same 
trade,  the  proportion  of  cases  of  illness  being  as  follows:  Women,  127; 
men,  100.  The  number  of  days  lost  compared  thus:  Women,  150;  men, 
100.  These  proportions  become  more  divergent  when  the  workers  are 
under  18  years  of  age.  Thus,  for  such  workers  we  find:  proportion  of 
cases  of  sickness;  girls,  174;  boys,  100.  Taking  the  statistics  of  cotton 
mills  only,  we  find  the  proportion  of  cases  of  sickness;  for  women,  156; 
for  men,  100.  These  figures  alone,  to  go  no  further,  show  the  necessity 
of  special  protection  for  those  who,  without  this  legal  protection,  are  liable 
to  be  frightfully  exploited.     (Page  29.) 

Untersuchungen  Uher  die  Gesundheitsverhdltnisse  der  Fabrikbevolkerung  der 
Schweii.  [Investigations  into  the  Conditions  of  Health  of  the  Swiss 
Factory  Workers.]  Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Swiss  Factory  Inspector, 
and  Dr.  A.  E.  Burckhardt,  Prof,  of  Hygiene,  Basle.  Aarau,  Sauer- 
Idnder,  1889. 

There  are  great  varieties  in  the  morbidity  of  the  two  sexes.  In  general 
men  showed  a  greater  frequency  of  sickness  than  women.  In  1000  general 
cases  there  were  among  men  291  cases  of  illness;  among  women,  257. 
This  result  is  partly  induced  by  the  large  number  of  men  in  mechanical 
shops  who  fall  ill.  If,  however,  the  figures  are  taken  solely  from  workers 
in  the  same  occupation  the  results  are  often  reversed.  So,  for  example, 
in  cotton  mills  (spinning  processes),  where  women  show  a  morbidity  of 
128  :  100  as  compared  to  men,  and  in  cotton  factories  (weaving  processes) 
of  139  :  100.  In  the  silk  mills  the  proportion  of  illness  among  the  women 
is  even  more  extreme,  while  in  machine  embroidery  it  is  nearer  to  a  balance 
— Ill  :  100.     (Pages  33-34.) 


12 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


An  das  Schwei^.  Industriedepartement,  Bern.  Die  Eidgenossischen  Fa- 
brikinspedoren.  [Report  of  the  Swiss  Factory  Inspectors  to  the  Swiss 
Department  of  Labor  on  the  Revision  of  the  Factory  Laws.]  Schajff- 
hausen,  1904. 

The  10-hour  day  is  now  almost  the  rule  for  men.  .  .  .  Those  indus- 
tries where  the  11-  or  12-hour  shift  is  retained  are  almost  entirely  those 
which  employ  chiefly,  or  in  large  proportions,  women  and  children.  In 
other  words,  those  as  yet  unprotected  classes  of  workers  who  are  obliged 
to  toil  for  the  longest  number  of  hours  in  a  day  are  almost  entirely  women 
and  children.  And  yet  women  should  be  better  protected  than  men,  not 
only  because  their  physical  strength  is  less,  but  because  they  are  the 
bearers  of  the  race,  whose  vigor  is  materially  modified  by  the  health  of  the 
mothers.  The  State  has  the  deepest  interest  in  maintaining  vigorous  and 
able  defenders,  and  therefore  its  foremost  duty  is  to  protect  women  and 
children  from  being  overburdened.  This  necessity  is  most  glaring  in  the 
case  of  cotton  mills,  as  the  researches  of  Schuler  and  Burckhardt,  which 
have  never  been  contested,  prove  a  morbidity  of  women  in  this  industry 
notably  greater  than  that  of  men  in  the  same.     (Pages  26-27.) 


GERMANY         Verhandlungen  des  Deutschen  Reichstags,  103.  Sii^ung.     18.  April,  1891. 
[Proceedings  of  the  German  Reichstag,  103rd  Session,  April  18,  1891.] 

Representative  Dr.  Schaedler: 

At  the  Sixth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  in  Vienna,  1887,  Dr. 
Schuler,  the  expert  factory  inspector,  pointed  out  the  greater  liability  of 
women  to  disease  produced  by  unfavorable  factory  conditions.  He  stated 
that  the  morbidity  of  women  in  factory  work  in  Switzerland  had  been 
approximately  27  per  cent  higher  than  that  of  men  in  the  same  industries. 
(Page  2406.) 


Das  Verbot  der  Nachtarheit.  Bcricht  erstattet  an  den  internationalen  Kon- 
gress  fiir  gesetilichen  Arheiterschuti  in  Paris,  1900.  (Schmoller' s 
Jahrhuch,  25  '  .)  [Prohibition  of  Night  IVork.  Report  presented  to 
the    International  Congress  for    Labor    Legislation  at    Paris,    1900. 


{Schmoller' s    Yearbook,  25 
Vg,  1901. 


.)]     Dr.  Max  Hirsch,  Germany.     Leip- 


Adult  women  have  also  an  inferior  power  of  resistance  to  the  evils  of 
night  work  as  well  as  to  the  other  harmful  tendencies  of  industry.  .  .  . 
On  this  point  the  sick  benefit  funds  give  striking  testimony.     (Page  1265.) 


GREATER    MORBIDITY    AMONG    WOMEN  1 3 

Schriften  der  Ge sells chaft  filr  Soiiale  Reform,  Heft  7-8.  [Publications  of  the  GERMANY 
Social  Reform  Society,  Nos.  7  and  8?[  Die  Herabset^ung  der  Arbeits- 
^eit  fiir  Frauen  und  die  Erhohung  des  Schiit-alters  fiir  jugendliche 
Arbeiter  in  Fabriken.  [The  Reduction  of  Women's  IVorking  Hours 
and  the  Raising  of  the  Legal  IVorking  Age  for  Yoking  Factory  Employees.] 
Dr.  August  Pieper  and  Helene  Simon.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

The  daily  toil  in  factory  or  shop,  the  harm  that — aside  from  the  evit- 
able  mental  and  physical  exertion — arises  from  harmful  bodily  postures, 
such  as  continuous  sitting  or  standing,  and  from  the  dust  or  steam  that 
fills  workrooms,  has  been  becoming  more  extensive  with  the  lapse  of 
years,  and  the  longer  the  hours  of  work,  the  more  serious  are  the  bad  re- 
sults of  these  conditions.  The  statistics  of  the  Sickness  Insurance  So- 
cieties, both  as  to  the  total  number  of  cases  of  illness  and  as  to  the  rela- 
tively longer  duration  of  attacks  of  illness  among  working  women,  show 
an  astonishing  amount  of  sickness  under  the  present  working  hours.  The 
reports  of  the  factory  inspectors  for  1899  upon  the  employment  of  married 
women  in  factories  show  that  they  especially  suffer  an  alarming  extent  of 
ill-health,  and  that  this  is,  in  many  cases,  directly  traceable  to  beginnings 
long  before  marriage.     (Pages  4-5.) 

In  contrast  to  the  usual  "occupation  diseases"  (as  lead  colic,  etc.) 
are  the  characteristic  diseases  of  weakness  among  women  wage-earners, 
viz.,  anemia  and  chlorosis;  as  in  the  printing  trades  of  Berlin,  where 
among  the  4734  women  there  were  296  such  cases,  but  onl>'  72  among  all 
the  11,801  men  insured  in  these  trades. 

When  the  dangers  to  both  sexes  are  alike,  the  figures  of  the  sick  fund  are 
always  higher  for  women,  unless  the  totals  are  complicated  by  accidents. 

It  is  so  in  textiles,  glove  and  shoe  trades,  in  the  post-office  and  cigar 
manufacture.  The  Local  Insurance  Society  for  Berlin  in  1899  showed 
29.7  per  cent  ill,  and  41.0  per  cent  women  in  cigar-making.  According  to 
Wirminghaus  the  percentage  of  illness  in  all  Germany  in  1888  in  cigar- 
making  was  0.20  for  men  and  0.25  for  women,  while  the  percentage  for  the 
whole  country  in  spinning  and  weaving  was  0.61  for  men  and  0.72  for 
women.     (Page  93.) 

Die  NeueZeit,  23^,1905.     Ehretdie  Frauen.     [Honor  to  Women]     Eman- 
uel WuRM.     Stuttgart,  1905. 

In  1903  there  were  1,000,000  and  more  women  working  beside  the 
4,000,000  men  in  German  mills  and  factories.  .  .  .  The  factory  laws 
have  some  protective  regulations,  but  not  nearly  enough  to  equalize  the 
woman's  far  inferior  physical  power  of  resistance  with  that  of  men.     The 


14 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  indisputable  proof  of  this  lies  in  the  far  higher  percentage  of  illness  among 
the  women  operatives  as  shown  by  the  sick  funds.  Many  such  funds,  as, 
for  instance,  those  of  the  textile  industry,  with  its  membership  of  420,000 
women  and  380,000  men  in  1903,  are,  by  this  disproportionately  high 
morbidity  of  women,  in  the  most  embarrassing  financial  situation.  (Pages 
156-157.) 

AUSTRIA  Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Fetnmes  dans  VIndustrie.     Rapports  sur  son  im- 

portance et  sa  reglevientation  legale.  Preface  par  Prof.  Etienne 
Bauer.  [Nightwork  of  Women  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  im- 
portance and  legal  regulation.  Preface  hy  Prof.  Etienne  Bauer.] 
Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Fenimes  dans  VIndustrie  en  Autriche.  [Night- 
work  of  IVomen  in  Industry  in  Austria.]  Ilse  von  Arlt.  Jena, 
Fischer,  1903. 

According  to  the  testimony  of  the  Sickness  Insurance  Societies,  wo- 
men, when  subjected  to  the  same  work  as  men,  have  a  larger  percentage  of 
illness,  this  predominance  being  attributed  to  the  influences  of  industrial 
labor,  since  the  loss  of  time  incident  to  childbirth  is  classified  separately. 
It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  there  are  no  data  available  which  might 
enable  us  to  judge  how  women  would  stand  as  to  health,  compared  with 
men,  provided  that  they  were  only  employed  during  periods  when  their 
working  capacity  was  unimpaired.  Such  data  would  not  simply  have 
purely  theoretical  interest,  but  would  enable  us  to  determine  with  pre- 
cision the  dangers  to  which  women  are  exposed  in  the  different  industrial 
lines,  and  to  elaborate  protective  measures  for  them  upon  an  exact  basis. 
(Page  100.) 


FRANCE  Tenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.    Paris,  1900. 

In  one  volume.  Legislation  et  reglementation  du  travail  au  point  de 
viie  de  I'hygiene.  [Labor  Legislation  and  Regulation  from  the  Stand- 
point of  Hygiene.]  M.  Edouard  Vaillant.  M.R.C.S.,  England. 
Paris,  Masson  et  Cie.,  1900. 

.  .  .  All  reduction  of  daily  and  weekly  working  hours  must  be  regarded 
as  important  hygienic  progress. 

If  we  study  the  statistics  of  morbidity  and  mortality  in  the  different 
trades,  and  seek  to  isolate,  as  far  as  possible,  the  effects  of  dangerous 
trades  and  of  working  hours,  we  shall  see  very  plainly  in  the  reports  of 
factory  inspectors,  and  especially  in  the  insurance  records  of  Germany  and 
Austria,  that  the  reduction  of  working  hours  has  succeeded,  in  a  few  years' 
time,  in  bringing  down  the  totals  of  morbidity  and  mortality  even  below 


GREATER   MORBIDITY    AMONG   WOMEN  I  5 

the  total  of  trades  that  are  considered  relatively  more  healthy,  but  where   France 
the  length  of  hours  had  not  been  decreased.     (Pages  515  and  516.) 

Retort  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  1890.  united 

^  ■>  ■  STATES 

Dr.  Schuler,  factory  inspector  of  Switzerland,  states  in  a  recent  report: 
"...  According  to  the  experiments  made  in  Switzerland,  the  morbidness 
of  female  factory  operatives  is  27  per  cent  higher  than  that  of  males;  and 
the  average  number  of  days  during  which  the  former  are  incapacitated  to 
work  is  one  and  a  half  times  as  great  as  in  the  case  of  male  workers." 
(Page  81.) 

Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  75,  March,  1908.     In- 
dustrial Hygiene.    Geo.  M.  Kober,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

The  statistics  of  the  morbidity  and  mortality  of  various  occupations, 
while  far  from  satisfactory,  and  subject  to  more  or  less  erroneous  con- 
clusions, nevertheless  indicate  that  persons  habitually  engaged  in  hard 
work  are  more  frequently  subject  to  disease,  and  present  a  higher  mortality 
than  persons  more  favorably  situated;  and  this  is  especially  true  of  fac- 
tory employees,  because  their  work  is  generally  more  monotonous,  fatigu- 
ing, performed  under  less  favorable  surroundings,  and  they  are  too  often 
also  badly  nourished  and  badly  housed.     (Page  473.) 

{b)  Duration  of  Illness  greater  among  Women 

The  morbidity  of  women,  measured  by  the  number  of 
days  lost  through  illness,  is  greater  than  that  of  men.  That 
is,  women  suflFer  from  illnesses  of  longer  average  duration 
than  men  do, — and  consequently  are  more  disastrously 
affected  by  exhaustion  from  overlong  working  hours. 


Untersuchungen  iiher  die  Gesundheitsverhdltnisse  der  Fabrikbevolkerung 
der  Schweii.  [Investigations  into  the  Conditions  of  Health  of  the  Swiss 
Factory  Workers.]  Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Swiss  Factory  Inspector, 
and  Dr.  A.  E.  Burckhardt,  Prof,  of  Hygiene,  Basle.  Aarau,  Sauer- 
Idnder,  1889. 

If,  however,  not  only  the  frequency  but  the  average  duration  of  single 
cases  of  sickness  is  observed  in  the  two  sexes,  it  will  be  found  that  the 
duration  of  illness  averages,  among  men,  only  85  per  cent  of  "that  among 
women.  And  this  prolonged  duration  of  illness  is  not  only  found  in 
single  branches  of  industry,  but  throughout  all — probably  from  various 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


i6 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


causes.  For  the  woman  not  only  belongs  to  the  "weaker  sex,"  but  she  is 
also  the  one  who  makes  most  effort  to  employ  herself  usefully  in  the  house, 
even  when  she  is  not  well  enough  to  work  in  industry — contrary  to  the 
man  whose  work  is  entirely  outside  of  the  house.  .  .  .  More  favorable 
figures  for  women  are  only  found  among  youthful  workers.     (Page  34.) 


Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  V Industrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im- 
portance et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Night  fVork  of  Women  in  Industry.  Its  importance  and  legal  regula- 
tion.    Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

From  the  hygienic  point  of  view  it  is  evident  that  the  protection  of 
wage-earning  women  can  have  only  good  effects,  when  we  remember  that 
the  susceptibility  of  women  with  regard  to  disease  germs  is  greater  than 
that  of  men.  According  to  the  data  of  the  statistics  of  diseases  of  the 
German  Empire  there  have  been  for  each  case  of  sickness  among  the  men 
16  days,  and  for  each  case  among  the  women  18  days  of  assistance  or 
treatment  at  the  hospital  during  the  years  1888-1899.  In  Switzerland, 
judging  from  the  researches  made  by  F.  Schuler  and  A.  E.  Burkhardt 
(1889)  on  the  health  conditions  of  factory  workers,  the  average  duration  of 
sickness  has  been  21  days  for  men  and  25  days  for  women.    (Page  xxxvii.) 

Die  Gegenscitigen  Hilfsgesellschaften  in  der  Schwei^  im  jahre  1903.  [Mutual 
Aid  Societies  in  Switierland  in  1903.]     Berne,  1907. 

Of  100  men  insured,  an  average  of  26.76  received  sick  relief,  but  of  100 
women  only  24.26. 

The  men  who  received  sick  relief  averaged  23.55  days  of  illness:  the 
women  averaged  32.46. 

The  women,  therefore,  show  a  lower  percentage  of  relief,  but  a  longer 
average  of  sick  time,  and,  as  a  result  of  both  circumstances,  the  average 
morbidity  of  the  women  is  higher  than  that  of  the  men,  —  7.87  as  against 
6.30.     (Page  42.) 


FRANCE  Encyclopedie  d'Hygiene  et  de  Medecine  Puhlique,  T.  6.     [Encyclopedia  of 

Hygiene  and  Public  Medicine,  Vol.  6.]  Edited  by  Dr.  Jules  Rochard. 
Le  Travail  des  Enfants  et  des  Femmes  dans  V Industrie.  [Industrial 
Labor  of  Women  and  Children.]  Dr.  Alexander  Layet.  Paris, 
Delahaye,  1894. 

The  few  statistics  that  we  possess  on  these  lines  show  that  the  morbid- 
ity of  women  is  greater  than  that  of  men  in  the  same  trades. 

The  Mutual  Aid  Society  of  silk  workers  at  Lyon  (with  4117  members  of 


GREATER   MORBIDITY    AMONG    WOMEN  1 7 

all  ages  and  both  sexes)  in  1889  found  that  the  days  of  sick  time  for  the  France 
men  in  its  membership  amounted  to  1522,  and  for  the  women,  during  the 
same  time,  3978.  Between  the  ages  of  20  and  40,  the  da^'s  lost  by  sick- 
ness averaged  3.56  apiece  for  men,  and  7.28  for  the  women.  (Page  721.) 
Italian  Workman's  Aid  Societies  with  mixed  membership  showed  the 
same  results.  Thus,  while  between  20  and  40  years  each  man  in  the  mem- 
bership lost  5.4  days'  average  by  sickness,  the  women's  average  was  8.1. 
(Page  722.) 

Handbuch  der  Hygiene,  Bd.  S^.     [Handbook  of  Hygiene,  Vol.  8^.]     Edited  GERMANY 
by  Dr.  Theodore  Weyl.     Allgemeine  Gewerbehygiene  und  Fabrik- 
gesetigebung.     {General  Industrial  Hygiene  and  Factory  Legislation.\ 
Dr.  Emil  Roth.     Jena,  Fischer,  1894. 

The  investigations  of  Schuler  and  Burckhardt,  embracing  18,000  mem- 
bers of  Swiss  insurance  against  sickness  (about  25  per  cent  of  the  Swiss 
factory  workers  and  fifteen  industries),  show  that  factory  work,  even  in  a 
short  period,  produces  very  unfavorable  effects  upon  the  development  of 
the  body  of  young  men.  It  is  even  more  conspicuous  in  the  case  of 
women.  Thus,  of  1000  men  in  the  manufacture  of  embroidery,  302  were 
sick  to  332  women.  In  bleaching  and  d}eing,  279  men,  316  women;  also 
in  cotton  spinning  and  weaving,  the  morbidit}'  of  women  was  much  greater 
than  of  men. 

Similarly,  the  number  of  working  days  lost  through  illness  was  more 
among  women  than  among  men,  being  6.47  amongwomen  to  6.25  among  men. 

With  increasing  years,  both  frequency  and  duration  of  illness  increase. 
(Page  7.) 

A  second  form  of  physical  inferiority  of  women  is  their  lessened  re- 
fractoriness to  external  injurious  conditions.  All  statistics  dealing  with 
the  relative  morbidity  of  men  and  women  employed  in  factories  justify 
the  deduction  that  the  greater  number  of  days  lost  from  work  by  women 
indicate  that  disease  makes  greater  inroads  upon  them,  and  that  in  general 
industrial  labor  is  more  injurious  to  women  than  to  men.     (Page  87.) 

Jahresberichte  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichtsbeamten  und  Bergbehorden  fUr  das  Jahr 
1903.  Bd.  I,  Preussen.  {Annual  Reports  of  the  {German)  Factory  and 
Mine  Inspectors  for  1903.     Vol.  I,  Prussia.]     Berlin,  Decker,  1904. 

The  following  figures  are  taken  from  the  statistics  of  the  local  sickness 
insurance  societies  for  men  and  women  in  tailoring  and  allied  trades 
(chiefly  dressmaking  establishments  of  Berlin)  and  also,  for  the  first  time, 
for  those  employed  in  home  industries  (needle  trades),  for  the  \ear  1902. 

2* 


i8 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  Corresponding  figures  for  all  the  German  Sickness  Insurance  Societies 
throughout  the  Empire,  with  over  nine  and  a  half  million  members,  are 
given  from  the  imperial  statistical  year-book  for  1900  and  1901 : 


Tailoring  Trades 
35,627  Members 

General  German  Statistics 
9,500,000  Members 

1902 

1900 

1901 

Cases  of  illness  per  member 
Days  of  illness  per  member 
Average  duration  of  an  illness 

0.36 
9.21 
25.6 

0.39 
6.82 
17.4 

0.38 
6,91 
18.1 

The  figures  showing  cases  of  illness  to  each  member  are  seen  to  be  lower 
in  the  tailoring  trades,  but  those  showing  the  average  days  of  illness  and 
the  average  duration  of  illness  are  both  considerably  higher.  This  dif- 
ference is  largely  due  to  the  women  members,  who  constitute  ninety-two 
per  cent  of  the  workers.  The  figures  relating  to  the  men  tailors  approach 
more  nearly  to  those  of  the  General  Imperial  Statistics.     (Page  71.) 


Handhuch  der  Medi^inischen  Statistik.     [Handbook  of  Medical  Statistics.] 
Dr.  Friedrich  Prinzing,  Ulm.     Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 

The  days  of  illness  per  person  averaged,  to  every  100  persons,  as  follows: 


s 

X 

Mutual 

Ital. 
Working- 

Frankfort 

Austria 

z 

LU 

Leipzig, 

men's 

Age 

u 

o 

CQ 

1856-80 

Society, 
1866-75 

Men 

IVomen 

Men 

IVomen 

Men 

Men 

IVomen 

Men 

Under  15 

14.7 

18.4 

12.6 

14.5 

10.3 

17.9 

15-20 

16.4 

19.3 

13.7 

16.1 

12.5 

19.3 

21.6 

23.4 

20-30 

19.3 

24.6 

14.3 

18.0 

12,3 

19.9 

30.3 

24.9 

30-40 

22.7 

31.4 

15.9 

20.2 

13,9 

24.0 

33.4 

25.4 

40-50 

27.1 

31.6 

18.6 

21.6 

17.9 

30.7 

37.9 

28.2 

50-60 

32.9 

45.4 

21.4 

23.9 

19.4 

38.9 

44.4 

30.3 

60-over 

38.9 

58.1 

29.8 

31.3 

26.0 

44.1 

55.1 

36.8 

Average 

21.6 

24.4 

16.5 

18.8 

14.3 

27.4 

35.0 

27.3 

(Page  110.) 


GREATER    MORBIDITY    AMONG    WOMEN 


19 


The  appearance  of  anaemia  and  chlorosis  among  women  is  unusually 
frequent,  especially  when  the  cases  of  those  who  continued  at  work  are 
included.  In  Frankfort,  about  one-fifth  of  all  the  insured  women  members 
have  medical  treatment  for  these  troubles.     (Page  116.) 


GERMANY 


Geschdfis-Bericht  der  Ortskrankenkasse  fur  Leipzig  und  Umgegend,  uber 
das  Jahr  1907.  [Official  Report  of  the  Local  Sickness  Society  of  Leipiig 
and  Environs  for  1907.]     Leipzig,  Bar  und  Hermann,  1907. 

Most  of  the  published  statistics  speak  only  of  "members"  without 
distinguishing  between  men  and  women.  How  different  the  curve  ac- 
tually is  for  men  and  women  is  shown  in  the  following  table: 


Age 

Days  of  Sickness  for 

Years 

One  hundred  Men 

One  hundred  IVomen 

Under  15 

595.0 

533.5 

15-19 

617.4 

753.6 

20-24 

657.1 

955.0 

25-29 

707.5 

1,205.4 

30-34 

813.6 

1,395.1 

35-39 

940.9 

1,465.3 

40-44 

1,088.0 

1,453.3 

45-49 

1,243.4 

1,495.9 

50-54 

1,456.2 

1,489.8 

55-59 

1,704.7 

1,485.0 

60-64 

2,068.9 

1,631.7 

65-69 

2,760.3 

2,376.0 

70-74 

3,456.3 

2,530.5 

75  and  over 

4,042.9 

2,512.1 

(Page  74.) 

The  curve  of  women  shows  how  injuriously  the  double  task  of  being 
woman  and  wage-earner  affects  them.  It  is  evident  their  number  of 
days  lost  through  sickness  during  the  years  of  development  and  child- 
bearing  capacity  is  greatly  in  excess  of  those  lost  by  men.  The  younger 
women,  those  under  15,  have  a  more  favorable  curve  of  morbidity  than 
boys  of  the  same  age.  From  15  to  54  years  women  are  more  subject  to 
loss  of  time  from  illness  than  men.     Only  when  the  active  period  of  sex 


20 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY        life  has  passed  does  the  woman's  curve  again  show  her  superior  resistance 
to  morbidity  as  well  as  to  mortality.     (Page  75.) 

Siatistik  des  Deutschen  Reichs.  Bd.  186.  [Statistics  of  the  German  Em- 
pire. Vol.  CLXXXVI .]  Die  Krankenversicherung  im  Jahre  1906. 
Bearheitet  im  Kaiserlichen  Statistischen  Amt.  [Sickness  Insurance  for 
1906.     Compiled  in  the  Imperial  Office  of  Statistics.]     Berlin,  1908. 

According  to  Heym,  among  100  cases  of  illness,  the  length  of  time  lost 
by  men  as  compared  with  women  was  as  follows: 


Men 

Women 

14-25  weeks 

26  weeks  and  over 

Per  cent 
3.5 
2.3 

Per  cent 
5.7 
2.8 

Prinzing  adds  to  this:  "Sickness  of  short  duration  is  almost  twice  as 
frequent  among  men  as  women:  but  with  sickness  of  a  longer  duration 
(more  than  3  weeks),  the  case  is  exactly  reversed."     (Page  12.) 


{c)  Continuance  at  Work  during  Illness 

Women  suflFering  from  minor  illnesses  continue  at  work 
more  commonly  than  men.  That  is,  women  have  fewer 
illnesses  involving  complete  loss  of  earning  capacity,  more 
illnesses  during  which  they  continue  to  remain  at  some 
form  of  work.  Hence  excessive  hours  of  labor  are  doubly 
injurious  to  them,  because  often  performed  when  health  is 
already  impaired. 


Handhuch  der  Medi^inischen  Statistik.     [Handbook  of  Medical  Statistics.] 
Dr.  Friedrich  Prinzing,  Ulm.     Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 

The  records  next  below  show  only  those  cases  of  illness  that  entailed 
incapacity  for  work.  The  numbers,  as  before,  show  the  percentage,  ex- 
clusive of  confinements. 


GREATER   MORBIDITY    AMONG   WOMEN 


21 


Age 

General 
Relief  Fund. 
Some  Volun- 
tary 

Members 

Vienna  1896         Mutual 
Trade  Socie-   (Gegenseitig- 

TiEs'  Funds             keitj. 

(Genossen-    i       Leipzig, 
schaftkasse)  I       1856-80 

Italian 

Workman's 

Society 

1866-75 

Men 

Women 

Men 

Women 

Men 

Women 

Men 

Under  15 
15-20 
20-30 
30-40 
40-50 
50-60 
over  60 

43.4 
56.9 
51.6 
53.3 

55.4 
57.0 
68.0 

30.9 
46.9 
48.0 
46.8 
52.9 
49.9 
59.2 

38.2 
40.2 
29.4 
27.9 
35.3 
41.8 
56.2 

26.9 
36.5 
26.9 
26.3 
28.2 
30.6 
41.4 

29^5 
25.6 
24.5 
261 
28.1 
31.7 

20^3 
20.8 
19.6 
18.8 
18.4 
21.5 

28.0 
29.6 
25.0 
24.4 
24.8 
26.3 
.     31.2 

GERMANY 


The  differences  in  frequency  of  illness  in  the  above  tables  could  only 
be  explained  by  a  thoroughgoing  consideration  of  the  details  of  the  man- 
agement of  the  sick  funds.  .  .  .  (Page  107.) 

The  difference  in  morbidity  between  the  two  sexes  is  obvious.  In 
general,  women  have  fewer  illnesses  involving  complete  inability  to  work, 
than  men.  ...  On  the  other  hand,  illness  without  loss  of  earning  capacity 
is  much  more  frequent  among  the  women.     (Page  108.) 

The  total  list  of  all  the  Berlin  sickness  insurance  offices  for  1898  show 
that  to  every  hundred  men  insured,  39.46  had  illness  attended  with  loss 
of  earning  capacity,  and  of  every  hundred  women,  37.64  had  illness 
attended  with  loss  of  earning  capacity.     (Page  115.) 

Inquiries  have  all  shown  that  the  number  of  sick  cases  with  loss  of 
earning  capacity  do  not  in  themselves  alone  give  a  correct  idea  of  the 
morbidity  of  an  occupation.     (Page  125.) 

To  estimate  the  morbidity  of  an  occupation  those  cases  of  illness  which 
do  not  necessitate  loss  of  earning  power  must  be  considered.  It  is  then 
found  that  many  occupations  which  appear  favorable  when  loss  of  earning 
power  alone  is  considered,  have  actually  a  much  worse  standmg.  So, 
for  instance,  Frankfort  a.  M.  in  the  year  1896,  has  the  following  tables. 
Among  women  the  cases  of  illness  without  loss  of  earning  capacity 
predominate  in  every  occupation. 


22 


GERMANY 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Frankfort  a.  M. 


To  Every  100  Members 

Cas 

ES   OF 

Illness 

(Including 

Both  Sick 

AND  Well) 

Men 

20-30  Years 

30-40  Years 

40-50  Years 

50-€0  Years 

Able  to 

Not 

Able  to 

Not 

Able  to 

Not 

Able  to 

Not 

earn 

able 

earn 

able 

earn 

able 

earn 

able 

Factory  workers  and  day 

laborers 

2>2> 

34 

34 

41 

30 

4b 

31 

56 

Porters,  Packers 

40 

24 

46 

30 

51 

31 

52 

2,3 

Traffic  men  and  drivers .  .  . 

32 

31 

28 

30 

26 

41 

34 

55 

Waiters,  Cooks 

44 

21 

43 

25 

50 

39 

42 

68 

Salespersons 

55 

21 

41 

20 

45 

34 

60 

26 

Printers-lithographers  .  .  . 

43 

29 

49 

31 

41 

37 

44 

31 

Tailors 

44 

21 

52 

28 

37 

32 

53 

37 

Carpenters 

40 

33 

50 

37 

27 

30 

43 

54 

Painters,  Varnishers 

28 

29 

33 

35 

40 

53 

46 

58 

Smiths  (lock  and  other) .  . 

49 

36 

42 

34 

43 

55 

41 

48 

All  occupations 

41 

29 

38 

35 

37 

40 

40 

48 

(Page  126.) 

Cas 

ES    Of 

~  Illnes 

s 

To  Every  100  Members 

Women 

20-30  Years 

30-40  Years 

40-50  Years 

50-60  Years 

Able  to 

Not 

Able  to 

Not 

Able  to 

Not 

Able  to 

Not 

earn 

able 

earn 

able 
40 

earn 
47 

able 

earn 

able 

Factory  and  day  workers 

45 

37 

52 

32 

51 

40 

Servants 

43 
46 

24 
21 

43 
35 

30 
18 

30 

53 

26 
34 

42 
25 

38 

Waitresses,  Cooks 

41 

Salesgirls 

63 

30 

64 

37 

a 

20 

47 

37 

Sewing  women 

53 

31 

62 

40 

49 

40 

29 

54 

All  occupations 

51 

31 

51 

36 

42 

ii 

41 

40 

(Page  127.) 


GREATER   MORBIDITY    AMONG    WOMEN  23 

(d)  Mortality 

Statistics  show  that  the  mortality  of  working  women  is 
higher  than  that  of  working  men,  and  also  higher  than  that 
of  other  women  not  at  work. 


Journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society,  Vol.  LV.     Loyidon,  1892.     Mor-  FRANCE 
hidity  and  Mortality  according  to  Occupation.     Dr.   Jacques    Ber- 
TILLON,  Chief  of  the  Municipal  Statistical  Department  of  Paris.   [Trans, 
from  the  Journal  de  la  Societe  de  Statistique  de  Paris,  October-Novem- 
ber, 1892.] 

[Statistics  from  the  Lyons  Silk  JVorkers'  Mutual  Aid  Society — {Societe  de 
Secours  mutuels  des  Ouvriers  en  Soie  de  Lyon), — the  Statistical  Office  of 
Italy,  and  M.  Henri  Rauchberg's  Study  of  Workmen  s  Sick  Funds  in 
Vienna — {Die  Erkrankungstind  Sterblichkeits  Verhdltnisse  bei  der  allge- 
meinen  Arbeiter,  Kranken,  und  Invaliden  Casse  in  IVien — Statistische 
Monatschrift,  Vienna,  1886.). 

Women  between  20  and  45  show  a  considerably  greater  morbidity  than 
men  of  the  same  age;  above  45  their  rate  approaches  that  of  the  men. 
At  least  it  is  so  in  the  Lyons  Silk- Workers'  Society,  in  the  Italian  societies, 
and  (as  far  as  can  be  judged  from  a  table  in  which  there  is  no  distinction  of 
age)  in  the  Vienna  Arbeiter-Casse.  At  the  same  time  it  should  be  noted 
that  among  the  Lyons  silk-workers  not  only  the  morbidity  but  also  the 
mortality  of  females  is  considerably  above  that  of  the  males,  whereas  the 
opposite  holds  good  with  the  population  as  a  whole.  It  is  thus  at  least 
permissible  to  enquire  whether  there  be  not  some  peculiarity  in  this  em- 
ployment which  is  hurtful  to  the  health  of  the  women  engaged  in  it.  The 
Italian  table,  which  includes  a  great  number  of  occupations,  also  brings 
out  a  higher  rate  of  morbidity  for  women  than  for  men,  and  their  mortality 
at  each  age  (calculated,  however,  from  too  small  a  number  of  cases)  is 
greater  than  that  of  the  men. 

The  tables  of  the  Vienna  Arbeiter-Casse  point  also  to  the  fact  that  the 
morbidity  of  women  (526  cases  and  9,255  days  of  sickness  per  annum  per 
1,000  women)  is  above  that  of  men  (427  cases  and  8,366  days).  (Pages 
564-565.) 

Note  (6).  The  general  mortality  of  the  women  (without  distinction  of  age)  is, 
on  the  other  hand,  less  than  that  of  men,  while  the  mortality  at  each  age  is  greater. 
To  explain  this  apparent  anomaly,  it  is  sufficient  to  consider  the  first  two  columns 
in  Table  II :  it  will  be  seen  that  nearly  half  the  women  (42  per  cent)  are  under  40 


FRANCE 


24 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


years  of  age,  whilst  only  a  quarter  (26  per  cent)  of  the  men  are  under  40.  The 
female  members  being  younger,  it  is  not  surprising  that  their  general  mortality  is 
lower  than  that  of  the  men,  although  their  mortality  at  any  particular  age  is  greater. 


Table  II.     Comparative  Morbidity  of  the  Two  Sexes 


Lyons  Silk-Workers 

Italian 

Societies  (1881-1885) 

(1872-1889) 

(Corrected  Figu 

res) 

Age  of 

Morbidity 

Mortality 

Morbidity 

Mortality 

THE 

Annual 

Members 

average 
number  of 

Days  of 

Deaths  per 

Days  of 

Deaths  per 

members 

sickness  per 

annum  per 

sickness  per 

annum  per 

annum  per 

1000 

annum  per 

1000 

member 

members 

member 

members 

Years 

Mas. 

Fern. 

Mas. 

Fern. 

Mas. 

Fern. 

Mas. 

Fern. 

Mas. 

Fern. 

18  and  19 

96 

479 

1.76 

2.18 

20-24 

607 

3897 

3.06 

6.37 

13.0 

10.2 

5.0 

7.8 

6.3 

25-29 

1481 

6100 

3.40 

7.49 

5.4 

9.3 

5.4 

8.0 

5.9 

9.1 

30-34 

2507 

7377 

3.37 

7.64 

6.4 

9.2 

5.1 

8.9 

6.2 

10.7 

35-39 

3259 

8209 

4.32 

7.62 

6.4 

8.9 

6.0 

7.7 

7.8 

8.1 

40-44 

3442 

8161 

5.29 

7.64 

10.2 

6.2 

6.2 

9.3 

9.2 

10.0 

45-49 

3569 

7720 

5.89 

8.12 

11.8 

13.5 

6.8 

8.2 

11.6 

8.9 

50-54 

3214 

6429 

8.04 

9.58 

20.2 

14.3 

7.9 

9.3 

14.9 

14.1 

55-59 

2964 

5021 

8.38 

11.01 

19.5 

21.9 

9.2 

9.7 

22.2 

15.9 

60-64 

2623 

3795 

11.15 

14.52 

40.7 

41.9 

11.2 

10.0 

32.5 

65-69 

1956 

2617 

16.73 

18.57 

67.0 

55.0 

13.4 

8.2 

50.4 

70-74 

999 

1146 

19.76 

24.48 

88.0 

85.4 

14.7 

73.6 

Above  75 

378 

366 

26.90 

30.87 

148.0 

161.0 

13.4 

Average 

27093   61317 

7.81 

9.39 

23.4 

17.6 

6.6 

8.5 

11.7 

10.7 

GERMANY        Handhnch  der  Afediiinischen  Staiistik.     [Handbook  of  Medical  Statistics.] 
Dr.  Friedrich  Prinzing,  Ulm.     Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 

As  to  the  danger  to  life  to  women  in  industry  the  statistics  are  scanty: 
those  of  the  Austrian  sick  insurance  offices  for  1891-95  are  almost  the 
only  figures  that  offer  considerable  material  as  to  women  in  industry  on 
this  point  (mortality).  According  to  them,  the  women  engaged  in  in- 
dustrial labor  not  only  have  a  far  higher  mortality  than  working  men,  but 
also  their  mortality  between  the  ages  of  15-50  years  is  higher  than  that 


GREATER   MORBIDITY    AMONG    WOMEN 


25 


of  the  whole  female  population.     Compared  with  men,  the  mortality  of  Germany 
working  women  between  15-60  years  is  as  100  (men)  to  109  (women). 
(Page  492.) 


Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I'lndustrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im- 
portance et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Night  IVork  of  IVomen  in  Industry:  Its  importance  and  legal  regula- 
tion.    Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

Moreover  and  above  all  we  observe,  in  all  countries  where  woman  is 
protected,  a  lessening  of  female  and  also  of  infant  mortality.  For  Eng- 
land the  convincing  argument  drawn  from  this  fact  has  often  been  cited. 
There,  since  the  rigorous  enforcement  of  the  protective  legislation  con- 
cerning them,  the  total  mortality  of  women  has  fallen  much  below  that  of 
men.  The  ratio  of  the  mortality  of  men  to  that  of  women,  1841  to  1850, 
was  23.11  per  cent  for  men  to  21.58  per  cent  for  women;  from  1881  to 
1890,  as  20.22  per  cent  to  18.01  per  cent.  The  diminution  of  these  figures 
shown  by  comparing  the  earlier  with  the  later  period  should  be  attributed 
to  the  great  hygienic  progress  realized  during  the  interval;  and  the  rela- 
tively greater  reduction  of  female  mortality  should  be  attributed  to  the 
protective  legislation  for  the  workers,  and  doubtless  also  to  the  activities 
resulting  from  sick  benefits.  By  way  of  reaction,  this  fortunate  condition 
was  shown  in  the  figures  of  infant  mortality.     (Pages  xxxvii-xxxviii.) 

The  following  figures  for  the  German  Empire,  giving  the  proportional 
figures  for  men  and  women  in  the  Sickness  Insurance  Department,  show 
that  after  1891,  when  women  were  legally  protected,  their  mortality  dim- 
inished more  than  that  of  men. 


Comparative  Mortality  in  each 
100  Members 


Years 

Men 

IVomen 

1890 

1.05 

0.75 

1891 

0.99 

0.74 

1897 

0.91 

0.63 

1898 

0.87 

0.61 

1899 

0.93 

0.66 

(Page  xxxviii.) 


26  fatigue  and  efficiency 

(3)    The  New  Strain  in  Manufacture 

(a)  Speed 

Such  being  their  physical  endowment,  women  are  aflFected 
to  a  far  greater  degree  than  men  by  the  growing  strain  of 
modern  industry.  Machinery  is  increasingly  speeded  up,  the 
number  of  machines  tended  by  individual  workers  grows  larger, 
processes  become  more  and  more  complex  as  more  operations 
are  performed  simultaneously.  All  these  changes  involve 
correspondingly  greater  physical  strain  upon  the  worker. 

GREAT  British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XXI.     1833.     Second    Report    of   the 

.  .  .  Commissioners  Jor  Inquiring  into  the  Employment  of  Children 
ill  Factories  .  .  .  and  Reports  by  the  Medical  Commissioners.  Medical 
Reports  by  Sir  David  Barry. 

The  first  and  most  influential  of  all  disadvantages  of  factory  work  is 
the  indispensable,  undeviating  necessity  of  forcing  both  their  mental 
and  bodily  exertions  to  keep  exact  pace  with  the  motions  of  machinery 
propelled  by  unceasing,  unvarying  power.     (Page  72.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XVI.  1875.  Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  Jor  the  Half-year  eliding  30  April,  1875. 

.  .  .  The  speed  of  machinery  has  already  been  pushed  to  the  farthest 
extent,  and  lowered  from  a  point  which  had  been  attempted  but  found 
unprofitable,  and  injurious  to  the  work.  The  real  evil  has  long  been,  not 
too  long  hours,  but  too  great  tension  of  the  nervous  system  by  aiming  at  a 
larger  earning,  and  consequently,  the  charge  of  more  machinery  than  is 
consistent  with  the  health  or  good  work  of  either. 

Hence  also  an  increase  of  irritating  conflict  between  master  and  man 
as  to  the  excellence  of  workmanship.  .  .  .  Far  better  60  hours  a  week 
and  less  of  this  sad  unnatural  strain;  for  over-tension  may  kill  in  50  hours 
a  week,  and  reasonable  work  not  injure  in  60.     (Page  32.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vols.  XXIX  aiid  XXX.  1876.  Factories 
and  IVorkshops  Acts  Commission.  Vol.  XXX.  Minutes  of  Evi- 
dence.   A.  Redgrave. 

205.  .  .  .  Unhealthiness  combined  with  necessity  for  close  applica- 
tion to  rapidly  moving  machinery.     I  take  those  two  to  be  the  principal 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE:     SPEED  27 

and  main  causes  for  the  limitation  of  the  hours  of  \'oung  persons  and   great 

/D  11    ^  '  BRITAIN 

women,     (rage  14.) 

Effects  of  the  Factory  System.     Allen  Clarke.     London,  Richards,  1899. 

Greater  speed  of  improved  machinery,  whereb>'  the  work  is  increased 
sixfold,  resulting  in  physical  deterioration  and  mental  worrw     (Page  41.) 

The  toil  is  ceaseless;  the  machinery-  demands  constant  watching.  .  .  . 
Their  feet  are  never  still;  their  hands  are  full  of  tasks;  their  e\'e5  are  al- 
ways on  the  watch;  the>-  toil  in  an  unending  strain  that  is  cruel  on  the 
nerves.     (Page  49.) 

And  all  these  hours — ten  hours  a  da_\- — spinner  and  weaver  are  on  their 
feet;  no  sitting  down;  no  resting;  one  must  keep  up  to  the  machinery 
though  agonized  with  headache  or  troubled  b\"  any  other  complaint. 
While  the  engine  runs  the  workers  must  stand.     (Page  51.) 

IVonien's  Work.  A.  Amy  Bulley  and  .Margaret  Whitley.  London, 
Methuen,  1894. 

.  .  .  machinery  has  been  speeded  up  to  a  point  which  is  immensely 
in  excess  of  that  which  prevailed  when  the  hours  were  longer.  .A.t  the 
present  time,  therefore,  the  strain  upon  the  attention  and  the  wear  and 
tear  of  the  nervous  system  are  greatly  in  excess  of  former  times,  and  the 
worker  must  be  "on  the  stretch"  the  whole  time  to  attend  proper!}'  to 
the  work.     (Pages  151-152.) 

Dangerous  Trades.  Tho.mas  Oliver,  M.A.,  .M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  Medical 
Expert  on  the  White  Lead,  Dangerous  Trades,  Pottery,  and  Lucifer 
Match  Committees  of  the  Home  Office.     London,  .Murray,  1902. 

The  introduction  of  steam  has  revolutionized  industr\-.  .  .  .  Ma- 
chinery acts  with  unerring  uniformity.  At  times  so  simple  is  its  mechan- 
ism that  a  child  can  almost  guide  it,  \"et  how  exacting  are  its  demands. 
While  machinery  has  in  some  senses  lightened  the  burden  of  human  toil, 
it  has  not  diminished  fatigue  in  man.  All  through  the  hours  of  work  in  a 
factory  the  hum  of  the  wheels  never  ceases.  .  .  .  While  the  machinery 
pursues  its  relentless  course  and  is  insensitive  to  fatigue,  human  beings  are 
conscious,  especially  towards  the  end  of  the  day,  that  the  competition  is 
unequal;  for  their  muscles  are  becoming  tired  and  their  brains  jaded.  .  .  . 
Present-day  factory  labor  is  too  much  a  competition  of  sensitive  human 
nerve  and  muscle  against  insensitive  iron,  and  \"et,  apart  from  an  appro- 
priate shortening  of  the  hours  of  labor,  it  is  diflficult  to  see  how  this  can  be 


20  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  remedied.     The  greater  the  number  of  hours  machinery  runs  per  day  the 

BRITAIN  larger  is  the  output  for  the  manufacturer,  but  the  feebler  are  the  human 

limbs  that  guide  it.     To  the  machine  time  is  nothing;  to  the  human  being 

each  hour  that  passes  beyond  a  well-defined  limit  means  increasing  fatigue 

and  exhaustion.     (Pages  115-117.) 

Women  Workers.  Conference  in  Manchester,  1907.  Arranged  by  the 
National  Union  of  Women  Workers  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  tn 
conjunction  with  the  Committee  of  the  Manchester  Branch  of  N.  U.  W.  W. 
London,  King  and  Son,  1907. 

Factory  legislation  has  done  much  to  improve  general  conditions  and 
to  shorten  hours  in  the  textile  factories,  but  the  intensity  of  labour  has 
increased.  Owing  to  the  overdriving  and  the  speeding  up  of  machinery 
the  nervous  strain  and  pressure  upon  the  worker  is  probably  greater  than 
in  any  other  industry.     (Page  28.) 

The  Economic  journal.  Vol.  XVIII.  London,  1908.  Gaps  in  our  Fac- 
tory Legislation.     B.  L.  Hutchins. 

Now  it  is  important  to  remember  that  these  (ten)  hours  mean  more 
work  and  more  fatigue  than  they  did  when  the  normal  day  was  first  in- 
troduced fifty-odd  years  ago.  The  speeding  up  of  machinery  has  in- 
creased the  strain,  and  even  as  long  ago  as  1872  shorter  hours  were  agi- 
tated for  by  the  trade  unions.  .  .  .  One  of  H.  M.'s  inspectors  tells  me 
that  "both  in  cotton  and  woolen  the  strain  of  the  full  hours  with  speeding 
up  is  almost  intolerable  to  the  less  robust  women  and  girls."       (Page  223.) 

Diseases  of  Occupation  from  the  Legislative,  Social,  and  Medical  Points  of 
View.  Thomas  Oliver,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  Medical  Expert  on 
the  White  Lead,  Dangerous  Trades,  Pottery,  and  Lucifer  Match  Com- 
mittees of  the  British  Home  Office.     New  York,  Dutton,  1908. 

In  trades  that  are  dangerous  to  health  the  hours  should  not  be  long; 
and  in  textile  industries,  as  the  speed  of  machinery  is  quickened  and  the 
nervous  tension  upon  the  worker  becomes  greater,  the  hours  of  labour 
should  be  proportionally  reduced.     (Page  xi.) 

It  is  an  interestmg  problem  to  consider  the  probable  effects  upon  the 
health  of  the  workpeople  in  the  future  of  the  increased  speed  at  which 
machinery  is  being  run  in  the  factories  and  the  speeding-up  of  the  work  in 
ship  yards.  That  there  is  greater  strain  upon  the  nervous  s\stem,  more 
exhaustion  and  consequentl\-  need  for  greater  leisure,  few  will  deny,  and 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    .MANUFACTURE:     SPEED  29 

that  in  man\-  instances  the  hard  work  induces  premature  old  age  goes  great 

BRITAIN 

without  sa\ing.  Will  this  speeding-up  tend  to  make  female  mill-workers 
better  mothers  and  help  them  to  give  birth  to  health}'  and  robust  children, 
or  to  infants  who  are  puny,  ill-nourished,  and  of  a  highl\-  strung  nervous 
system?  In  some  American  factories  in  which  stitched  muslin  under- 
wear is  made,  so  great  has  been  the  improvement  in  the  machinery  of  late 
that  the  sewing  machines  are  carrying  two  to  ten  needles  instead  of  one  as 
formerly  and  as  a  consequence  man_\-  of  the  girls  are  no  longer  capable  of 
the  sustained  effort  necessar\-  to  follow  the  improved  speed,  and  have 
been  obliged  to  relinquish  their  occupation.  The  strain  of  the  e_\-es  in 
watching  for  broken  threads  in  order  to  stop  the  machinery-  is  almost  in- 
tolerable; it  requires  an  amount  of  nervous  energ\-  and  a  constancy  of 
attention  which  the  operators  cannot  supplw  There  is  a  limit  beyond 
which  the  speeding  of  machiner\-  cannot  be  run  without  detriment  to  the 
health  of  the  operators  unless  their  hours  of  work  are  materiall\-  shortened. 

Clearly,  therefore,  there  are  occupations,  especially  the  textile  trades, 
that  tend  through  sheer  strain  to  wear  out  the  body  of  the  worker  and 
induce  premature  old  age.  These  industries  may  be  said  to  show  their 
baneful  effects  upon  the  nervous  sx'stem.     (Pages  3-4.) 

Although  the  introduction  of  machiner_\-  has  cheapened  products  and 
placed  more  of  them  within  the  reach  of  the  poorer  working  classes,  it 
has  not  always  lightened  labour.  The  rate  at  which  machiner_\'  is  run 
demands  greater  attention  from  the  workpeople  and  imposes  upon  them 
a  severe  strain.  To  the  artisan  classes  the  Saturday-  half-holiday  and  the 
shortened  working  da\-  have  proven  a  boon  from  a  purely  physical  point 
of  view.  Great  as  the  rush  and  pressure  are  in  this  countr\',  they  are  even 
greater  in  America.     (Page  5.) 

The  lightening  of  the  burden  of  the  textile  worker  b\-  improved  ma- 
chinery has  not  altogether  made  mill-work  easier,  for  by  raising  the  speed 
and  increasing  the  output  a  larger  amount  of  machinery  has  to  be  tended, 
and  this  constant  vigilance  imposes  a  considerable  strain  upon  the  worker. 
If  this  is  true  of  simple  muscular  movements  necessitating  onl\-  mechanical 
supervision,  how  much  greater  must  be  the  strain  and  exhaustion  upon 
persons  who  in  their  emplo_\'ment  are  obliged  to  execute  a  series  of  educated 
and  rapid  muscular  mo\'ements  in  which  volition  is  sustained  throughout. 
(Page  358.) 

Report  of  the  Inspectors  of  Factories  for  the  Province  of  Ontario,  Canada,  1894.  CANADA 

With  the  increased  speed  and  complications  of  machiner\-  in  textile 
industries,  especiall_\'  in  cotton  looms,  the  attendant  has  more  mental 


30  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

CANADA  worry  in  watching  the  machines,  and  no  doubt  is  more  exhausted  physi- 

cally after  a  day's  work.     (Page  13.) 

Report  oj  the  Inspectors  oj  Factories  for  the  Province  oj  Ontario,  Canada,  1895. 

A  very  small  fraction  of  the  work  requires  muscular  strength,  but  it  is 
the  constant  and  steady  application  of  the  mind,  the  eager  use  of  the  eyes, 
which  exhaust  and  wear  out  the  human  body.  The  entire  nervous  sys- 
tem is  so  intently  directed  to  the  detail  of  the  work,  while  the  machinery  is 
running  to  its  utmost  capacity,  that  by  night  the  workers  are  not  only 
tired  and  weary,  but  well-nigh  worn  out.     (Pages  24-25.) 

Report  of  the  Inspectors  of  Factories  for  the  Province  of  Ontario,  Canada, 
1896.     Toronto,  1897. 

Though  there  is  little  work  which  requires  great  muscular  strength 
or  exertion  in  our  factories,  yet  the  alertness  and  exactness  of  attention 
and  constant  application  required  exhaust  the  nervous  vitality  very 
rapidly.  Most  of  the  operators  are  necessarily  on  their  feet  nearly  all  the 
time,  and  this  fact  has  an  unfavorable  effect  upon  the  health  of  women  and 
girls.     (Page  22.) 

Canada  Labour  Gazette,  August,  1903.  Report  of  British  Columbia  Royal 
Labour  Commission.     Dawson.     Ottawa. 

The  report  concludes  with  a  recommendation  as  to  the  shortening  of 
the  hours  of  labour.  "In  these  days,"  say  the  Commissioners,  "when 
the  human  energies  are  strained  to  their  utmost  amid  whirling  dust  and 
machinery,  long  hours  are  a  crime  against  nature.  The  machine  should 
be  the  servant  of  man,  and  not  man  the  slave  of  the  machine.  One  of  the 
most  legitimate  modes  in  which  a  legislature  can  aid  in  improving  the 
condition  of  the  workmen  is  by  the  shortenmg  of  hours.     (Page  136.) 

Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  a  Dispute  Respecting  Hours  of  Em- 
ployment between  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  of  Canada,  Ltd.  and 
Operators  at  Toronto,  Ontario.  The  Department  of  Labour,  Canada. 
Ottawa,  1907.     Conclusions  and  Recommendations . 

We  agree  entirely  with  the  view  expressed  by  the  local  manager  that 
it  is  the  pace  that  kills,  and  the  working  of  women  at  high  pressure  at 
work  of  this  kind  should  be  made  a  crime  at  law  as  it  is  a  crime  against 
Nature  herself.     (Page  98.) 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE:     SPEED  3 1 

New  South  Wales.     Legislative  Assembly.     Report  of  the  Working  of  the  AUSTRALIA 
Factories'  and  Shops'  Act.     1904. 

Miss  Duncan,  Inspector: 

The  effect  of  factory  work  on  the  individual  appears  to  be  to  produce 
a  skillful  specialized  worker  moving  within  narrow  limits  and  ill-fitted  to 
rise  above  them. 

On  the  physical  side,  the  want  of  exercise  among  those  who  sit  all 
day  at  their  work,  the  long  standing  of  others  in  those  processes  which 
cannot  be  conveniently  carried  on  when  sitting,  in  either  case  the  over- 
exercise  of  certain  muscles  and  the  non-exercise  of  others,  must  bring 
about  a  very  one-sided  development.  .  .  .  Again  the  constant  vibration 
and  noise,  the  unflagging  attention  demanded  by  work  on  power  ma- 
chines, and  the  high  rate  of  speed,  must  tend  to  operate  disadvantageously 
on  the  nervous  system.     (Page  13.) 


Fatigue.     A.  Mosso,  Professor  of  Physiology,  University  of  Turin,  1896.   ITALY 
Translated  by  Margaret  Drummond,  M.A.,  and  W.  B.  Drummond, 
M.B.,  Extra  Physician,  Royal  Hospital  for  Sick  Children,  Edinburgh. 
New  York,  Putnam,  1904. 

By  constant  increase  in  the  rate  of  movement,  by  instruments  ever 
better  adapted  to  their  ends,  modern  society  endeavours  to  multiply  and 
render  more  productive  the  work  both  of  muscle  and  of  mind.  The  pro- 
digious extension  of  the  arts  and  the  increasing  velocity  of  machinery 
combine  to  hurry  us  onward;  our  haste  will  grow  from  more  to  more,  till 
it  reaches  an  extreme  point  at  which  the  law  of  exhaustion  sets  an  in- 
superable barrier  to  the  greed  of  gain.  .  .  .  (Page  168.) 

The  machinery  in  our  factories  is  ever  becoming  more  ponderous;  it  is 
increasing  in  size,  velocity  of  motion,  and  productivity,  and  this  increase 
still  continues  despite  the  fact  that  we  have  already  surpassed  the  furthest 
limit  set  at  first  by  our  imagination.     (Page  169.) 

One  very  quietly  perceives,  however,  that  those  machines  are  not 
made  to  lessen  human  fatigue,  as  poets  were  wont  to  dream.  The  veloc- 
ity of  the  flying  wheels,  the  whirling  of  the  hammers,  and  the  furious  speed 
at  which  everything  moves,  these  things  tell  us  that  time  is  an  important 
factor  in  the  progress  of  industry,  and  that  here  in  the  factory  the  activity 
of  the  workers  must  conquer  the  forces  of  nature.  The  hiss  of  the  steam, 
the  rattling  of  the  pulleys,  the  shaking  of  the  joints,  the  snorting  of  these 
gigantic  automata,  all  warn  us  that  they  are  inexorable  in  their  motion, 
that  man  is  condemned  to  follow  them  without  a  moment's  rest,  because 


32 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


ITALY  every  minute  wasted  consumes  time  that  is  worth  money,  seeing  that  it 

renders  useless  the  coal  and  the  movement  of  these  colossi.     (Page  171.) 

Marx,  in  his  celebrated  work  {Le  Capital,  Karl  Marx,  p.  161),  devotes 
a  chapter  to  machinery,  and  arrives  at  the  following  conclusions:  that 
all  our  inventions  have  not  diminished  human  fatigue,  but  simply  the 
price  of  commodities;  that  machinery  has  rendered  worse  the  condition 
of  the  worker,  because  by  rendering  strength  of  no  avail  it  has  entailed  the 
employment  of  women  and  children,  instead  of  shortening  the  working- 
day  it  has  prolonged  it,  instead  of  reducing  fatigue  it  has  rendered  it  more 
dangerous  and  injurious;  that  to  the  accumulation  of  riches  corresponds 
an  increase  of  poverty;  that  owing  to  machinery  society  is  receding 
further  and  further  from  its  ideal;  that  the  reality  has  not  corresponded 
to  our  hopes. 

.  .  .  The  powerful  automaton  of  mechanics  wants  nothing  but  intel- 
ligence and  a  nervous  system;  this  want  a  child  or  a  woman  can  supply 
and  guide  the  blind  giants  by  the  hand.  It  is  a  grave  accusation  to 
launch  against  science,  that  in  making  herself  mistress  of  the  forces  of 
nature  she  tends  to  establish  a  monopoly  for  machinery,  to  make  labour 
the  slave  of  capital.  There  are,  moreover,  those  who  fear  that  human 
fatigue  will  come  to  be  less  and  less  regarded,  and  that  the  workers  will 
be  gradually  eliminated  and  dismissed  without  means  of  subsistence,  that 
the  intelligence  of  the  people  is  deteriorating,  because  the  greater  the  per- 
fection of  the  machine,  the  less  the  skill  and  ability  required  from  the 
worker.     (Pages  173-174.) 


GERMANY  AmtUche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichts- 
heamten.  XXII.  1897.  [Official  Information  from  Reports  of  the 
(German)  Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,  Bruer,  1898. 

The  demand  for  shorter  hours  of  work  is  justified  by  the  hardships 
in  which  modern  industry  has  plunged  the  whole  working  class.  In  a 
comparatively  short  time,  for  instance,  machinery  of  much  greater  speed 
has  been  installed  in  a  number  of  branches  of  industry.  Even  the  young, 
industrious  workman  must  stretch  every  nerve  to  keep  up  with  the  speed- 
ing process  necessitated  by  machinery.     (Page  156.) 

Machine  work  allows  no  time  for  rest  and  variety,  the  workman's 
nerves  suffer,  and  when,  as  sometimes  happens,  his  Sunday's  rest  is  taken 
from  him,  he  breaks  down.  Older  workmen  cannot  accommodate  them- 
selves to  this  pace,  and  the  rapidity  of  development  has  been  such  that  a 
gradual  adaptation  to  the  altered  conditions  is  for  them  absolutely  out  of 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE!     SPEED  33 

the  question.     The  result  is  that  older  people  are  excluded  more  and  more  Germany 
from  factory  work.     (Page  157.)    No  unsatisfactory  results  appear  to  have 
followed  in  any  instance  where  hours  have  been  shortened.     (Page  158.) 


Jahresberichte  der  Gewerhe-AufsicMsheamten  im  Konigreich  IViirttemberg 
filr  das  Jahr  1902.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  JVurttemherg  for  1902.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1903. 

In  general  the  reduction  of  women's  hours  takes  place  with  the  utmost 
slowness,  sometimes  under  pressure  of  organization  .  .  .  sometimes  where 
employers  have  come  to  an  agreement  among  themselves.  .  .  . 

But  this  reduction  of  hours  does  not  keep  pace  with  advances  in  tech- 
nique .  .  .  where  there  is  an  obvious  tendency  to  make  use  of  human 
power  to  the  fullest  possible  extent.  This  is  especially  true  in  the  textile 
mills,  where  certain  older  processes  are  modified  by  new  contrivances. 
.  .  .  The  result  now  is,  that,  while  the  wages  or  skilled  spinners  (women) 
have  risen  about  12  or  13  per  cent,  the  number  of  spindles,  on  which  they 
must  concentrate  attention  for  11  hours,  has  been  raised  from  500  to  750 
— an  increase  of  50  per  cent.  This  is  not  quite  the  same  as  saying  that 
the  strain  upon  the  spinners  is  50  per  cent  greater,  since  a  certain  number 
of  helpers  are  provided,  nevertheless  the  attention  and  skill  demanded  are 
much  greater  than  v/as  formerly  the  case.  .  .  .  Such  examples  make  it 
plain  that,  with  this  increasing  intensity  of  strain  in  work,  the  hours  of 
work  must  be  correspondingly  shortened  if  the  people  are  to  be  protected 
from  ruin  of  health.     (Pages  74-75.) 


Jahresberichte  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichtsheamten  im  Konigreich  Wiirttemherg 
fiir  das  Jahr  1903.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  King- 
dom of  IViirttemberg  for  1903.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1904. 

To-day  the  technical  development  of  industry  leads  to  ever  and  ever 
greater  demands  upon  the  intensity  and  attention  of  the  worker.  When 
the  speed  of  the  machine  is  greatest,  then  the  workman  has  more  given  to 
him  to  attend  to.  This  uncontested  fact  of  rising  claims  upon  the  physi- 
cal and  mental  capacity  of  the  workman,  which  is  more  or  less  strikingly 
evident  in  every  department  of  labor,  has  in  recent  years  brought  the  ques- 
tion of  shorter  hours  to  the  front.  The  necessity  of  compensation  through 
shorter  hours  is  not  only  recognized  by  the  inspectors,  but  by  many  em- 
ployers as  well.  (Page  96.) 
3* 


34  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  Jahresherichte  dcr  Geii:erhe-Anfsichtsheamten  und  Bergbehorden  Jiir  das  Jahr 
1904.  Bd.  II.  IViirtiemherg.  [Reports  of  the  {German)  Factory  and 
Mine  Inspectors  for  1904.]  Vol.  II.  IViirttemherg.  Berlin,  Decker, 
1905. 

The  claim  for  a  ten-hour  day  for  women  is  an  old  and  much-contested 
one:  factory  mspectors  are  continually  reminded  of  the  great  need  for  its 
fulfilment,  as  they  see  how  technical  improvements  in  machinery  increase 
the  productivity  of  the  machine  and  consequently  intensify  the  demands 
made  upon  the  working  strength  and  capacity  of  the  wage-earners.  And 
this  is  especially  true  of  the  industries  which  employ  women  in  large  num- 
bers.    (Page  4>02) 

Die  Arheitsieit  der  Fabrikarheiterinnen.  Nach  Berichten  der  Gewerhe- 
Aiifsichtsheamten  bearbeitet  tin  Reich  saint  des  Innern.  [The  Working 
Hours  of  IVomen  in  Factories.  From  the  Reports  of  the  {German)  Factory 
Inspectors  compiled  in  the  Imperial  Home  Office.]     Berlin,  Decker,  1905. 

From  Frankfurt  am  Oder  it  is  reported  that  the  insurance  records  for 
two  textile  mills  show  steady  deterioration  in  the  health  of  the  women  em- 
ployed eleven  hours  a  day.  One  reason  for  this  is  believed  to  be  the  speed- 
ing up  of  the  machinery.  Vigorous  weavers  stated  repeatedly  that  the 
old,  slow  looms  exhausted  them  less  in  twelve  and  thirteen  hours  than  the 
swift  new  looms  in  eleven  hours.  The  more  intensive  work  requires 
better  nourishment;  but  there  is  no  adequate  increase  in  wages  to  afford 
this  improved  food,  and  the  eleven-hour  day  of  more  rapid  work  is  pre- 
sumably responsible  for  the  deteriorated  health.     (Page  119.) 

Archiv  fiir  Unfallheilkunde,  Gewerbehygiene,  und  Gewerbekrankheiten. 
Bd.  I.  Uber  den  Gesundheitsschut^  der  Gewerblichen  Arbeiter.  [Pro- 
tection of  the  IVorkingman's  Health.]  Dr.  Schaefer.  Stuttgart, 
Enke,  1896. 

The  more  technic  is  perfected,  the  more  complicated  the  machine  and 
the  more  rapid  its  speed,  the  greater  are  the  demands  made  upon  the 
workman  and  the  more  important  it  becomes  to  shorten  his  hours  of  work. 
(Page  204.) 

Handworterbiich  der  Staatswissenschaften.  Bd.  I.  [Compendium  of 
Political  Science.  Vol.  I.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of 
Political  Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin;  W. 
Lexis,  Professor  of  Political  Science  in  Gottingen;  and  Edg.  Loening, 


LAND 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE:     SPEED  35 

Professor  of  Law  in  Halle.     Arbeits^eit.      [Hours  of  Work.]     Dr.  H.  Germany 
Herkner,  Berlin.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

The  workman  sees  in  reduction  of  working  hours  the  surest  remedy 
for  all  the  dangers  that  arise  from  his  work,  and  that  menace  him  with 
premature  exhaustion  of  his  working  power,  his  only  capital.  The  more 
piece  work  and  speeding  stimulate  the  intensity  of  production,  the  more 
quickly  a  dangerous  degree  of  fatigue  is  likely  to  appear,  resulting  from 
the  one-sided  exertion  of  certain  nerves  or  muscles  (a  feature  of  the  sub- 
division of  labor).     (Page  1204.) 

Intensiveness  of  work  means  progress  for  the  worker,  so  long  as  the 
tempo  keeps  within  customary  bounds;  that  is,  while  speed  can  be  main- 
tained without  requiring  continuous  new  impulses  of  will-power.  If, 
in  spite  of  shorter  hours,  intensiveness  of  work  leads  to  chronic  over- 
fatigue, then  it  is  just  as  necessary  to  overcome  that  evil  as  the  over- 
fatigue resulting  from  overlong  hours  of  less  intensity.     (Page  1217.) 

Untersuchungen  Uber  die  Gesundheitsverhdltnisse  der  Fabrikbevolkerung  der  switzer. 
Schweii.     [Investigations  into  the  Conditions  of  Health  of  the  Swiss 
Factory  Workers.]     Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Swiss  Factory  Inspector, 
and  Dr.  A.  E.  Burckhardt,  Prof,  of  Hygiene,  Basle.     Aarau,  Sauer- 
Idnder,  1889. 

Instead  of  becoming  wearied  by  personal  labor,  as  in  earlier  stages  of 
industry,  it  is  today  the  unremitting,  tense  concentration  in  watching 
the  machine,  the  necessary  rapidity  of  motion,  that  fatigues  the  worker. 
(Page  62.) 

An  das  Schweii.  Industriedepartement,  Bern.  Die  Eidgenossischen- 
Fabrikinspectoren.  [Report  of  the  Swiss  Factory  Inspectors  to  the  Swiss 
Department  of  Labor  on  the  Revision  of  the  Factory  Laws.]  Schaff- 
hausen,  1904. 

As  technique  becomes  more  developed,  machinery  more  complicated, 
and  the  pace  swifter,  so  much  more  insistent  become  the  demands  of  the 
workers  and  the  claims  of  hygienists  for  a  shorter  work  day  as  a  physio- 
logical necessity.     (Page  23.) 

When  we  consider  the  great  material  advantages  of  modern  industry  in" 
being  enabled  to  economize  material  by  the  use  of  water  power  day  and 
night,  by  keeping  its  furnaces  forever  burning,  and  so  on,  it  seems  as  if  it 
might  well  be  in  place  to  economize  also  the  strength  of  the  people  by 
shortening  their  shifts  of  work.     (Pages  34-35.) 


36 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


AUSTRIA  Eighth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene   and   Demography.      Budapest, 

1894.  Vol.  VII,  Sec.  V.  Uber  das  Verhdltniss  der  Dauer  des  Ar- 
beitstages  ^ur  Gesundheit  des  Arheiters  und  dessen  Einfluss  attf  die 
Offentliche  Gesundheit.  [The  Length  of  the  Working  Day  in  its  Rela- 
tion to  the  IVorkman's  Health  and  its  Influence  upon  Public  Health.] 
Dr.  E.  R.  J.  Krejcsi,  Vice-Secretary  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  in 
Budapest.     Budapest,  1896. 

In  branches  of  industry  where  machinery  is  used,  the  normal  working 
day  of  which  the  worker  is  fully  capable  is  shorter  in  proportion  as  ma- 
chinery is  more  complicated  and  the  demands  made  upon  the  intelligence, 
attention,  and  memory  of  the  worker  are  more  incessant. 

Such  workers  expend  both  their  mental  and  physical  strength  in  stren- 
uous exertion,  and  thus  their  normal  energy  is  sooner  exhausted  and  the 
injurious  results  of  overstrain  become  evident  earlier  than  in  simpler 
forms  of  labor.     (Page  326.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  the  Maine  Bureau  of  Industrial  Labor  Statistics,  1892. 

The  constant  nervous  tension  from  continued  exertion  in  a  modern 
factory  or  workshop,  for  a  period  of  ten  hours,  is  a  severe  strain  upon  the 
physical  system.  Work  is  not  done  in  the  old,  slow  way,  and,  in  nearly 
all  industries,  by  the  present  methods,  from  two  to  four  times  the  quantity 
of  product  is  turned  out  in  the  ten  hours.  How  much  faster  is  the  opera- 
tive compelled  to  work,  and  how  much  greater  is  the  strain,  to  accomplish 
this  amount  of  work,  in  comparison  with  the  old  twelve-hour  method. 
(Page  11.) 


Seventh  Annual  Convention  of  the  International  Association  of  Factory 
Inspectors  of  North  America.  Chicago,  Sept.  19-22,  1893.  Forest 
City  Printing  House,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Inspector  Dyson,  of  Massachusetts: 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  gradual  reduction  in  the  hours  of  labor 
has  been  met  by  the  manufacturers  with  improved  machinery.  .  .  . 

In  a  textile  mill  there  is  a  very  small  fraction  of  the  work  that  requires 
•muscular  strength.  But  it  is  the  constant  and  steady  application  of  the 
mind,  the  eager  use  of  the  eyes,  which  exhaust  and  wear  out  the  human 
body. 

The  entire  nervous  system  is  so  intently  directed  to  the  detail  of  the 
work  while  the  machinery  is  running  to  its  utmost  capacity,  that  by  night 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE:     SPEED  37 

the  worker  is  not  only  tired  and  weary,  but  wellnigh  worn  out.     (Pages  united 

118-119.)  STATES 

Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission  on  the  Relations  and 
Conditions  of  Capital  and  Labor  employed  in  Manufactures  and  Gen- 
eral Business.  Vol.  VII.  1900.  Testimony  of  Mrs.  Fanny  B.  Ames, 
former  Factory  Inspector  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

Mrs.  Robertson  tells  me  that  when  she  was  a  girl,  to  run  one  or  two 
looms  was  as  much  as  any  woman  would  have  tried.  Now,  in  some  m- 
stances,  there  are  women  running  nine  looms,  and  the  looms  have  more 
than  doubled  or  trebled  their  speed.  This  means  more  work  and  harder 
work.     (Page  63.) 

United  States  Congress,  House  Report  No.  1793.  (4405).  Hours  of 
Laborers  on  Public  IVorks  of  the  United  States.  Report  from  the  Com- 
mittee on  Labor.     57th  Congress,  1st  Session.     1901-1902. 

While  there  is  still  a  variance  of  opinion  on  the  question  whether 
modern  machinery  and  methods  so  lighten  the  physical  drudgery  of  most 
occupations  as  to  have  an  equivalent  effect  to  the  shortening  of  hours  in 
the  conservation  of  energy,  or  whether  such  machinery  and  methods 
operate  to  so  tax  the  nervous  powers  as  to  be  equivalent  in  exhaustive 
effects  to  the  lengthening  of  hours,  your  committee  are  of  the  opinion, 
after  what  has  been  said  on  both  sides,  that  the  higher  tension  of  modern 
employment  is  at  least  a  full  offset  to  the  saving  accomplished  in  muscular 
force. 

This  effect  of  modern  machinery  on  the  powers  of  the  worker  has  been 
a  question  more  immediately  affecting  the  American  workman  than  those 
of  any  other  nations.  The  foreign  workman  has  very  generally  held  to 
the  surface  theory  of  some  older  varieties  that  machinery  is  a  competitor 
of  labor  and  the  one  most  threatening  to  his  employment,  hence  labor  has 
strenuously  and  to  a  considerable  extent  successfully  resisted  the  intro- 
duction of  modern  machinery.     (Pages  9-10.) 

Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission.  Final  Report,  Vol. 
XIX,  1902. 

It  is  brought  out  that  in  nearly  all  occupations  an  increasing  strain 
and  intensity  of  labor  is  required  by  modern  methods  of  production. 
.  .  .  The  introduction  of  machinery  and  the  division  of  labor  have  made 
it  possible  to  increase  greatly  the  speed  of  the  individual  workman 


38  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  The  testimony  of  a  representative  of  the  Cotton  Weavers'  Association 

STATES  shows  this  increasing  strain  of  work.     He  says: 

.  .  .  "Anybody  who  works  in  the  mills  now  knows  it  is  not  like  what 
it  was  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago,  because  the  speed  of  the  machinery 
has  been  increased  to  such  an  extent,  and  they  have  to  keep  up  with  it." 
(Page  763.) 

Even  these  cases  where  machinery  has  not  increased  the  intensity  of 
exertion,  a  long  workday  with  the  machine,  especially  where  work  is 
greatly  specialized,  in  many  cases  reduces  the  grade  of  intelligence.  The 
old  handwork  shops  were  schools  of  debate  and  discussion,  and  they  are 
so  at  the  present  time  where  they  survive  in  country  districts;  but  the 
factory  imposes  silence  and  discipline  for  all  except  the  highest.  Long 
workdays  under  such  conditions  tend  to  inertia  and  dissipation  when  the 
day's  work  is  done.     (Page  772.) 

Report  of  the  Maine  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.     1908. 

For  the  first  time,  women  were  interviewed  who  were  running  twelve 
and  sixteen  Draper  looms.  These  machines  are  practically  a  recent 
addition,  and  are  so  arranged  that  the  filling  in  the  shuttle  is  changed 
automatically,  thus  enabling  them  to  go  at  a  greater  rate  of  speed  and 
with  less  interruption.  The  women  are  not  expected  to  clean,  oil,  or 
sweep.  This  matter  was  quite  fully  discussed  and  the  complaint  made 
that  the  work  was  too  hard,  but  that  they  tried  to  do  it,  as  they  were  de- 
pendent upon  their  positions  and  they  knew  there  were  plenty  of  foreign 
men  waiting  for  their  places.  Where  a  woman  has  been  accustomed  to 
tend  a  six  loom  set,  with  the  Drapers  she  is  given  from  twelve  to  sixteen 
which  extend  over  quite  an  area.  There  is  no  time  for  sitting  during  the 
day,  as  when  employed  on  the  other  looms.  One  woman  said  she  could 
not  sleep  at  night  after  running  these  fast  machines,  and  many  have  had 
to  give  up  their  places  and  find  other  work. 

This  marks  another  evolution  in  the  machinery  world.  Years  ago, 
a  woman  tended  two  slowly  running  looms.  Later,  as  the  hours  of  work 
grew  less,  the  number  of  looms  was  increased  to  four  and  six,  and  now 
with  the  Drapers,  an  operative  is  expected  to  look  out  for  twelve  or  six- 
teen.    (Pages  42-43.) 

Report  of  the  Minnesota  Bureau  of  Labor,  Industries  and  Commerce.   1909- 
1910. 

As  has  been  frequently  pointed  out,  the  work  of  women  is  so  divided  as 
to  leave  no  variety.     The  great  "speed"  that  is  maintained  is  so  heavy  a 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE:     SPEED  39 

demand  upon  the  nervous  force  that  long  hours  are  far  more  wearisome  united 

1-  •  STATES 

than  labor  that  offered  greater  change.  When  the  machine  needles  take 
3,500,  4,000  or  4,200  stitches  per  minute  the  girl  does  not  drive  the  ma- 
chine— the  machine  drives  the  girl!  She  is  not  mistress  of  her  work — 
it  is  her  master!  The  presser  foot  falls  and  like  a  flash  of  light  the  work 
flies  from  the  hand.  Ever\-  nerve  is  tense  and  strained  to  follow  the  light- 
ning like  whir  of  the  machine  that  it  drives  both  work  and  worker.  The 
expenditure  of  mere  bodily  strength  is  not  so  great;  it  is  the  demand  upon 
the  nervous  force  and  hence  it  is  that  the  "pace-makers,"  as  the  most 
rapid  of  the  operatives  are  called,  are  the  ver_\'  }'oung.  Older  operatives 
learn  by  sad  experience,  that  "speeding,"  which  means,  of  course,  a  high 
wage,  is  in  the  end  the  most  wasteful  of  all  forms  of  human  labor. 
Harmful  as  are  the  long  hours  it  is  literall\-  "the  pace  that  kills." 
For  it  goes  without  saying  that  women  so  employed  cannot  in  the  very 
nature  of  things  be  healthful  themselves,  and  it  is  absolutely  impossible 
for  them  to  be  health\-  mothers.     (Page  604.) 

Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United 
'States.  Vol.  III.  Glass  Industry.  Senate  Document  645.  61st 
CoiJgress,  2nd  Session,  1911. 

The  two  chief  characteristics  of  the  electric-lamp  industry',  the  minute- 
ness of  the  work  and  the  extreme  speed  with  which  the  operations  are 
performed,  while  not  peculiar  to  it,  are  found  to  exist  in  a  degree  almost 
without  parallel  in  any  other  industry.  In  some  industries  the  speed 
rate  is  highly  developed  by  means  of  machinery  and  special  s\stems  of 
wage  payment;  in  others  the  work  is  even  more  delicate  and  requires  as 
great  accuracy  as  the  electric-lamp  work,  but  in  no  other  probably  are 
both  features  developed  together  to  the  degree  which  characterizes  this 
particular  industry.  Out  of  this  combination  of  speed  and  minuteness, 
linked  as  they  are  at  times  with  other  undesirable  conditions,  arise  nearh' 
all  the  evil  effects  attributable  to  the  industry'. 

From  the  time  the  various  filaments  are  baked  until  the  "mount"  is 
completed  the  operators  are  dealing  with  materials  so  delicate  and  minute 
that  they  can  be  clearly  seen  only  in  the  best  of  light  and  b\-  persons  pos- 
sessing at  least  normally  good  sight.  This  can  be  ver_\"  easily  appreciated 
by  inspecting  an  ordinar_\'  carbon  or  tungsten  lamp,  the  filament  of  which 
is  not  clearly  visible  unless  the  lamp  is  held  close  to  the  eyes  and  in  a 
strong  light.  To  handle  one  such  filament  at  leisure  would  be  neither 
difficult  nor  trying;  every  day  the  housewife  performs  an  equally  delicate 
operation  in  threading  a  very  fine  cambric  needle.     If,  however,  this 


40  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  needle-threading  operation  were  repeated  two  or  three  thousand  times  a 

day,  and  particularly  if  it  were  done  at  a  piece  rate,  which  urges  one  to 
the  highest  speed  in  order  to  increase  one's  earnings  and  to  secure  the 
higher  rate  paid  for  very  rapid  production,  it  would  soon  assume  tremen- 
dous proportions  to  the  person  doing  the  work.  There  is  perhaps  no  better 
illustration  of  the  general  nature  of  these  occupations  than  of  fine  needle 
threading  repeated  at  top  speed  day  in  and  day  out.     (Pages  477-8). 

As  has  been  pointed  out  above  almost  all  the  operations  performed  are 
light,  requiring  no  muscular  strain  and  indeed  very  little  muscular  exer- 
tion. There  is,  however,  a  nervous  strain  manifesting  itself  in  a  feverish 
concentration  on  the  work,  to  be  seen  in  most  of  the  establishments  and 
particularly  in  the  larger  and  more  modern  plants.  This  situation,  the 
ultimate  results  of  which  will  be  apparent  to  all  those  familiar  with  the 
effects  produced  on  girls  and  young  women  by  undue  concentration  and 
feverish  eagerness  to  hurry  the  assigned  task,  is  a  result  of  the  attempt 
to  reduce  the  cost  of  production  of  the  lamp.      (Pages  478-479.) 

Industrial  Conference  under  the  Auspices  of  the  National  Civic  Federation, 
New  York,  1902.  The  Eight-hour  Day.  Prof.  George  Gunton, 
Institute  of  Social  Economics.     New  York,  The  IVinthrop  Press,  1903. 

The  factory  system  makes  this  (shortening  of  the  working  day)  more 
and  more  necessary  in  proportion  as  it  is  perfected  in  its  mechanism.  It 
becomes  all  the  time  more  and  more  exacting.  The  greater  the  perfection 
of  the  machinery  or  the  method,  the  more  attention  is  required.  (Page 
173.) 

American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science.  Vol.  XXVII ,  No.  3, 
1906.  The  Manhood  Tribute  to  the  Modern  Machine:  Influences 
Determining  the  Length  of  the  Trade  Life  among  Machinists.  Phila- 
delphia, The  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  1906. 

James  O'Connell,  President    International  Association  of  Machinists: 

The  purpose  of  this  paper  is  to  prove  that  with  the  introduction  of 
modern  high-speed  machinery  the  life  of  the  operator  of  such  machinery 
has  been  shortened.  .  .  . 

Great  changes  have  been  made  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  and 
every  industry  has  been  affected  with  the  advent  of  the  machine,  but  in 
no  other  sphere  of  human  activity  has  such  a  change  been  affected  as  has 
occurred  in  the  machine  shop.     (Pages  491-492.) 

First  of  all,  old  men  have  disappeared. 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE:     SPEED  4I 

.  .  .  Time  was  when  age  was  honored  in  the  machine  shop;  .  .  .  united 

•  •  STATES 

The  speeding  up  of  the  machme  has  changed  all  this,  ...  his  added 
years  prevent  him  from  keeping  pace  with  the  machine,  its  gait  is  too 
rapid,  so  he  is  forced  aside  to  make  room  for  a  younger  man.  .  .  . 

The  youth  fresh  from  school  .  .  .  enters  the  machine  shop.  .  .  . 
The  great  strain,  both  mental  and  physical,  soon  proves  too  much  for 
him.  ...  If  his  period  of  service  in  the  machine  shop  is  broken  by  in- 
tervals of  rest  and  recreation,  nervous  breakdown  is  averted. 

.  .  .  Great  care  and  watchfulness  to  guard  against  the  effects  of  the 
nervous  strain  are  necessary  when  the  youth  begins  his  career  in  the  ma- 
chine shop,  for  skill,  exact  skill,  cannot  be  acquired  without  it.  And 
when  proficiency  has  been  reached,  although  the  young  machinist  does  not 
notice  it,  he  is  still  bearing  the  strain  upon  his  nerves.  It  is  this  over- 
exertion kept  up  at  high  tension,  day  in  and  day  out,  year  after  year,  that 
is  shortening  the  life  of  the  machine-shop  worker,  and  robbing  him  of 
longevity.     (Page  494.) 

Lessen  the  number  of  hours  the  worker  is  forced  to  work  at  high  speed, 
concert  pitch,  and  his  nerves  will  remain  normal,  and  he  will  live  to  the 
full — his  promised  threescore  years  and  ten.     (Page  495.) 

Ihid.     Length  of  the  Trade  Life  in  the  Glass  Bottle  Industry. 

Denis  A.  Hayes,  President  of  the  Glass  Bottle  Blowers'  Association  of 
America: 

Each  year  the  production  of  the  individual  workman  becomes  greater. 
The  highest  day's  work  of  this  season  becomes  the  standard  for  the  next. 

A  man  working  according  to  present-day  methods  can  make  three  times 
as  many  bottles  in  a  day  of  eight  and  a  half  hours  as  he  did  twenty  years 
ago  in  a  day  of  ten  hours,  but  the  expenditure  of  strength  and  energy  is 
now  much  greater  than  it  was  then. 

.  .  .  The  hours  of  labor  should  be  still  further  reduced,  so  that  men 
would,  after  leaving  their  work,  retain  sufficient  mental  and  physical  vigor 
for  recreation,  study,  and  social  intercourse.     (Page  498.) 

fVomen  and  the  Trades.  Elizabeth  B.  Butler.  The  Pittsburgh  Survey. 
Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication.  New  York,  Charities  Publica- 
tion Committee,  1909. 

A  third  factor  affecting  health,  beside  essential  trade  disease  and  un- 
healthful  building  construction,  enters  into  the  industrial  environment. 
This  is  speeding.     In  the  different  industries  we  have  seen  how  the  pace  of 


42  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  many  workers  is  kept  high  by  the  speed  of  machinery.     A  travelling  chain 

STATES  carries  cans  of  beans  past  a  row  of  cannery  operatives.     They  must  slip 

a  bit  of  pork  into  each  can  as  it  passes,  and  the  chain  is  set  at  a  pace  which 
keeps  each  girl  rigid  in  her  place,  with  every  nerve  at  a  tension,  fixed  on 
the  one  motion  required  of  her.  In  a  cracker  factory  girls  lift  hot  crackers 
from  a  travelling  conveyor,  packing  them  in  oblong  boxes  with  one  quick 
motion,  as  the  conveyor  passes;  each  girl  is  responsible  for  all  the  crackers 
on  a  certain  section  of  the  conveyor,  which  is  set  at  a  pace  requiring  her 
utmost  physical  and  nervous  effort. 

Among  hand  workers,  and  workers  who  control  their  machines,  systems 
of  pace  setting  are  combined,  as  we  have  seen,  with  piece-rate  payments  to 
keep  up  the  speed.  Four  stogy  factories,  for  example,  stimulate  their 
girl  rollers  by  a  sliding  scale  which  provides  $.13}4  a  100  when  400  stogies 
are  rolled  from  a  pound,  but  only  $.10  when  300  are  rolled.  To  earn  the 
pay  customary  in  the  district  (12  cents  a  hundred),  girls  must  cut  close, 
and  at  the  same  time  work  at  an  almost  impossible  rate  of  speed.  In 
another  factory,  rollers  receive  only  9  cents  a  hundred  if  they  make  less 
than  6000  stogies  a  week,  and  11  cents  a  hundred  (the  market  rate  in  one 
district)  if  they  make  6000  or  over.  The  foreman  of  a  printing  establish- 
ment paid  his  girls  seven  dollars  a  week  for  an  average  output  (in  register 
folding)  of  300  an  hour.  A  system  of  piece  payments  was  introduced, 
and  in  two  days  the  rate  went  up  to  500  an  hour;  week  work  was  then  re- 
sumed at  the  old  price,  and  the  girls  were  required  to  keep  the  new  pace. 
A  lamp  factory  pays  14  cents  an  hour  for  punching  600  pieces,  and  a  cent 
for  every  hundred  pieces  finished  within  the  same  time.  This  list  of 
examples  could  be  extended  indefinitely. 

Thus  the  speed  of  machinery,  when  pay  is  by  the  week,  or  a  piece-pay- 
ment system,  impels  the  worker  to  increase  the  quantity  of  her  output, 
and  repeated  rate-cutting  in  some  industries  seems  not  only  to  keep  weekly 
earnings  down  to  a  customary  level,  but  to  spur  the  workers  to  a  fiercer 
pace.  The  nervous  strain  inevitable  under  these  conditions  has  no  in- 
considerable share  in  causing  the  positive  breakdown  which  so  frequently 
follows  a  girl  into  her  home  after  she  has  left  the  factory.  It  is  the  final 
exaction  that  the  trade  makes  of  her.     (Pages  365-66.) 


(b)  Monotony 

Besides  the  physical  strain  due  to  speed  and  complexity 
of  machinery,  health  is  injured  by  the  extreme  monotony 
of   many    branches    of    industry.     Specialization  has  been 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE!     MONOTONY  43 

carried  so  far  that  change  and  variety  of  work  is  reduced 
to  a  minimum.  Minute  division  of  labor  results  in  the  con- 
stant repetition  of  similar  motions  and  processes  by  the 
same  worker,  favoring  the  onset  of  fatigue  and  requiring 
for  relief  the  establishment  of  a  shorter  workday. 

British    Sessional    Papers.     Vols.     XXIX-XXX.     1876.     Factory    and  g^^^^ 
Workshops  Acts  Commission.     Vol.  XXIX.     Report. 

We  have  already  referred  more  than  once  to  the  unremitting  and 
monotonous  character  of  all  labor  at  a  machine  driven  by  steam.  If 
the  day's  work  of  a  housemaid  or  even  of  a  charv/oman  be  closely  looked 
at  and  compared  with  that  of  an  ordinary  mill  hand  in  a  card  room,  or 
spinning  room,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  former,  though  occasionally  making 
greater  muscular  efforts  than  are  ever  exacted  from  the  latter,  is  yet  con- 
tinually changing  both  her  occupation  and  her  posture,  and  has  very  fre- 
quent intervals  of  rest.  Work  at  a  machine  has  inevitably  a  treadmill 
character  about  it;  each  step  may  be  easy,  but  it  must  be  performed  at 
the  exact  moment  under  pain  of  consequences.  In  hand  work  and  house 
work  there  is  a  certain  freedom  of  doing  or  of  leaving  undone.  Mill 
{i.  e.  machine)  work  must  be  done  as  if  by  clockwork.  .  .  .  The  people 
are  tied  as  it  were,  to  machinery  moving  at  a  great  speed  in  certain  opera- 
tions; again  it  has  been  alleged  that  the  state  of  the  atmosphere  is  very 
unhealthy,  and  the  temperature  at  a  great  height,  and  from  the  employ- 
ment of  machinery  the  speed  has  been  so  much  increased  that  the  wear 
and  tear,  not  merely  of  the  body  but  of  the  mind  also,  of  the  operatives 
were  too  great  for  them  to  bear.     (Pages  xxix-xxx.) 

The  Hygiene,  Diseases,  and  Mortality  of  Occupation.  J.  T.  Arlidge, 
M.D.,  A.B.,  F.R.C.P.  Consulting  Physician  to  the  North  Stafford- 
shire Infirmary;  late  Milroy  lecturer  at  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians, 
etc.     London,  Percival,  1892. 

The  majority  of  indoor  industries  have  the  disadvantage  of  presenting 
little  variety  in  the  methods  of  working,  especially  in  manufactories,  where 
there  is  great  monotony  in  whatever  branch  of  employment  is  pursued, 
and  the  workman  counts  for  little  else  than  an  appendage  to  a  machine. 
Day  by  day  the  worker  is  called  upon  to  do  the  same  mechanical  act, 
without  feeling  a  personal  interest  in  the  result  of  his  labour;  for  this  is 
no  product  of  his  thinking  or  inventive  faculty,  but  predetermined  by 


44  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  mechanical  contrivances;  and  day  by  day  he  continues  at  his  task,  weari- 

BRITAIN  some  to  the  spirit,  earning  a  fixed  rate  of  payment,  sufficient,  usually,  to 

supply  his  animal  requirements,  but  holding  out  small  prospect  of  escape 
from  toil,  and  whilst  he  can  perform  it,  or  a  coming  period  of  competency 
and  enjoyment.  (Page  18.)  And,  generally  speaking,  it  may  be  asserted 
of  machinery  that  it  calls  for  little  or  no  brain  exertion  on  the  part  of  those 
connected  with  its  operations,  it  arouses  no  interest,  and  is  wearisome  by 
monotony.  Machinery,  consequently,  has  nothing  in  it  to  quicken  or 
brighten  the  intelligence,  though  it  may  sharpen  the  sense  of  sight,  and 
stimulate  muscular  activity  in  some  one  limited  direction. 

.  .  .  That  some  effect  must  follow  upon  the  rapid  whirling  of  machines 
and  the  noise  produced,  is  a  reasonable  inference.  The  special  senses  so 
exposed  are  necessarily  subjected  to  a  species  of  strain  or  overuse.  Those 
unaccustomed  to  machinery  are  dazed  by  its  operations,  and  willingly 
escape  from  its  presence;  and  those  regularly  occupied  with  it,  in  conduct- 
ing and  regulating  its  action,  and  in  intently  watching  its  output,  can  only 
do  so  at  the  expense  of  more  or  less  wear  and  tear  of  nerve  function,  and, 
indeed,  of  the  whole  nervous  system.  Their  fatigue  is  the  fatigue  of 
watching,  not  of  working.     (Pages  25-26.) 

Condition  of  the  Working  Class  in  England  in  1844.     Frederick  Engels. 
Translated  by  Florence  Kelley.     London,  Sonnenschein,  1892. 

The  supervision  of  machinery,  the  joining  of  broken  threads,  is  no 
activity  which  claims  the  operative's  thinking  powers,  yet  it  is  of  a  sort 
which  prevents  him  from  occup\ing  his  mind  with  other  things.  We 
have  seen,  too,  that  this  work  affords  the  muscles  no  opportunity  for 
physical  activity.  Thus  it  is,  properly  speaking,  not  work  but  tedium, 
the  most  deadening,  wearing  process  conceivable.  The  operative  is 
condemned  to  let  his  physical  and  mental  powers  decay  in  this  utter 
monotony.  .  .  .  Moreover,  he  must  not  take  a  moment's  rest;  the  engine 
moves  unceasingly.  .  .  .  This  condemnation  to  be  buried  alive  in  the 
mill,  to  give  constant  attention  to  the  tireless  machine,  is  felt  as  the  keen- 
est torture  by  the  operatives,  and  its  action  upon  mind  and  body  is  in  the 
long  run  stunting  in  the  highest  degree.     (Page  177.) 

The    Effects   of  the    Factory   System.     Allen    Clarke.     London,    Grant 
Richards,  1899. 

And  all  these  hours — 10  hours  a  day,  spinner  and  weaver  are  on  their 
feet,  no  sitting  down,  no  resting;   one  must  keep  up  to  the  machinery 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE:     MONOTONY  45 

though  agonized  with  headache,  or  troubled  by  any  other  complaint,  great 
While  the  engine  runs  the  workers  must  stand.  ...  It  will  thus  be  seen 
that  this  employment  is  a  severe  and  ceaseless  mental  strain  that  makes  a 
tribe  of  toilers  alert  at  their  tasks,  but  weakens  the  physique,  as  does  all 
narrow  and  monotonous  mental  strain  if  continuous.     (Pages  51-52.) 

No  doubt  the  factory  system,  by  the  increased  work  and  worry,  con- 
tributes a  good  share  of  the  imbeciles  to  the  asylums.  It  is  well  known 
that  monotony  is  a  cause  of  insanity,  and  there  is  nothing  more  dreadily 
monotonous  than  factory  work.     (Page  66.) 


Women's  IVork  and  Wages.     Edward  Cadbury,  M.  Cecile  Matheson, 
and  George  Shann.     London,  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  1906. 

The  incessant  noise  of  the  machinery,  the  excessive  monotony  of  the 
work  (presswork),  and,  above  all,  the  long  hours,  which  are  too  often  spent 
in  an  ill-lighted  and  ill-ventilated  atmosphere,  all  tend  to  produce  a  de- 
pressing and  deadening  effect  which  cannot  fail  to  destroy  alertness  of 
attention  and  to  create  a  craving  for  excitement  which  will  catch  at  the 
least  opening  for  distraction.  .  .  .     (Page  53.) 


Women  Workers.  Conference  in  Manchester,  1907.  Arranged  by  the 
National  Union  of  Women  Workers  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  in 
Conjunction  with  the  Committee  of  the  Manchester  Branch  of  the  N.  U. 
W.  W.     London,  King  and  Son,  1907. 

Monotony,  noise,  and  dirt  are  inseparable  from  many  occupations  and 
have  a  depressing  effect  on  vitality  that  we  are  apt  to  forget.  In  many 
cases  only  the  movements  of  a  machine  are  required  in  tending  a  machine, 
and  this  monotony  is  largely  responsible  for  the  ungovernable  excitement 
shown  by  many  boys  and  girls  when  released  from  work.  As  one  girl 
said,  "When  you  have  been  a  few  days  at  a  press  you  want  to  scream." 
Imagine  passing  ten  hours  a  day,  with  never  a  week's  holiday,  unless  one 
is  ill  or  out  of  work,  amid  the  noise  of  looms,  the  dirt  and  dust  of  polishing 
lathes,  in  the  heat  of  a  lacquering  shop,  or  in  the  odour  of  rubber  manu- 
facture or  of  French  polishing.  (Page  106.)  Monotony  of  work,  move- 
ment, or  position  may  be  responsible  for  mental  sluggishness,  but  its 
effects  are  more  apparent  in  the  low  standard  of  physical  development 
reached  by  many  of  the  working  classes,  while  the  whole  trend  of  industrial 
development  is  to  increase  and  not  decrease  this  monotony.     (Page  108.) 


46 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


GERMANY 


The  Economic  Journal.  Vol.  XVIII.  London,  1908.  Gaps  in  our  Fac- 
tory Legislation.     B.  L.  Hutchins. 

The  extreme  monotony  of  factory  work  is  in  itself  a  cause  of  strain. 
(Page  224.) 

Gesanimelte  Ahhandlungen,  Bd.  III.  [Complete  fVorks,  Vol.  III.]  Die 
Volkswirth schajtliche  Bedeutung  der  Verkiir^ung  des  Industriellen 
Arheitstages.  [The  Economic  Significance  of  a  Shorter  Working  Day.] 
Ernst  Abbe.  Paper  read  before  the  Political  Society  at  Jena,  1901. 
Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 

Our  whole  industrial  labor  nowadays  is  characterized  by  what  we  call 
"Effects  of  the  Division  of  Labor."  .  .  . 

This  division  and  subdivision  has  become  a  necessary  condition  of 
progress,  and,  much  as  we  may  deplore  its  effects  in  certain  details,  it  is 
impossible  to  abandon  it.  It  stamps  all  work  with  uniformity.  .  .  . 
With  this  sameness  and  continually  recurring  monotony  we  also  get  the 
continuous  fatigue  of  the  same  organ, — of  the  same  group  of  muscles, — 
of  the  same  nerve  centers, — of  the  same  part  of  the  brain, — because  all 
that  is  to  be  done,  whether  muscular  or  brain  work,  must  be  constantly 
repeated  in  the  same  manner  from  morning  to  night,  day  by  day,  and  week 
by  week.     (Page  225.) 

Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Berlin, 
September,  1907.  Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV.  Ermiidung  durch  Berufsarbeit. 
[Fatigue  Resulting  from  Occupation.]  Dr.  Emil  Roth,  Regierungsrat, 
Potsdam.     Berlin,  Hirschwald,  1908. 

.  .  .  With  the  progressive  division  of  labor,  work  has  become  more 
and  more  mechanical.  ...  A  definite  share  of  overfatigue  and  its  sequels, 
especially  neurasthenia,  must  be  ascribed  to  this  monotony, — to  the  ab- 
sence of  spontaneity  or  joy  in  work.     (Page  613.) 


ITALY  Proceedings  of  the  First  International  Convention  on  Industrial  Diseases. 

Milan,  1906.  Frenastenia  e  delinquen^a  in  rapporto  a  taluni  ordina- 
menti  del  lavoro.  [Imbecility  and  Criminality  in  Relation  to  Certain 
Forms  of  Labor.]     Prof.  Crisafulli. 

To  understand  how  cerebral  fatigue  can  cause  the  arrest  of  mental 
development  in  youths  and  criminal  actions  in  adults,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  the  special  functions  of  the  brain  have  separate  centres,  the 


THE   NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE:     MONOTONY  47 

foundation  of  the  psychic  and  motor-psychic  life  of  individuals.     Thus,  Italy 
there  is  a  centre  for  hearing,  another  for  sight,  another  for  speaking,  etc. 
When  only  one  centre  works  it  becomes  overfatigued  much  more  easily 
than  if  the  functions  were  alternately  performed  by  the  various  centres. 

Here,  then,  is  another  factor  in  overfatigue  due  to  the  monotony  of 
work,  interrupted  only  at  long  intervals. 

This  monotony  is  the  determining  cause  of  local  disturbances  and  en-     • 
dangers  the  entire  organism.     (Page  150.) 

The  National  Civic  Federation  Review.     Vol.  II,  No.  8.     Jan.-Feb.,  1906.  g^^fg 
The   First  Annual   Meeting  of  the  New   Englayid  Civic   Federation. 
Boston,  Jan.  11,  1906. 

Marcus  M.  Marks,  President  of  the  National  Association  of  Clothing 
Manufacturers: 

.  .  .  Labor  asks  for  shorter  hours  .  .  .  because  the  conditions  of 
employment  have  been  changed  so  much  in  recent  years  that  workers  feel 
justly  entitled  to  a  shortening  of  the  day.  They  contend  that  the  intro- 
duction of  machinery  has  in  a  large  degree  replaced  the  exercise  of  the 
muscles,  by  the  use  of  the  eye  and  mind.  This  causes  more  strain  on  the 
system.  They  contend  further  that  specialization  of  labor  has  taken  away 
the  restful  variety  and  change  of  occupation  which  formerly  diversified 
the  day's  employment,  and  has  substituted  a  regular  monotony  of  daily 
labor  which  is  much  more  tiring.  For,  whilst  a  workman  might  contribute 
his  maximum  efficiency  in  working  to  twelve  hours  per  day  when  strictly 
variegated  effort  was  required,  the  greater  strain  of  the  present  so-called 
"improved"  condition  of  labor  may  now  bring  about  the  necessity  for  a 
reduction  of  hours  in  order  to  preserve  the  same  degree  of  efficiency. 
(Page  8.) 

IVomen  and  the  Trades.  Elizabeth  B.  Butler.  The  Pittsburgh  Survey. 
Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication.  New  York,  Charities  Publica- 
tion Committee,  1909. 

The  only  women  in  the  trades  considered  who  can  be  called  skilled  in 
any  true  sense  are  the  millinery  trimmers  and  telegraph  operators. 

Added  together,  however,  the  women  of  these  two  groups  make  less 
than  3  per  cent  of  the  22,185  under  consideration  in  Pittsburgh,  and  from 
their  work  we  can  scarcely  judge  of  the  nature  of  women's  work  as  a  whole. 
That  work  is,  as  a  rule,  of  a  nature  to  require  neither  strength,  endurance, 
intelligence  nor  training.  .  .  . 


48 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


UNITED 
STATES 


One  woman  puts  fifty  hinges  a  minute  through  a  machine.  Each 
second  a  hinge  is  lifted  out  and  shpped  into  place,  the  hand  drawn  back 
as  the  machine  moves,  another  hinge  lifted  and  slipped  into  place — this 
for  ten  hours  each  working  day.  Other  women  spread  out  the  tobacco 
leaves  on  the  suction  plates,  put  the  half-made  bunch  in  the  leaf,  press  the 
treadle  and  push  the  rolled  stogy  aside;  spread  out  another  leaf,  cut,  put 
the  bunch  in  place,  press  the  treadle  and  push  aside.  They  pack  crack- 
ers, candy,  glass,  lamps,  with  quick,  machine-taught,  unvarying  motions, 
lifting,  wrapping,  putting  in  place,  for  ten  hours  each  day.  Still  others 
steady  the  paper  in  a  box-covering  machine,  guide  it  according  to  the 
gauge,  replace  it  when  the  strip  runs  out,  guide  it  according  to  the  gauge. 
Such  work  not  only  requires  no  thought;  it  is  stupefying.  The  operative 
who  has  become  in  truth  an  adjunct  of  the  machine,  works  with  a 
machine-like  precision,  and  with  machine-like  absence  of  thought.  Work 
which  demands  nothing  of  the  intelligence,  costs  the  intelligence  more 
than  work  which  demands  too  much.     (Pages  370-371.) 


(c)  Piece  Work 

All  the  evils  of  speed  and  monotony  in  industrial  estab- 
lishments are  intensified  by  the  abuses  of  piece  work. 
When  each  worker  aims  to  work  faster  for  the  sake  of  a 
slight  increase  in  wages,  a  premium  is  put  upon  feverish 
activity,  regardless  of  the  physical  cost  to  the  worker. 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


Untersuchiingen  iiber  die  Gesundheitsverhdltnisse  der  Fabrikhevdlkenmg  der 
Schweii.  {Investigations  into  the  Conditions  of  Health  of  the  Swiss 
Factory  tVorkers.]  Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Swiss  Factory  Inspector, 
and  Dr.  A.  E.  Burckhardt,  Prof,  of  Hygiene,  Basle.  Aaraii,  Sauer- 
Idnder,  1899. 

.  .  .  The  larger  proportion  of  women  in  factories  is  certainly  to  be 
thought  of  in  estimating  the  effects  of  the  violent  motion  of  the  machinery 
on  health.  .  .  .  But  even  more  important  is  the  overexertion  .  .  .  this 
is  exhausting,  especially  when  the  practice  of  piece  work  spurs  the  women 
to  greater  exertion,  and  much  more  so  when  an  overseer,  warning  and 
reprimanding  the  workers,  urges  them  to  the  utmost  degree  of  exertion. 
(Page  82.) 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE:     PIECE    WORK  49 

Deutsche  Medi^inische  JVochenschrift,  Nr.  21,  25.  Mai.    Die  Neurasthenie  in  GERMANY 
Arheiterkreisen.     [Neurasthenia    in    the    IVorking    Classes.]     Dr.    P. 
Leubuscher  and  Dr.  W.  Bibrowicz,  formerly  of  the  Beeliti  Sani- 
tarium of  the  State  Old  Age  and  Invalidity  Department  of  Berlin. 
Berlin,  1905. 

.  .  .  Work  has  become  very  different!  Piece  work  has  indeed  ob- 
tained larger  wages,  but  has  developed  an  impetus  and  speed  and  intensity 
of  effort  that  used  to  be  unknown,  and  this  invariably  crushes  the  weaker 
workers,  those  for  whom  all  work  is  a  heavier  burden  than  for  the  strong. 
Continuous  anxiety  is  felt  by  these  lest  they  fall  behind.  Then  sometimes 
voluntarily,  sometimes  compulsorily,  overtime  is  undertaken,  and  so  it 
turns  out  that  the  working  hours,  instead  of  being  comparatively  shorter 
than  the  usual  day,  are  really  much  longer,  and,  by  reason  of  the  irregu- 
larity, far  more  exhausting.     (Page  821.) 


Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Berlin, 
September,  1907.  Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV.  Ermiidung  durch  Berufsarbeit. 
[Fatigue  resulting  from  Occupation.]  Dr.  Emil  Roth,  Regierungsrat, 
Potsdam.     Berlin,  Hirschwald,  1908. 

Of  greater  importance  is  the  excessive  overstrain  of  piece  work,  which 
indeed  pays  better,  but  at  the  cost  of  a  speed  and  intensity  of  work 
which  was  formerly  unknown.  That  these  injurious  effects  first  assail 
the  weaker  part  of  the  working  population  is  self-evident.  (Pages  614 
and  615.) 


//  Rama^iini.  Giornale  Italiano  Di  Medicina  Sociale.  Anno  I,  10-11.  ixaly 
[Italian  Journal  of  Social  Medicine.]  October-November,  1907 . 
Le  Stagioni,  i  giorni,  le  ore  degli  infortuni  del  lavoro.  [Days,  Seasons, 
and  Hours  when  Industrial  Accidents  occur.]  Prof.  G.  Pieraccini  <3wi 
Dr.  R.  Maffei,  Head  Physicians  in  the  Royal  Main  Hospital  of  S.  M. 
Nuova,  Florence,  Italy. 

Piece  work,  necessitating  higher  speed,  tends  both  in  itself  and  together 
with  the  fatigue  that  ensues  to  favor  the  occurrence  of  labor  accidents.  .  . 

We  should  see  to  it  .  .  .  that,  above  all,  piece  work  should  be  con- 
demned, preference  being  given  to  time  work,  the  honesty  of  the  worker 
and  the  consciousness  of  his  own  labor  capacity  regulating  the  speed  of 
work,     (Pages  593-594.) 
4* 


50 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


CANADA        Report  of  the  Inspectors  of  Factories  for  the  Province  of  Ontario,  Canada, 
1898.     Toronto,  1899. 

In  almost  every  industry  the  working  day  is  ten  hours.  The  system  of 
piece  work  is  becoming  more  generall\'  adopted.  The  small  pay  given  by 
the  hundred  or  thousand,  according  to  the  different  industries,  stimulates 
the  eagerness  of  the  workers  to  the  highest  possible  pitch.  I  have  seen 
girls  working  so  rapidly  that  I  have  asked  myself  the  question,  how  long 
their  nervous  s\stems  could  resist  the  strain  of  the  excessive  fatigue  result- 
ing therefrom.  A  shorter  working  day  for  this  class  of  operatives  seems 
an  imperative  necessity.     (Page  31.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  the  Minnesota  Bureau  of  Labor,  Industries  and  Commerce. 
1908. 


1907- 


.  .  .  The  work  that  is  done  by  women  in  so  many  departments  of 
industry  is  "piece"  work,  where  the  nervous  strain  is  at  its  highest  tension. 

When,  by  reason  of  skill  or  deftness,  or  a  longer  sustained  energy,  a 
girl  is  able  to  do  a  maximum  amount  of  work,  she  is  said  to  "set  the  pace," 
and  she  becomes  a  "pace  maker"  for  the  others.  Those  less  skilled  or 
less  deft,  or  who  for  an\'  reason  are  unable  to  keep  up  with  the  leader,  are 
striving  with  every  nerve  to  earn  as  much  as  is  possible,  and  this  great 
demand  upon  nervous  energy  entails  a  rapid  decay  of  nervous  force. 
(Page  244.) 


Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.  1907— 
1908.  Part  VII.  Women  Workers  in  Milwaukee  Tanneries. 
Irene  Osgood,  Special  Agent. 

Organized  workmen  usually  object  to  the  piece-work  system.  It  so 
frequently  leads  to  "speedmg  up."  And  the  rate  per  piece  is  often  cut 
down  until  only  the  fastest  workmen  are  able  to  secure  anything  like  a 
living  wage.  Those  less  skilled  and  less  dexterous  are  thus  made  to  suffer 
from  the  ambition  or  greed  of  a  few  involuntary  pace-makers  who  work 
themselves  out  in  a  short  time  for  the  sake  of  temporarily  earning  higher 
wages.     (Page  1053.) 

The  girls  have  complained,  too,  of  being  cut  when  they  began  to  earn 
high  wages.  This  was  substantiated  by  a  superintendent,  who  remarked: 
"Oh,  if  they  get  to  earning  too  much  they  know  what  they  will  get," 
contending  that  a  general  level  of  wages  must  be  maintained.  This  would 
mean,  then,  that  the  average  worker  practically  determined  the  amount 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    MANUFACTURE!     PIECE   WORK  5 1 

one  could  earn,  and  any  exertion  beyond  this  only  reacted  upon  all  in  a  united 
general  cut  of  the  piece  rate.     Employers  quite  generally  admit  this 
situation.     Men  meet  it  by  organization  and  by  attempting  to  regulate 
their  employment  by  agreements  with  the  employer. 

But,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  stimulation  to  greater  speed  is  fre- 
quently furnished  in  the  opposite  way.  Another  superintendent  insisted 
that  cutting  the  rate  was  the  surest  way  to  get  more  work  done.  He 
argued  that  when  workers  find  their  wages  decreasing  from  a  customary 
sum  they  naturally  try  to  get  back  to  the  old  standard  by  extra  work. 
Thus  they  are  caught  between  the  upper  and  the  nether  millstones.  The 
possibility  of  a  cut  is  ever-present.  If  they  work  unusually  hard  and  earn 
higher  wages,  they  face  a  cut  in  rates.  If  they  do  not  turn  out  enough 
work  to  satisfy  the  superintendent,  a  cut  is  made  anyhow  to  spur  them  on 
to  higher  exertions.  They  are  annoyed  and  bewildered  and  uncommonly 
helpless.     (Page  1054.) 

Report  on  Condition  of  IVoman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  the  United 
States.  Vol.  III.  Glass  Industry.  Senate  Document  645.  61st 
Congress,  2nd  Session,  1911. 

In  few  industries,  however,  has  there  been  such  .  .  .  highly  developed 
methods  for  securing  this  result  (speed)  as  in  the  electric  lamp  industry.  .  . 

These  methods  are  four  in  number:  First,  the  establishment  of  a 
minimum  output,  below  which  the  employees  dare  not  fall  for  fear  of 
discharge.  At  the  time  of  this  investigation  a  tabulation  of  the  output  of 
all  employees  for  a  period  of  six  weeks  had  just  been  completed  in  one 
establishment  as  a  basis  on  which  to  establish  minimum  standards  in  all 
occupations.  The  fact  that  this  system  is  not  in  general  use,  however, 
seems  to  indicate  that  it  is  of  no  great  eificacy.  Second,  the  payment  of 
higher  piece  rates  for  increased  production. 

In  one  of  the  factories,  for  example,  the  rates  paid  for  "gem"  mounting 
are  as  follows : 

Per  1.000 

Output  under  900  per  day $1.03 

Output  900  to  1,000  per  day 1.07 

Output  1,000  to  1,100  per  day 1.12 

Output  1,100  and  over  per  day 1.17 

In  the  case  of  the  highest  net  output,  1,200,  the  difference  to  the  opera- 
tor between  being  paid  at  the  lowest  rate  and  highest  is  the  difference 
between  $1.24  and  |1.40,  or  16  cents  per  day — that  is,  more  than  10  per 
cent  of  the  total  wages.     Third,  a  method  very  similar  to  that  just  cited. 


52  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  that  of  giving  bonuses  for  all  production  above  a  certain  standard.     This 

method  is  likewise  widely  used.  The  fourth  and  last  of  these  methods  is 
perhaps  the  most  interesting.  When  an  entirely  new  process  is  intro- 
duced or  there  is  some  one  occupation  the  output  of  which  has  fallen  below 
normal,  one  of  the  most  skilled  and  willing  workers  is  made  the  "leader" 
of  a  group.  She  acts  as  a  pacemaker,  and  is  urged  to  her  best  efforts  to 
increase  both  her  own  production  and  that  of  her  group  by  being  paid  5 
per  cent  more  than  the  average  of  the  entire  group.  In  such  a  case  the 
use  of  bonuses  or  graded  piece  rates  is  ordinarily  added  in  order  to  urge 
the  individual  workers  to  their  highest  speed.  After  this  system  has  been 
in  vogue  for  a  short  time  and  the  girls  have  become  accustomed  to  work- 
ing at  their  maximum  efficiency,  the  "leader"  is  removed,  the  bonuses 
discarded,  and  according  to  the  testimony  of  many  of  the  girls,  the  piece 
rate  is  cut  to  such  a  point  that  the  average  wage  level  is  as  it  was  when  the 
employees  were  producing  much  less.  By  this  means  the  production  is 
said  in  several  cases  to  have  been  doubled  within  a  short  time.  (Pages 
479-80.) 

...  In  1890,  from  information  furnished  by  a  bulletin  of  the  New 
Jersey  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  and  Industries,  the  average  hourly 
output  of  carbons  mounted  by  hand  was  90,  whereas  now,  on  identically 
the  same  work  done  by  the  very  same  methods,  the  average  hourly  pro- 
duction has  risen  to  125,  an  increase  of  approximately  40  per  cent.  (Pages 
178-179.) 

B.   The  Nature  and  Effects  of  Fatigue 

(1)    General  Medical  Views  of  Fatigue 

The  fundamental  need  of  limiting  excessive  working 
hours  for  women  is  based  on  their  physiological  organiza- 
tion. For  medical  science  has  demonstrated  that  while 
fatigue  is  a  normal  phenomenon — the  natural  result  of 
bodily  and  mental  exertion,  excessive  fatigue  or  exhaus- 
tion is  abnormal — the  result  of  over-exertion  or  work  pur- 
sued beyond  the  capacities  of  the  organism. 

Two  processes  are  continually  carried  on  in  the  liv- 
ing body:  assimilation  or  building  up;  disassimilation  or 
breaking  down  material  into  simpler  chemical  form,  ulti- 
mately   expelled    as    waste    products.     These    wastes    are 


NATURE    AND    EFFECTS    OF    FATIGUE  53 

poisonous  impurities  arising  from  the  chemical  processes  of 
cellular  life.  They  circulate  in  the  blood,  poisoning  brain 
and  nervous  system,  muscles,  glands,  and  other  organs  until 
normally  removed  by  the  oxygen  of  the  blood,  by  the  liver 
or  kidneys. 

When  these  waste  products  accumulate  in  the  blood, 
fatigue  ensues.  When  they  exceed  their  physiological  or 
normal  amount,  exhaustion  results  and  health  is  impaired. 
After  excessive  labor  there  is  also  a  consumption  of  energy- 
yielding  material,  essential  for  activity.  The  processes  of 
disassimilation  are  in  excess  of  those  of  assimilation. 


Diseases  of  Occupation  from  the  Legislative,  Social,  and  Medical  Points  of  great 
View.     Thomas  Oliver,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  Medical  Expert  on  Britain 
the  White  Lead,  Dangerous  Trades,  Pottery,  and  Lucifer  Match  Com- 
mittees of  the  British  Home  Office.     New  York,  Dutton,  1908. 

Fatigue  or  tiredness  is  a  sensation,  the  outcome  of  a  particular  state  of 
the  nervous  system,  the  result  of  work  carried  beyond  the  capabilities  of 
the  organism.  In  ordinary  physiological  activity  exhaustion  is  never 
attained,  for  fatigue  is  the  v^'arning  signal.  In  each  of  us  there  is  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  reserve  force  which  allows  our  muscles  and  nerves  to  be 
overtaxed  at  times  without  injurious  consequences.  The  increased  func- 
tional activity  is  met  by  a  corresponding  improved  nutrition,  whereby 
recovery  is  secured.  Life  involves  change  of  structure.  The  waste 
products  added  to  the  blood  act  upon  the  nerve  endings  in  muscle  and 
upon  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain,  and  create  a  sense  of  fatigue.  Although 
the  sensation  of  tiredness  is  referred  by  us  to  the  overworked  muscles, 
the  location  of  the  cause  is  less  in  the  peripheral  than  in  the  central  nervous 
system.  On  the  one  hand  waste  products  act  upon  the  muscles,  diminish 
their  contractibility  and  render  them  less  responsive  to  nerve  stimuli; 
and  on  the  other  hand  they  poison  the  large  nerve  cells  in  the  gray  matter 
of  the  brain,  render  them  less  receptive  of  sensory  stimuli,  and  in  this  way 
reduce  their  power  of  emitting  volitional  impulses.  There  is,  therefore, 
in  fatigue  an  element  that  is  mental  as  well  as  physical. 

After  rest  and  sleep  the  sensation  of  fatigue  wears  off,  we  rise  invigor- 
ated and  strengthened  for  work.  During  repose  structure  is  being  rebuilt 
and  waste  products  are  eliminated. 


54 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


GERMANY 


The  proof  that  the  circulation  of  waste  products  in  the  blood  is  a  cause 
of  fatigue  is  demonstrated  by  taking  some  of  the  blood  of  a  fatigued  animal 
and  injecting  it  into  a  healthy  one,  when  in  the  latter  the  physical  signs  of 
fatigue  gradually  appear.     (Pages  6-7.) 

Thirteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Brussels, 
1903.  Vol.  V,  Sec.  IV.  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on,  par  des  meth- 
odes  physiologiques,  etudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres  dans 
les  diverses  professions?  Quels  sont  les  arguments  que  les  sciences 
physiologiques  et  medicales  peuvent  ou  pourraient  faire  valoir  en  faveur 
de  tel  ou  tel  mode  d' organisation  du  travail?  [To  what  extent  may 
■  fatigue,  its  forms  and  degrees  in  different  occupations  be  studied  by 
physiological  methods  ?  IVhat  arguments  can  physiological  or  medical 
sciences  bring  to  bear  in  favor  of  various  modes  of  industrial  organisa- 
tion ?]     Dr.  ZuNTZ,  University  of  Berlin.     Brussels,  1903. 

Fatigue,  resulting  from  various  occupations,  which  marks  the  limits  of 
the  workingman's  capacity  or,  if  disregarded,  endangers  his  health,  is 
very  variable  in  its  aspects,  according  to  the  organs  especially  affected. 

We  may  first  of  all  differentiate  between  fatigue  of  the  motor  apparatus 
and  fatigue  of  the  nervous  apparatus. 

The  first  group  may  be  again  subdivided  into  two  divisions:  first,  the 
general  muscular  weariness  resulting  from  heavy  work;  second,  the 
fatigue  of  certain  local  groups  of  muscles  which  have  been  overstrained. 

In  fatigue  of  the  nervous  apparatus  we  distinguish  between  fatigue  of 
the  special  organs  of  sense,  and  fatigue  of  the  central  nervous  system. 
(Page  1.) 


Handworterhuch  der  Staatswissenschaften.  Bd.  I.  [Compendium  of  Po- 
litical Science.  Vol.  I.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of 
Political  Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin; 
W.  Lexis,  Professor  of  Political  Science  in  Gottingen;  and  Edg. 
LoENiNG,  Professor  of  Law  in  Halle.  Arheitsieit.  Hours  of  Work. 
Dr.  H.  Herkner,  Berlin.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

Conclusions  from  the  physiological  and  psychological  investigations 
into  fatigue. 

Physiologically  considered,  human  labor  represents  a  transformation 
of  the  potential  energy  of  oxygen  and  food  materials.  When  assimilated, 
they  are  transformed  into  mental  and  physical  energy,  and,  in  so  far  as 
this  is  utilized  for  industrial  purposes,  we  have  work  in  the  ordinary  sense. 
Every  piece  of  work,  then,  means  expenditure  of  energy.  .  .  . 


NATURE    AND    EFFECTS    OF    FATIGUE  55 

Products  of  tissue  change  are  created  (after  fatigue),  especially  car- 
bonic acid  and  other  acids  which  have  a  poisonous  and  paral\-zing  action. 
Fatigue  consists  essentially  in  this — that  waste  products  are  created  in 
the  muscles  more  rapidh'  than  they  can  be  eliminated  by  the  blood  current 
and  excretory  organs.     (Pages  1214r-1215.) 

Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Berlin, 
1907.  Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV.  Ermildimg  durch  Berufsarheit.  [Fatigtie 
Resulting  from  Occupation.]  Dr.  E.  Roth.  Berlin,  Hirschn-ald, 
1908. 

Every  muscular  contraction  increases  the  consumption  of  ox_\-gen. 
This  greater  demand  for  oxygen  is  largely  met  by  the  correspondingly 
increased  rapidity  of  the  circulation.  The  increased  drain  made  by  the 
tissues  upon  the  suppl_\'  of  oxygen  may  be  fully  compensated  for  by  the 
more  rapid  circulation,  though  the  kind  of  work  being  done  ma}'  modify 
or  interfere  with  this  balance.  .  .  . 

Accordingly,  as  a  greater  amount  of  oxygen  is  consumed,  a  correspond- 
ingly greater  amount  of  carbonic  acid  gas  is  produced,  so  that  the  relative 
proportion  remains  the  same  during  work  as  during  rest.  .  .  .  Only 
when  work  becomes  overwork,  or  when  the  needed  oxygen  is  not  supplied 
to  the  tissues,  is  the  excretion  of  carbonic  acid  gas  greater  than  the  intake 
of  oxygen;  in  this  case  the  respirator}-  coefficient  fluctuates.     (Page  595.) 

The  well-known  experiments  of  Ranke  and  Mosso  have  proved  that 
the  products  of  fatigue  circulate  in  the  blood.  .  .  .  From  the  experi- 
ments of  Ranke  we  know  that,  among  these  fatigue  products,  acids  pla}' 
a  prominent  part,  whilst  those  of  Kronecker  show  that  blood  containing  a 
high  percentage  of  oxygen  is  of  far  superior  restorative  power  for  muscular 
fibre  than  an  ordinary  supply.  The  experiments  of  Fletcher  likewise 
suggest  that  the  beneficial  effect  of  oxygen  on  fatigued  muscle  arises  from 
the  rapid  oxidation  of  readily  combustible  fatigue  products  in  the  tissues. 
.  .  .  (Pages  595-596.) 

It  has  been  shown  by  Mosso  that  the  blood  of  fatigued  animals  is 
poisonous,  and  Kraus  has  stated  that  the  lack  of  energ}-  in  the  motions  of 
fatigued  animals  is  due  primarily  to  the  toxic  products  of  disassimilation 
(waste  materials)  and  that  fatigue  is  thus  a  form  of  auto-intoxication. 
(Page  597.) 

The  more  graduall}'  the  metabolic  processes  go  on,  the  more  slowly 
does  fatigue  develop,  for  the  fatigue  products  are  then  excreted  as  rapidly 
as  the  assimilation  of  nutritive  material  takes  place,  if  not  more  rapidly. 
On  the  other  hand,  fatigue  appears  more  quickly  when  waste  products 


GERMANY 


56 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  are  created  in  the  tissues  more  rapidly  than  they  are  excreted,  no  matter 
whether  this  is  the  result  of  delayed  excretion  or  of  accelerated  production 
of  waste  material.  The  latter  condition  may  be  demonstrated,  as  an 
example,  by  the  action  of  extreme  heat,  with  the  resultant  sweating  fol- 
lowed by  languor;  the  former  in  the  absence  of  sufficient  oxygen.  (Page 
605.) 


ITALY 


Fatigue.  A.  Mosso,  Professor  of  Physiology,  University  of  Turin.  1896. 
Translated  by  Margaret  Drummond,  M.A.,  and  W.  B.  Drummond, 
M.B.,  Extra  Physician,  Royal  Hospital  for  Sick  Children,  Edinburgh. 
New  York,  Putnam,  1904. 

Fatigue  is  a  chemical  process.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Lavoisier,  in  a  memorable  series  of  chemical  analyses  made  jointly  with 
Sequin,  succeeded  in  demonstrating  a  fact  of  fundamental  importance, 
namely,  that  muscular  exertion  increases  the  quantity  of  oxygen  absorbed 
and  of  carbonic  acid  eliminated  by  man. 

The  most  demonstrative  experiments  in  the  analysis  of  fatigue  are 
usually  made  upon  cold-blooded  animals,  commonly  on  frogs.  When 
the  sciatic  nerve  is  stimulated,  we  notice  a  contraction  of  the  leg.  The 
contraction,  upon  being  repeated  a  great  number  of  times,  becomes  more 
and  more  feeble.  This  diminution  of  energy  is  not  to  be  attributed  to 
the  dissipation  of  some  explosive  substance,  so  to  speak,  in  the  muscle, 
that  is  to  say,  of  the  substance  capable  of  giving  rise  to  contractions.  In 
fact  the  muscle  will  still  continue  to  contract  for  a  long  time,  but  no  stimu- 
lus will  produce  a  contraction  so  strong  as  the  first  ones.  The  lack  of 
energy  in  the  movements  of  a  weary  man  depends,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
frog,  upon  the  fact  that  the  muscles,  during  work,  produce  noxious  sub- 
stances, which  little  by  little  interfere  with  contraction. 

The  proof  that  we  are  not  here  dealing  with  a  phenomenon  of  deficit 
is  found  in  the  fact  that  after  the  frog's  leg  has  been  fatigued  by  long 
exertion,  we  can  restore  its  contracticity  and  render  it  capable  of  a  new 
series  of  contractions,  simply  by  washing  it.  Of  course  we  do  not  wash 
the  outer  surface,  but  having  found  the  artery  which  carries  blood  to  the 
muscle,  we  pass  through  it  water  in  place  of  blood.  .  .  .  Upon  the  passage 
of  a  current  of  this  liquid  through  the  muscle,  the  fatigue  disappears,  and 
the  contractions  return  as  vigorously  as  at  the  beginning.     (Page  106.) 

The  experiment  upon  frogs'  muscles  washed  in  saline  solution  shows 
that,  in  order  to  maintain  muscular  contracticity,  there  is  no  need  of 
continual  contact  between  the  muscle  fibre  and  the  oxygen  of  the  air 
through  the  medium  of  the  blood.  It  is  only  necessary  to  eliminate  the 
carbonic  acid.     (Page  112.) 


NATURE    AND    EFFECTS    OF    FATIGUE  57 

Two  important  facts  .  .  .  mark  the  beginning  of  our  knowledge  of  italy 
the  chemistry  of  muscle. 

In  1845  Helmholtz  discovered  that  a  muscle  in  repose  contains  only  a 
small  quantity  of  matter  soluble  in  alcohol.  Let  1  represent  the  quantity 
found.  Upon  taking  an  equal  amount  of  muscle  from  a  fatigued  animal, 
he  found  there  was  a  greater  quantity  of  such  matter,  the  amount  being 
1.3.  This  is  an  experiment  made,  as  the  saying  is,  en  Hoc,  by  which  one 
gets  a  glimpse  of  the  changes  which  are  produced  in  the  muscles  as  the 
result  of  exercise. 

Another  discovery  of  no  less  importance  is  that  of  Du  Bois-Reymond, 
who  found  that  the  fatigued  muscle  is  acid,  while  the  muscle  in  repose  is 
alkaline.     (Page  116.) 

To  demonstrate  that  muscles  accumulate  products  which  interfere 
with  contraction,  Ranke  made  an  aqueous  solution  of  muscle  which  has 
been  exercised,  and  having  injected  this  into  a  fresh  muscle,  found  its 
power  of  exertion  was  diminished.  After  it  had  been  washed,  however,  its 
energy  returned.     (Page  116.) 

It  was  a  French  chemist,  Gautier,  who  isolated  some  of  these  sub- 
stances which  are  derived  from  the  albuminoids  of  living  cells.  He 
gave  them  the  name  of  leucomaines  to  indicate  that  they  are  chemical 
compounds  arising  from  the  decomposition  of  albumen.  Here  we  have 
some  very  recent  observations  which  open  a  new  horizon  in  the  study  of 
the  causes  which  produce  disease.     (Page  117.) 

I  have  now  given  a  rapid  glance  at  the  toxic  substances  which  are 
produced  in  the  organism.  They  are  not  so  much  poisons  as  dross  and 
impurities  arising  from  the  chemical  processes  of  cellular  life,  and  are 
normally  burned  up  by  the  oxygen  of  the  blood,  destroyed  in  the  liver,  or 
excreted  by  the  kidneys.  If  these  waste  products  accumulate  in  the 
blood,  we  feel  fatigued;  when  their  amount  passes  the  physiological 
limit,  we  become  ill. 

Thus  is  our  conception  of  fatigue  widened.  It  is  a  process  which,  as 
we  examine  it,  seems  even  to  become  more  complicated.  Meantime,  we 
know  that  fatigue  is  not  produced  merely  by  the  lack  of  certain  substances 
which  are  consumed  during  exertion,  but  that  it  depends  also  in  fact  upon 
the  presence  of  new  substances  due  to  decomposition  within  the  organism. 
(Pages  118-119.) 

Observing  that  after  a  whole  day's  walk  even  the  muscles  of  the  arms 
are  tired,  I  was  struck  by  the  thought  that  fatigue  might  alter  the  com- 
position in  the  blood;  and  so  long  ago  as  1887  I  found  that  the  blood  of  a 
fatigued  animal  is  toxic,  for  if  injected  into  another  animal,  it  produces  the 
phenomena  characteristic  of  fatigue.     (Page  119.) 


58  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ITALY  Thirteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.      Brussels, 

1903.  Vol.  V ,  Section  IV.  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on,  par  des 
methodes  physiologiques,  etudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres 
dans  les  diverses  professions  ?  Quels  sont  les  arguments  que  les  sciences 
physiologiques  et  medicales  peuvent  ou  pourraient  faire  valoir  en  faveur 
de  tel  ou  tel  mode  d' organisation  du  travail?  [To  what  extent  may 
fatigue  resulting  from  occupation  be  estimated  by  physiological  methods, 
and  what  arguments  can  medical  and  physiological  science  present  in 
favor  of  special  methods  of  industrial  organisation?]  Dr.  Zaccaria 
Treves,  University  of  Turin.     Brussels,  1903. 

The  internal  process  which  causes  the  phenomenon  of  fatigue  is, 
according  to  the  doctrine  of  Hering,  and  applied  by  Biedermann  to  muscu- 
lar tissue,  a  defective  balance  between  the  processes  of  assimilation  and 
those  of  disassimilation.  These  two  categories  of  phenomena  are  dis- 
played, in  permanent  fashion,  side  by  side,  in  the  living  tissues,  and  this 
fact  constitutes  the  very  basis  of  all  life. 

As  long  as  these  opposing  processes  balance  one  another  there  is  no 
fatigue;  but,  as  soon  as  this  equilibrium,  under  the  influence  of  any 
excitation  whatever,  is  disturbed  in  favor  of  the  processes  of  disassimila- 
tion, fatigue  appears;  the  capacity  of  the  tissues  to  function  is  weakened 
little  by  little;  that  is  to  say,  under  stimulation  which  does  not  vary  in 
intensity,  the  degree  of  irritabilit\"  of  muscle  diminishes.  This  conception 
of  fatigue,  which  a  thousand  different  biological  phenomena  confirm  ex- 
perimentally, is  so  simple  and  so  rigorously  logical  that  it  is  impossible  to 
pick  a  flaw  in  it.  If  we  now  consider  that  this  degradation  of  tissue  is  not 
only  quantitative  but  that  it  may,  at  a  given  moment,  become  qualita- 
tive and  be  accelerated  by  an  accumulation  of  the  products  of  disassimila- 
tion, we  shall  have  included  in  the  definition  of  fatigue,  beside  the  two 
first  factors,  i.  e.,  1.  Repetition  of  stimulus,  and  (2)  excess  of  the  processes 
of  disassimilation  over  those  of  assimilation — the  third  factor,  which  is 
to-day  for  every  physiologist  indissolubly  bound  to  the  idea  of  fatigue — 
namely,  auto-intoxication  of  tissue.     (Page  2.) 

Professor  Kraus  .  .  .  calls  "measure  of  the  constitution"  that  rela- 
tion existing  between  the  maximum  quantity  of  energy  that  the  organism 
is  capable  of  developing  at  a  given  moment  and  that  part  of  this  energy 
that  is  utilized  in  the  form  of  external  muscular  work.  .  .  . 

The  respiratory  changes  are  measured  by  the  method  of  Zuntz  and 
Geppert,  and  the  results  serve  to  establish  the  relation  between  the  work 
and  the  energy  employed. 


NATURE    AND    EFFECTS    OF    FATIGUE  59 

As  a  general  rule,  the  higher  degrees  of  fatigue  are  clearly  shown  in  the  ITALY 
chemics  of  respiration. 

The  need  of  oxygen,  corresponding  to  a  given  quantity  of  work,  is  so 
much  the  greater  as  the  muscles  are  nearer  to  exhaustion.  When  the 
cardiac  activity  begins  to  be  insufficient  and  the  blood  does  not  convey 
enough  oxygen  to  the  muscles,  an  abnormal  augmentation  in  the  value  of 
the  respiratory  quotient  becomes  noticeable:  that  is  to  say,  the  organism 
has  eliminated  CO2  in  excess,  as  compared  with  the  amount  of  oxygen 
consumed.  The  number  of  calories  developed  by  the  organism  during  the 
execution  of  a  given  amount  of  external  work  may  be  deduced  from  the 
quantity  of  oxygen  (in  c.cm.)  respired.     (Page  29.) 

De  la  Fatigue  et  de  son  Influence  Pathogenique.     [Fatigue  and  its  Patho-  FRANCE 
genie  Influence.]     Dr.  M.  Carrieu,  University  of  MontpeUier.     Paris, 
BailUere  et  Fils,  1878. 

General  fatigue,  when  carried  to  an  extreme  degree,  takes  the  name  of 
exhaustion;  all  the  reserves  of  strength,  accumulated  in  the  organism  by 
nutrition,  are  expended;  all  functions  flag  or  cease,  the  organism,  in- 
capable of  manifesting  activity,  is  overwhelmed  with  depression:  the 
organs  necessary  to  life  alone  continue  with  difficulty  to  perform  their 
functions.  A  state  of  fatigue  incompatible  with  life  is  seen  in  animals 
that  have  been  overdriven  or  pursued:  thus  a  stag  after  a  long  and  des- 
perate chase  has  been  known  to  drop  dead,  though  unwounded.  The  body 
becomes  rigid  immediately  and  putrefaction  comes  on  rapidly.  (Pages 
6-7.) 

There  are  indeed  individuals  who  are  always  under  the  influence  of 
fatigue.  This  subnormal  condition  is  usually  linked  with  anaemia,  and 
is  caused  by  some  one  of  the  many  pathogenic  conditions  of  this  malady 
(anaemia).     (Page  8.) 

Etude  sur  V Influence  de  la  Duree  du  Travail  Quotidien  sur  la  Sante  Generate 
de  V Adulte.  \Study  of  the  Effect  of  the  Length  of  IVorking  Hours  upon 
the  General  Health  of  Adults.]     Ilia  Sachnine.     Lyon,  1900. 

Gautier  has  shown  that,  among  the  products  of  muscular  exertion  in 
the  tissues,  alkaloidal  leucomaines  are  formed  whose  toxicity  is  not 
inferior  to  those  poisons  produced  in  putrefied  meat  which  are  well  known 
as  ptomaines.     (Page  31.) 

According  to  Herzen,  fatigue  is  produced  first  in  the  motor  centres, 
less  so  or  not  as  evidently  in  the  terminal  filaments  of  the  motor  nerves. 


6o 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


FRANCE 


and  to  a  certain  still  inferior  degree  throughout  the  body.  Then  there 
occur  in  the  muscular  fibre  those  nutritive  changes  due  to  the  combustion 
which  accompanies  contractions.  These  chemical  changes  profoundly 
alter  the  structure  of  the  tissues  at  whose  expense  they  have  taken  place, 
and  from  this  alteration  the  products  of  combustion,  of  disassimilation, 
appear  in  the  muscles.     (Page  33.) 

Acute  overstrain  is  then  a  poisoning  by  products  appearing  in  the 
course  of  chemical  transformation  of  muscular  tissues.     (Page  34.) 

The  toxicity  of  urine  is  considerably  augmented  after  muscular  effort 
pushed  to  the  degree  of  fatigue,  even  if  the  diet  is  exclusively  of  milk. 

According  to  Tissie,  urine,  after  excessive  muscular  exertion,  has  a  toxic 
power  greater  than  the  co-efficient  of  that  of  acute  infectious  fevers. 
(Page  37.) 

M.  Arloing  has  demonstrated  that  the  toxicity  of  sweat  is  almost  nil 
when  it  is  produced  by  a  hot  bath,  etc.,  but  that  it  is  very  considerable 
during  violent  muscular  exertion.  (Page  37.)  Sub-acute  overstrain, 
says  Lagrange,  is  due  to  the  impregnation  of  the  organism  with  the  waste 
materials  of  activity.  It  is  found  among  persons  whose  bodies  have  been 
subjected  to  sustained  labor  or  to  repeated  fatigue  without  having  had 
sufficient  periods  of  rest.     (Page  43.) 


La  Protection  Legale  des  Travailleurs.  [Legal  Protection  for  fVorking 
People.]  Discussions  of  the  French  Section  of  the  International  As- 
sociation for  Labor  Legislation  in  1905  and  1906.     Paris,  Alcan,  1907. 

Mme.  Moll-Weiss: 

...  It  has  been  shown  absolutely  beyond  question  that,  when  work 
of  a  certain  duration  of  time  is  under  consideration, — say,  for  example, 
eight  or  ten  hours, — the  effectiveness  of  any  worker  is  less  at  the  end  of 
five  hours  than  previous  to  that  time,  because  there  is  an  accumulation  of 
waste  products  in  the  organism,  the  remains  of  incomplete  combustion, 
resultant  upon  work.  It  has  been  commonly  agreed  upon  to  call  this 
fatigue.     (Page  181.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


The  Mental  Symptoms  of  Fatigue.  {Reprinted  from  the  Transactions  of  the 
New  York  State  Medical  Association.)  Edward  Cowles,  M.D.. 
Medical  Superintendent  of  the  McLean  Hospital,  Somerville,  Mass. 
New  York,  Fless  and  Ridge,  1893. 

The  bodily  conditions  of  fatigue  should  first  be  considered  as  far  as 


NATURE    AND    EFFECTS    OF    FATIGUE  6\ 

we  can  know  them,  and  may  be  studied  in  their  two  forms  or  degrees:  united 
(1)  normal  fatigue,  or  the  condition  of  wholesome  tire  from  daily  physio- 
logical use;  and  (2)  pathological  fatigue,  or  the  condition  of  persistent 
"impoverishment  of  nervous  tissue  in  excess  of  repair,"  according  to 
Beard,  which  constitutes  nervous  exhaustion  or  neurasthenia.  The 
mental  symptoms  are  to  be  studied  in  their  close  and  direct  correspond- 
ence with  these  conditions  of  fatigue. 

The  effects  of  fatigue  are  produced  by  sufficiently  continued  exercise 
in  the  physiological  use  of  any  functions,  muscular  or  nervous.  The 
sense  of  fatigue  is  complex,  and  may  have  a  central  or  peripheral  source,  or 
both  together.  In  muscular  tissue,  the  condition  of  fatigue  depends  upon 
the  physiological  fact  that  muscular  contraction  is  in  some  way  or  other 
the  result  of  a  chemical  change  whereby  the  latent  energy  is  set  free  and 
expended  in  the  mechanical  work,  with  also  the  setting  free  of  heat.  The 
resultant  chemical  products  are  toxic,  and  obstructive  of  muscular  func- 
tion unless  they  are  duly  washed  away  in  the  blood  current;  and  time 
must  be  given  in  rest  and  sleep  for  this  process,  as  well  as  for  nutrition  and 
repair.  These  toxic  products  being  variously  irritant  or  benumbing, 
doubtless  thus  affect  the  sensory  apparatus  through  which  fatigue  is  felt. 
It  is  evident  from  this  that  the  condition  of  muscular  fatigue  has  always  a 
dual  character — there  are  direct  expenditure  of  energy,  requiring  repair, 
and  a  toxic  element  that  may  be  obstructive  of  function,  both  that  of 
discharging  energy  and  of  taking  up  nutrition. 

In  nervous  substance,  the  nature  of  nerve  force  being  unknown,  the 
eflfects  of  the  passage  of  a  nervous  impulse  along  nerve-fibres  are  not 
demonstrable  as  attended  by  chemical  changes,  or  loss  of  normal  irri- 
tability as  a  manifestation  of  fatigue.  But  in  the  central  nervous  organs 
it  is  found  that  their  function  is  dependent  on  an  adequate  supply  of 
oxygen,  and  this  implies  that  "in  nervous,  as  in  muscular  substance,  a 
metabolism,  mainly  of  an  oxidative  character,  is  the  real  cause  of  the 
development  of  energy."  In  fact  we  do  not  doubt  that  toxic  waste  prod- 
ucts attend  upon  central  nervous  activity,  and  this  accords  with  the 
biological  theory  that  all  function  is  due  to  chemical  changes  taking  place 
within  the  organism,  and  that  the  functional  activity  of  a  specialized  tissue 
depends  upon  the  changes  in  its  individual  cells.  The  dual  character  of  all 
conditions  of  primary  fatigue  is  evident,  as  is  also  the  importance  of  recog- 
nizing the  effects  of  the  self-produced  poisonous  substances  that  regularly 
result  from  the  chemical  changes  in  tissue  metabolism  within  the  body, 
as  we  are  taught  by  the  brilliant  revelations  of  modern  chemical  physiol- 
ogy and  pathology.     (Pages  5-6.) 


62  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Sixty-fifth  Annual  Meeting  of  the  American  Institute  of  Instruction.     The 

STATES  Relation  of  Fatigue  to  Social  and  Educational  Progress.     Henry  S. 

Baker,  Ph.D.     Boston,  1895. 

It  is  a  fact  not  questioned,  that  every  movement  of  a  muscle  and  every 
mental  act,  whether  it  be  thinking,  feeling,  remembering,  or  the  passive 
reception  of  impressions  through  the  senses,  is  accompanied  by  some 
chemical  change  in  the  muscular  or  nervous  tissue  or  both.  This  change 
may  be  called  a  "wearing  out,"  an  oxidation  or  metabolism,  and  the  worn 
out  material  or  ashes,  as  it  were,  is  thrown  into  the  blood,  from  which  it 
is  removed  by  the  various  organs  of  depuration  as  the  kidneys  and  liver. 
It  is  important  to  note  that  this  debris  of  nerve  and  muscle  is  decidedly 
toxic  to  the  various  organs  and  especially  so  to  the  brain.     (Page  3Z.) 

Any  movement  of  the  mind  or  body,  because  it  introduces  some  of  the 
above  materials  (leucine,  creatine,  leukomaines,  and  lactic  or  sarco-lactic 
acid,  tyrosin,  and  a  substance  with  effects  like  ptomaines)  into  the  blood, 
and  because  it  removes  by  oxidation  a  portion  of  the  brain  always,  and, 
when  a  muscle  is  moved,  of  the  muscular  tissue,  also  produces  fatigue. 
Three  conditions  always  exist:  1.  Deleterious  material  in  the  blood. 
2.  A  changed,  abnormal  condition  of  the  brain  cells.  ...  3.  There  is 
general  fatigue  of  the  entire  body,  caused  by  toxic  materials  in  the  blood. 
...  4.  There  sometimes  exists  also  a  local  accumulation  of  waste  prod- 
ucts in  the  tissue  which  produced  them,  as  a  muscle,  and  this  is  the  case 
when  the  labor  is  rapid  or  violent.  Since  the  brain  is  the  motive  power, 
all  fatigue  is  brain  fatigue;  that  is,  there  can  be  no  fatigue  in  which  the 
brain  does  not  share,  locally  in  some  centre.  In  all  cases,  then,  there  is 
local  fatigue  of  brain  or  muscle,  or  both.  When  these  conditions  exist  to 
a  small  extent  the  fatigue  is  normal,  healthful,  and  the  recovery  takes 
place  quickly.  When  they  are  carried  to  a  great  extent  the  system,  as  a 
whole,  is  weakened  and  permanently  injured  in  one  or  more  organs  or 
tissues.     (Pages  34-35.) 

The  waste  products  in  the  blood  not  only  poison  tissues  and  glands 
by  their  presence,  but  prevent  the  oxygen  of  the  blood  from  performing 
its  functions.  When  a  man  or  animal  falls  dead  from  over-exertion,  it  is  be- 
cause he  is  poisoned  to  death  by  his  own  waste  products,  which  were  formed 
faster  than  they  could  be  eliminated.  Fire  horses  last  but  a  few  years,  be- 
cause at  every  run  the  above  conditions  exist  to  a  great  extent.    (Page  35.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1900. 

A  French  physician  .  .  .  concludes  that  the  abnormal  sickness  and 
mortality  among  working  people  is  due  not  simply  to  poisonous  or  noxious 


NATURE    AND    EFFECTS    OF    FATIGUE  63 

substances  in  the  materials  of  work,  but  also  to  fatigue,  which  affects  the  united 
nerves.  He  describes  as  follows  the  effects  of  long  hours  of  work:  (1)  ^'^^'^^^ 
Fatigue  resulting  from  prolonged  physical  effort  is  a  phenomenon  of  self- 
poisoning  produced  by  the  substances  destroyed  within  the  body.  (2) 
It  is  altogether  probable  that  in  mental  effort  the  phenomena  of  fatigue 
likewise  proceed  from  the  products  of  decomposition  which  have  been 
thrown  into  the  circulation.  (3)  In  physical  fatigue,  resulting  from  ex- 
cessively prolonged  manual  labor,  there  appear  not  only  the  phenomena 
of  peripheral  fatigue  localized  in  the  muscles  and  ends  of  nerves,  but  also 
the  same  phenomena  in  the  nerve  centres.  Hence,  mental  effort  after 
physical  labor,  or' vice  versa,  bodily  exercise  after  long  mental  effort  cannot 
serve  as  rest;  the  human  organism  then  demands  a  certain  period  of  ab- 
solute rest.  (4)  Bodily  exercises  set  the  circulation  strongly  in  motion, 
raise  the  blood  pressure  and  sensibly  increase  the  number  of  heart  beats. 
If  muscular  efforts  are  excessive  or  continued  long  they  may  in  due  time 
produce  functional  and  organic  alterations  both  in  the  heart  and  in  the 
blood  vessels.  Hypertrophy  and  enlargement  of  the  heart  are  the  most 
usual  consequences.  (5)  It  is  very  probable  that  excessive  and  prolonged 
physical  labor  retards  the  circulation  of  the  kidneys,  and  in  some  degree 
causes  anaemia  of  the  kidneys.  ...  (7)  The  bodily  development  of  the 
factory  operative  remains  inferior  to  that  found  in  other  social  classes. 
(Pages  65-66.) 

The  Harvey  Lectures,     1905-1906.      Fatigue.      Frederic  S.  Lee,  Ph.D. 
Philadelphia,  Lippincott,  1906.* 

It  is  customary  to  seek  the  causes  of  the  physical  phenomena  of  fatigue 
in  the  chemical  changes  undergone  by  the  active  living  substance.  .  .  . 
In  all  tissues  during  activity  substances  of  value  to  the  organism  are 
broken  down  and  substances  of  little  or  no  value  are  formed.  .  .  .  (Page 
180.)  It  is  now  customary  to  recognize  three  distinct  metabolic  products 
as  fatiguing,  namely,  sarcolactic  acid,  mono-potassium  phosphate,  and 
carbon  dioxid,  all  of  which  are  acid  in  reaction.  .  .  .  (Page  183.)  The 
organism  produces  normally  in  the  course  of  its  activity  a  number  of  acid 
substances  which  tend  to  inhibit  further  activity.  Fatigue  is  due  in 
great  measure  to  the  depressant  action  of  these  toxic  products  of  meta- 
bolism on  the  body  tissues,  particularly  on  the  muscular  system,  and  the 
sensation  of  fatigue  is  in  large  part  the  psychic  manifestation  of  the  recog- 

*  See  also  by  the  same  author:  Physical  Exercise  from  the  Standpoint  of 
Physiology.  Science  N.  S.  Vol.  xxix.  Apr.  2,  1909,  pages  521-527.  The  Na- 
ture of  Fatigue.     Popular  Science  Monthly,  February,  1910. 


UNITED 
STATES 


64 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


nition  of  this  depressant  action.  (Page  185.)  The  action  of  fatigue 
substances  is  not  confined  to  the  tissues  in  which  they  arise.  The  ex- 
cessive activity  of  one  tissue  is  capable  of  causing  fatigue  to  appear  in 
others.  .  .  .  Thus  localized  activity  is  capable  of  producing  general 
fatigue,  a  fact  which  is  often  overlooked  in  our  daily  life.  The  explanation 
of  this  is  afforded  by  Mosso's  well-known  experiment:  A  dog  was  fatigued 
by  long-continued  running;  his  blood  was  then  transfused  into  the  vessels 
of  a  second  dog,  from  which  an  equivalent  amount  of  blood  had  been  with- 
drawn, with  the  result  that  the  second  dog  exhibited  the  usual  phenomena 
of  fatigue.  The  blood  had  evidently  become  charged  with  the  fatigue 
substances  produced  in  the  muscles,  and  thus  they  were  able  to  reach  all 
parts  of  the  body.     (Pages  188-189.) 


(2)    The  Toxin  of  Fatigue 

The  need  of  limiting  excessive  working  hours  for  women 
is  further  emphasized  by  recent  medical  research  which 
claims  that  fatigue  is  due  not  only  to  actual  poisoning,  but 
to  a  specific  poison  or  toxin  of  fatigue,  analogous  in  chemical 
and  physical  nature  to  other  bacterial  toxins  such  as  the 
diphtheria  toxin.  This  theory  claims  that  when  artificially 
injected  into  animals  in  large  amounts  the  fatigue  toxin 
causes  death. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


Diseases  of  Occupation  from  the  Legislative,  Social,  and  Medical  Points  of 
View.  Thomas  Oliver,  M.A.,  M,D.,  F.R.C.P.,  Medical  Expert  on 
the  White  Lead,  Dangerous  Trades,  Pottery,  and  Lucifer  Match  Com- 
mittees of  the  British  Home  Office.     New  York,  Dutton,  1908. 

Weichardt,  in  1904,  advanced  the  theory  that  the  cause  of  fatigue  is  a 
toxin  generated  in  the  overtaxed  organism,  and  that  the  ravages  of  the 
toxin,  like  the  poison  of  diphtheria,  can  be  met  by  the  introduction  of  an 
anti-toxin  into  the  body.  Wolff-Eisner  (Centralb.  f.  Bakteriol.  bd.  XI, 
1906,  page  634)  is  of  the  opinion  that  during  athletic  training  there  is 
produced  an  immunity  to  the  toxin  of  fatigue,  whereby  the  trained  athlete 
becomes  capable  of  accomplishing  more  than  the  untrained  man,  and 
without  experiencing  the  sensation  of  fatigue.  It  is  common  knowledge 
that  men  who  are  doing  hard,  physical  toil  regularly  have  not  the  sense  of 
tiredness  felt  by  men  who  are  new  to  the  work,  and  we  explain  this  by 


THE    TOXIN    OF    FATIGUE  65 

saving  that  the  latter  are  not  trained.    WolflF-Eisner  throws  new  h'ght  great 

•      BRITAIN 

upon  the  subject,  having  obtained  a  fatigue  toxin  from  overworked  ani- 
mals; he  injected  small  doses  of  the  poison  into  other  animals  and  pro- 
duced in  them  symptoms  of  fatigue,  drowsiness,  and  a  lessening  of  activ- 
ity. Large  doses  caused  death,  but  if  very  minute  doses  were  injected 
for  a  lengthened  period  there  was  established  in  the  animals  a  genuine 
immunity  to  fatigue.  The  toxin  is  not  found  in  the  blood  but  in  the 
muscles,  whereas  the  anti-toxin  is  only  present  in  the  blood.     (Pages  6-7.) 

CentralUatt  fur  Bakteriologie,  Bd.  XL,  AM.  I;   Heft  5;    1906.     Cher  Er-  GERMANY 
miidungs-  und  Reduktionstoxine.    [The  Toxin  of  Fatigue.]    Dr.  Alfred 
Wolff-Eisner,  Charlottenburg.     Berlin,  1906. 

In  the  early  part  of  1904  Weichardt  propounded  his  theory  that  fatigue 
was  produced  by  a  toxin  the  composition  of  which  was  fully  analogous  to 
such  previously  well-known  toxins  as  ricin,  abrin,  diphtheria  and  tetanus 
toxins,  the  leading  characteristic  of  which  was  also  to  be  found  in  it,  in 
that  injections  of  the  fatigue  toxin  produced  an  anti-toxin  which  neu- 
tralized the  effects  of  the  toxin  in  vivo  and  in  vitro.  This  theory  was  at 
first  striking  through  its  novelty,  as  the  view  had  been  quite  generally 
held,  among  physiologists,  that  fatigue  was  produced  by  chemically  analyz- 
able  products  of  metabolism,  especially  lactic  and  other  acids.  And  yet 
there  were  numerous  well-known  facts  which  might  have  given  rise  to 
fresh  inquiries  into  the  nature  of  fatigue  products. 

It  was  well  known  that  suitable  "training"  had  an  astonishing  effect, 
and  every  one  knew,  also,  that  expert — that  is,  trained — professional 
bicyclists,  gymnasts,  etc.,  could  easily  accomplish  achievements  which 
would  have  resulted  in  death  after  a  comparatively  short  time,  for  raw 
recruits  or  untrained  men.  It  seemed  impossible  to  explain  these  un- 
doubted facts  simply  on  the  ground  that  the  blood  supply  and  its  circu- 
lation were  better  in  trained  muscles.  .  .  .  There  was  much  to  support 
the  thesis  that  the  trained  man  benefited  by  an  anti-toxin,  which  neutral- 
ized the  fatigue  poison  at  the  moment  when  it  was  produced.  From  this 
point  of  view  it  also  became  clear  why  for  an  efficient  training  it  is  essen- 
tial not  only  to  develop  the  muscles  but  also  to  observe  a  special  daily 
regimen. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  this  teaching  of  the  actions  of  poisons  in 
fatigue  would  meet  great  opposition  in  many  circles  of  physiological 
specialists,  the  more  so  as  the  whole  doctrine  of  toxins  and  immunity, 
well  founded  though  it  was,  was  still  regarded  in  these  circles  as  a  dubious 
acquisition.  It  was  consequently  necessary  to  prove  that  fatigue,  when 
5* 


66  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  pushed  beyond  normal  circumstances,  produced  an  accumulation  of  poison 
which  was  capable  of  causing  death. 

An  experimental  demonstration  to  prove  that  fatigue  had  such  capacity 
naturally  encountered  extraordinary  difficulties.  In  instances  where  men 
might  be  subjected  to  extraordinary  physical  exertion,  circumstances 
would  make  scientific  observation  impossible.  Physiology  had  already 
an  apparatus  for  testing  dogs  while  running;  but  running  is  not  a  suf- 
ficiently exhausting  exertion  for  large  dogs  to  make  it  possible  to  demon- 
strate the  anti-toxin.  Weichardt  therefore  invented  a  modification  of 
this  apparatus  by  which,  while  standing  on  a  rough  surface,  large  dogs 
were  continuously  pulled  backward.  Their  resistance  to  this  and  their 
efforts  to  go  forward  resulted  in  exertions  sufficient  to  produce  an  accumu- 
lation of  fatigue  products.  (This  being  obtained  and  injected  into  small 
and  rapidly  moving  animals,  such  as  mice,  the  influence  of  the  fatigue- 
producing  toxin  was  fully  demonstrated.) 

After  Weichardt  has  succeeded  in  demonstrating  the  clinical  "sympto- 
mo-complex"  of  forced  fatigue,  his  next  task  was  to  demonstrate  the 
fatigue  material  itself.  This  material,  he  proved,  is  not  found  in  the 
blood  current,  as  the  first  supposition  might  be.  The  blood  functions 
solely  as  a  carrier  of  the  anti-toxin,  and  in  the  blood  of  highly  overfatigued 
dogs  no  fatigue  poison  was  present.  The  poison  was  demonstrated  in  the 
muscles, — a  discovery  that  helps  to  explain  the  lifelong  activity  of  the 
cardiac  muscle,  for  the  heart,  of  all  muscles,  has  the  richest  blood  supply, 
and  the  blood  continually  frees  the  cardiac  muscle  from  its  fatigue  ma- 
terial.    (Pages  634-635.) 

The  effects  of  the  toxin  on  animals  are  as  follows:  in  small  doses  it 
produces  weariness  and  craving  for  sleep,  whose  demonstration  is  made 
evident  by  the  length  of  time  in  which  the  animals  will  remain  in  unusual 
positions,  as,  for  instance,  a  mouse  placed  upon  its  back  will  remain  so  for 
some  time.     (Page  638.) 

In  large  doses  it  causes  the  death  of  animals,  after  a  persistent  fall  of 
temperature,  that  is,  with  all  the  symptoms  analogous  to  those  of  extreme 
fatigue. 

The  injection  of  the  toxin  produces  in  the  large  animals  experimented 
on  a  true  anti-toxic  immunity.     (Page  638.) 

From  all  these  researches  into  the  nature  of  albuminous  material, 
poisons,  etc.,  it  is  evident  that  fresh  emphasis  must  be  laid  upon  the  im- 
portance to  the  animal  and  human  organism  of  adequate  aeration  with 
oxygen,  such  as  is  accomplished  by  the  functioning  of  healthy  lungs. 
Here  we  must  remember  the  clinical  experiences  with  human  beings, — 
that  in  all  of  those  whose  supply  of  oxygen  is  interfered  with,  whether  it 


TOXIN    OF    FATIGUE  67 

be  by  disease  of  the  lungs  or  by  a  deficiency  of  hemoglobin  arising  from  GERMANY 
anaemia, — the  body  is  extremely  susceptible  to  fatigue,  and  it  will  be  seen 
that  it  is  far  more  important  to  bring  the  natural  supply  of  oxygen  for  the 
body  to  its  normal  adequacy,  than  it  is  to  administer  an  artificial  anti- 
toxin to  fatigue.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  recalled  how  often  it  is 
possible  by  deep  inhalations  of  fresh  air  to  dispel  the  symptoms  of  accumu- 
lating fatigue  toxin.  The  effect  of  bad  air,  as  leading  to  fatigue,  is  also 
explained  by  the  insufficient  oxidation.     (Page  643.) 

1  would  define  "training"  as  follows: 

As  practice  of  muscle  groups  in  harmonious  associated  activity  (syner- 
gesis)  without  detriment  to  strength;  as  modification  of  respiration  in  the 
sense  of  increased  aeration  with  oxygen  for  the  repair  of  the  blood  and 
tissues  and  for  the  oxidation  of  fatigue  products  created  by  work;  finally, 
as  heightened  production  of  the  anti-toxin  of  fatigue,  by  which  a  surplus 
of  unoxidized  fatigue  toxin  in  the  blood  may  be  neutralized  and  so  a 
working  capacity  made  possible  which  would,  for  the  untrained,  result  in 
steadily  lowered  temperature  and  death.     (Page  644.) 

Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Berlin, 
Sept.,  1907.  Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV.  Ermiidung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  [Fa- 
tigue resulting  from  Occupation.]  Dr.  Emil  Roth.  Berlin,  Hirsch- 
wald,  1908. 

Weichardt  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  toxin  from  the  extract  of  the 
muscles  of  fatigued  guinea  pigs,  which  he  injected  into  the  peritoneal 
cavity  of  a  mouse,  with  the  result  that  it  was  thrown  into  the  same  con- 
dition of  extreme  fatigue  that  follows  from  forced  exertion.  With  re- 
peated intravenous  injections  of  large  animals  with  the  fatigue  poison,  a 
specific  anti-toxin  was  produced,  with  which  he  conducted  active  and 
passive  immunization  experiments,  proving  successfully  that  under  its 
influence  the  muscles  of  the  animals  experimented  on  displayed  a  lesser 
degree  of  fatigue  than  under  ordinary  conditions.  The  fatigue  toxin  does 
not  pass  through  dead  membranes  by  dialysis,  but  is  taken  up  by  the  living 
cells  of  the  stomach. 

As  has  been  demonstrated  by  experiments  with  animals,  the  toxin 
exhibits  a  composite  character,  as  do  other  well-known  poisons  (tuber- 
culin; snakepoison). 

Weichardt  subsequently  succeeded  in  preparing  the  toxin  artificially, 
and  in  augmenting  the  endurance  capacity  of  animals  under  experiment 
by  administering  small  doses  to  them;  he  also  demonstrated  the  presence 
of  the  fatigue  poison  in  the  excretions  of  animals  and  human  beings. 


68  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  Weichardt  is  of  the  opinion  that  this  proteid-like  product  of  fatigue 

characterized  by  poisonous  quahties  is  extremely  widely  distributed  both 
in  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms.     (Page  597.) 

The  experiments  of  Zuntz  and  Schumberg  as  well  as  others  show  that 
the  expenditure  of  strength,  or,  in  other  words,  the  cost  in  energy,  for  a 
given  work-unit,  diminishes  with  increased  practice.  The  skilled  worker 
economizes  his  strength  more  than  the  unskilled.  According  to  Weichardt, 
the  value  of  "training"  so-called  consists  not  only  in  bringing  about  an 
actual  increase  in  tissue  elements,  but  also  in  producing  a  bio-chemical 
substance  of  marked  characteristics,  the  anti-toxin  of  fatigue,  which  is 
produced  by  the  immunizing  action  during  "training"  of  the  small 
amounts  of  toxic  material  developed  in  the  course  of  repeated  exertions. 
(Page  608.) 

Vierteljahresschrijt    fiir    Offentliche    Gesundheitspflege,     XXXIX,     1907. 
■  Ermiidungs   und    Uberermudungs    Massmethoden.     [Methods   of  esti- 
mating Fatigue  and  Overfatigue.]     Dr.  Wolfgang  Weichardt,  Er- 
langen.     Braunschweig,  Vieveg,  1907. 

I  first  sought  for  the  toxin  in  the  bodies  of  animals,  and  in  those  which 
had  been  excessively  overfatigued  I  found  it,  not  in  the  blood,  but  in  the 
juices  extracted  from  their  muscular  tissues.  When  this  (by  various  proc- 
esses described)  was  freed  from  indifferent  albumins  and  then  injected 
into  animals,  it  produced  symptoms  of  excessive  fatigue  and,  in  large 
doses,  killed  them.  When  repeated  injections  of  this  purified  extract 
were  administered  to  horses,  the  specific,  neutralizing  agent — the  antidote 
for  the  fatigue  poison — appeared  in  the  blood  serum  of  the  horses.  Both 
also,  the  toxin  and  its  antidote,  may  be  produced,  as  I  was  later  able  to 
state,  by  the  separation  of  the  albumin  molecules  by  means  of  physical 
and  chemical  processes. 

I  have  demonstrated  isolating  both  substances  and  have  used  them 
in  an  extensive  series  of  experiments.  All  the  typical  signs  of  fatigue,  up 
to  death  from  extreme  fatigue,  may  be  produced  by  the  artificially  pro- 
duced fatigue  poison.  On  the  other  hand,  the  effect  of  the  poison  has 
been  invariably  successfully  neutralized  by  the  artificially  produced  anti- 
toxin.   , 

That  fatigue  toxin  is  of  ordinary  routine  occurrence  in  the  excreta  and 
urine  of  human  beings,  shows  that  the  production  of  poison  takes  place 
with  ordinary,  physiological  fatigue;  and  that  it  does  not  follow  that  there 
must  be  a  state  of  severe,  pathological  fatigue  for  the  development  of 
fatigue  poison  in  the  body. 


NERVOUS    FATIGUE  69 

In  every  healthy  body  the  process  of  supplying  an  increased  amount  of  GERMANY 
the  specific  anti-toxin  takes  place  as  soon  as  moderate  amounts  of  the 
fatigue  poison  appear.     This  is  easily  demonstrated  by  mice,  with  which, 
by  means  of  a  special  apparatus,  the  Kymograph,  one  can  obtain  a  curve 
illustrating  this  process.     (Page  330.) 

The  results  of  experimentation  allow  us  to  formulate  the  two  following 
principles,  taking  into  consideration  the  practical  as  well  as  the  theoretical 
domain  of  the  researches  into  fatigue  and  overfatigue.  Small  amounts  of 
fatigue  toxin  bring  about  active  immunization,  which  is  later,  after  a 
certain  time,  expressed  in  heightened  efficiency. 

Overdoses  of  toxin,  on  the  other  hand,  bring  on  a  decrease  of  efficiency 
and  may  even  produce  death. 

If  overdoses  of  toxin  are  met  by  corresponding  amounts  of  anti-toxin 
a  decrease  of  efficiency  does  not  take  place,  but,  instead,  after  a  certain 
time,  a  notable  increase  in  capacity  is  evident.     (Pages  332-333.) 

The  Harvey    Lectures,    1905-1906.     Fatigue.     Frederic    S.  Lee,  Ph.D.  ^^^ 

Philadelphia,   Lippincott,  1906. 

Mention  should  here  be  made  of  the  claim  of  Weichardt,  working  in 
Zuntz's  laboratory  in  Berlin,  to  have  isolated  from  fatigued  muscles  a 
true  toxin,  of  a  chemical  and  physical  nature  like  bacterial  toxins,  which, 
when  introduced  in  minute  quantity  into  the  body,  is  capable  of  giving 
rise  to  the  phenomena  of  fatigue.  Weichardt  further  claims  to  have  ob- 
tained by  the  usual  methods  of  the  bacteriologists  an  antitoxin  endowed 
with  the  power  of  neutralizing  the  fatiguing  properties  of  the  toxin. 
(Page  187.) 


(3)    Nervous  Fatigue 

The  most  serious  injury  to  the  health  of  working  women 
from  excessive  hours  of  labor  is  due  to  the  fact  that  over- 
exertion uses  up  nervous  energy.  For  all  industrial  work, 
whether  it  involves  muscular  effort  or  not,  requires  the  ex- 
penditure of  nervous  energy.  Overlong  working  hours  may 
therefore  wholly  exhaust  nervous  endurance. 

In  the  nerve  cells  energy  is  generated;  nerve  fibers  are  its 
carriers  to  the  muscles.  Fatigue  of  the  nervous  system  is 
ascribed  to  the  same  double  origin  as  muscle  fatigue;  accum- 


BELGIUM 


70  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ulation  of  toxic  waste  products,  and  consumption  of  sub- 
stances essential  for  activity.  The  poisonous  waste  products 
of  fatigue  act  also  upon  nerve  tissue. 

Since  the  central  nervous  system  controls  all  the  vital 
functions,  unrepaired  nervous  fatigue  is  more  fatal  to  the 
organism  than  the  exhaustion  of  any  organ  or  function. 

Royaume  de  Belgique.  Conseil  Superieur  du  Travail,  6^  Session,  1901- 
1902.  T.  I.  Fasc.  II.  [Higher  Council  of  Labor,  6th  Session. 
1901-1902.  yd.  I,  Part  II.]  Note  sur  la  Legislation  relative  au 
Repos  Hehdomadaire.  [IVeekly  Rest  Day.]  Discussion  by  M.  Denis, 
Member  of  Council.     Brussels,  1902. 

In  order  to  justify  the  intervention  of  the  legislator  the  testimony  of 
psychology  must  be  added  to  that  of  the  physiology  of  fatigue.  We  then 
learn  that  the  consciousness  of  fatigue  does  not  appear  coincidently  with 
the  physiological  phenomena  of  fatigue  and  the  accumulation  of  the  waste 
of  combustion  in  our  tissues.  It  comes  on  more  slowly.  "The  workman 
who  works,"  says  M.  Nitti,  "does  not  perceive  the  oncoming  of  fatigue 
until  it  has  reached  a  certain  degree  of  intensity.  This  is  the  chief  reason 
why  society,  desirous  of  preventing  a  wasteful  expenditure  of  energy, 
must  of  necessity  resort  to  a  legal  limitation  of  labor."  And  we  under- 
stand the  import  of  these  words  when  we  read  in  Mosso: 

"  Fatigue,  which  we  may  regard  as  a  sort  of  poisoning,  can  alter  the 
composition  of  the  blood  and  the  conditions  of  life  without  our  experienc- 
ing any  other  feelings  than  a  vague  sensation  of  weakness."     (Page  174.) 

The  labor  contract  made  by  one  individual  with  another  may  thus  be 
vitiated  by  a  short  of  permanent  error  or  illusion  of  the  worker,  and  the 
principle  of  social  intervention  is  based  on  the  psycho-physiological  con- 
stitution of  his  being. 

The  collective  consciousness  of  injury  must  supplement  the  individual 
consciousness.     (Page  175.) 

Les  Projets  de  Limitation  de  la  Duree  du  Travail  des  Adulies  en  Belgique. 
[Proposals  regarding  Limitation  of  Hours  of  Work  for  Adults  in  Bel- 
gium.] Hector  Denis.  No.  X.  of  the  publications  of  the  Belgian 
Section  of  the  International  Association  for  Labor  Legislation.  Liege, 
Benard,  1908. 

Researches  into  the  psychology  of  work  prove  that  the  consciousness 
of  fatigue  is  only  attained  when  a  really  grave  state  of  overfatigue  has 


NERVOUS    FATIGUE  7I 

been  reached.  This  alone  would  justify  the  intervention  of  the  law.  .  .  .  BELGIUM 
The  classic  idea  was  that  unrestricted  individual  liberty  best  secured 
individual  interests  .  .  .  but  now  it  is  shown  that,  in  what  is  a  most 
imperative  interest  of  the  working  man,  namely,  conservation  of  his 
strength,  he  is  only  enlightened  imperfectly  and  tardily  by  consciousness; 
what,  then,  must  be  the  result  of  all  that  complicated  train  of  motives 
which,  as  Treves  has  pointed  out,  may  impel  the  working  man  to  risk 
overwork  and  overstrain?     (Pages  10-11.) 

Thirteenth  International  Congress  0}  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Brussels,  ITALY 
1903.  Vol.  V,  Section  IV.  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on,  par  des 
methodes  physiologiques,  etudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres 
dans  les  diverses  professions  ?  Quels  sont  les  arguments  que  les  sciences 
physiologiques  et  medicates  peuvent  ou  pourraient  faire  valoir  en  faveur 
de  tel  ou  tel  mode  d' organisation  du  travail  ?  [  To  what  extent  may  fatigue 
resulting  from  occupation  he  estimated  by  physiological  methods,  and 
what  arguments  can  medical  and  physiological  science  present  that  will 
influence  favorably  certain  methods  of  industrial  organisation  ?]  Dr. 
Zaccaria  Treves,  University  of  Turin.     Brussels,  1903. 

The  solution  of  the  problem  (of  nerve  fatigue  in  muscular  work)  has 
a  very  practical  importance,  because  the  working  man,  especially  when  he 
works  with  machinery,  is  most  frequently  subjected  to  a  mechanical 
rhythm  and  uniform  intensity,  and  his  labor  continues  regularly  for  hours. 
In  reality,  man  is  provided,  by  his  neuro-muscular  apparatus  and  the  systems 
of  levers  dependent  on  it,  with  a  mechanism  capable  of  making  a  lengthy  re- 
sistance either  to  the  direct  exhaustion  of  muscle,  or  to  the  action  of  ponogetic 
substance  (waste  materials  derived  from  the  brain  or  nerve  tissues);  so 
that  he  is  capable  of  doing  intense  work,  under  a  permanent  routine,  and  yet 
of  being  unaware  of  the  gradual  appearance  of  fatigue,  which,  however,  re- 
veals itself  by  other  symptoms.     (Page  5.) 

By  the  effect  of  training,  which,  as  we  know,  enables  the  minimum 
maximal  weight  (technical  ergographic  term,  meaning  minimum  of 
effort  with  maximum  result  of  work  accomplished)  to  be  doubled,  in 
experiments,  the  individual  will  be  able  to  endure  more  intensive  work  as 
a  regular  thing;  but  it  will  be  necessary  for  him  to  expend,  with  every 
contraction,  a  greater  amount  of  nervous  energy,  so  that  his  total  store  of 
disposable  nervous  energy  will  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

Now,  according  to  my  experiments,  it  has  not  been  found  that  training 
has  as  favorable  an  effect  upon  nervous  energy  as  upon  muscular  strength. 
The  only  evident  advantage  that  training  shows  in  the  nervous  function 


72  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ITALY  of  voluntary  motion  is  a  more  ready  co-ordination  of  muscles  and  an  ac- 

complishment of  the  purpose  with  a  smaller  number  of  muscles. 

This  qualitative  perfecting  of  motion  has  also,  no  doubt,  the  effect  of 
conserving  a  certain  amount  of  nervous  energy. 

The  well-trained  athlete,  then,  can  by  practice  lift  heavy  weights  with 
increasing  ease;  but,  when  his  muscles  have  attained  their  greatest 
strength,  the  nervous  energy  at  his  command  will  not  have  augmented 
proportionately  with  the  work  that  his  muscles  are  able  to  perform. 
The  result  is  that  in  order  to  perform  this  work  his  nervous  energy  will 
be  proportionately  more  expended.     (Page  6.) 

This  fact  explains  why  muscular  training  cannot  go  beyond  certain 
limits  and  why  athletes  are  often  broken  down  by  the  consequences  of 
overexertion. 

And  this  fact  also  teaches  us  the  practical  necessity  of  preventing 
women,  children,  and  even  adult  men  from  being  subjected  to  toil,  which, 
indeed,  a  gradual  muscular  training  may  make  possible,  but  at  the  price 
of  an  excessive  loss  of  nervous  energy  which  betrays  itself  by  no  evident 
and  immediate  symptom,  neither  objective  nor  subjective. 

While  the  individual  works,  the  reserves  of  disposable  nervous  energy 
in  the  neurones,  which  preside  over  muscles,  diminish  much  more  rapidly 
than  the  production  of  work,  which  may,  indeed,  proceed  according  to  a 
regular  pace.  In  spite  of  this  diminution,  if  circumstances  continually 
demand  intense  and  constant  work,  the  stimulus  will  continue  to  be  sent 
to  the  muscle  with  the  intensity  necessary  to  accomplish  the  purpose. 
(Page  6.) 

Here  we  have  an  arrangement  of  things  which  is  of  inestimable  value 
to  man  in  the  production  of  work:  but  this  beneficent  provision  becomes 
injurious  to  the  dynamic  equilibrium  of  the  organism  as  soon  as  it  is 
irrationally  employed.  It  is  this  that  needs  to  be  avoided  in  the  practical 
organization  of  industry.     (Page  7.) 

The  dvnamometer  might  serve  for  this  purpose  (examination  of  ap- 
proximate nervous  energy  of  the  individual)  by  calculating  the  product 
of  medium  strength  exerted  upon  the  dynamometer  by  the  duration  of  the 
tetanic  contraction.  A  dynamometric  comparative  test  of  different  hours 
of  work  in  different  occupations,  made  upon  a  large  number  of  individuals 
over  a  long  period  of  time,  might  perhaps  give  us  some  satisfactory  results 
and  discover  for  us  symptoms  of  fatigue  that  a  superficial  observation 
can  neither  perceive  in  the  subjective  condition  of  the  individual  nor  by 
the  quality  or  quantity  of  work  executed.     (Page  7.) 

Intelligence  and  will-power  driving  us  on  in  intensive  labor  in  order  to 
attain  the  maximum  useful  result  in  a  minimum  of  time,  and  our  practi- 


NERVOUS    FATIGUE  73 

cally  inexhaustible  muscles  aiding  in  this,  a  state  of  things  is  established  ITALY 
which  involves  formidable  overstrain  of  those  parts  of  the  nervous  system 
which  act  as  the  immediate  regulators  of  our  energies.  ...  I  must  con- 
clude from  my  experiments  that  the  average  energy  of  contraction  does 
not  increase  in  an  appreciable  extent  as  the  result  of  practice:  It  would 
appear  that  a  true  training  of  the  nervous  motor  Junction  does  not  exist. 
(Page  24.) 

Industry  has  developed  in  an  almost  dizzy  fashion,  and  the  worker's 
tasks  have  been  almost  completely  transformed,  labor  having  become 
more  intense  and  more  monotonous.  It  is  only  by  following  the  methods 
indicated  previoush"  that  we  shall  be  able  to  know  exactly  whether  this 
state  of  things  may,  or  may  not,  be  a  natural  cause  of  physical  and  psychi- 
cal overstrain  of  working  people. 

Such  overstrain  would  constitute  a  danger  with  which  our  hygienic 
reviews  have  concerned  themselves  too  little,  and  which  is  no  less  grave 
and  menacing  than  overwork  in  the  school,  which  in  the  past  few  years 
has  become  the  favorite  theme  of  sociologists  and  pedagogues  as  well  as 
physiologists. 

And  yet,  when  we  consider  the  knowledge  and  the  methods  in  the 
possession  of  physiology  to-day  for  examining  into  the  resistance  of  the 
human  organism,  the  study  of  the  fatigue  of  working  men  seems  to  offer 
the  hygienist  a  better  chance  of  arriving  at  a  practical  solution  than  that 
of  the  fatigue  of  the  schoolboy.     (Page  30.) 

The  above  (ergograph,  modified  ergograph,  electric  stimuli,  sphygmo- 
graph,  physical  and  laboratorical  examination,  psychic  tests,  ergostat, 
chemical  experiments)  are  the  most  exact  methods  at  the  disposal  of  the 
physiologist  for  measuring  the  energetic  value  of  the  human  organism, 
and  these  methods  only  can  prove  to  the  hygienist  how  a  state  of  what  we 
may  call  chronic  fatigue  may  be  a  permanent  cause  of  enfeeblement  of 
the  working  man.     (Page  30.) 

.  .  .  The  efficiency  of  the  human  organism  depends  rigidly  on  the 
stage  of  evolution  and  of  the  resistance  of  all  higher  faculties,  both  moral 
and  intellectual.  The  workman's  productivity  depends  on  his  ability 
to  use  his  head  as  well  as  his  hands.     (Page  32.) 

Archiv  fiir  Anatomie  und  Physiologie,  1890.  Physiologische  Ahtheilung. 
Uber  die  Geset^e  der  Ermiidung.  [The  Laws  of  Fatigue.]  Dr.  Arnaldo 
Maggiora,  University  of  Turin.     Leipzig,  1890. 

I  found,  by  experiments  morning  and  evening,  that  the  chief  importance 
of  sleep  is  for  its  effect  on  the  nerve  centres.     With  moderate  exertion. 


74 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


ITALY  such  as  the  ordinary  occupations  of  a  day  demand,  the  store  of  muscular 

energy  is  not  exhausted,  and  the  night's  rest  is  therefore  of  minor  effect 
upon  the  muscles,  but  the  influence  of  sleep  upon  the  nerve  centres  is  far 
more  definite.     (Page  225.) 

Fatigue.  A.  Mosso,  Professor  of  Physiology,  University  of  Turin,  1896. 
Translated  by  Margaret  Drummond,  M.A.,  and  W.  B.  Drummond, 
M.B.,  Extra  Physician,  Royal  Hospital  for  Sick  Children,  Edinburgh. 
New  York,  Putnam,  1904. 

The  nervous  system  is  the  sole  source  of  energy;  and  although  we 
must  admit  a  certain  amount  of  localization,  this  is  not  of  such  a  nature 
as  to  prevent  the  neighboring  organs  feeling  any  loss  through  the  great 
activity  of  any  one  organ.  The  exhaustion  of  energy  is  general;  and  all 
the  magazines  of  energy  can  be  drained  by  the  exaggeration  of  any  activity 
whatever  of  the  organism.  The  conclusion  to  which  we  are  led  by  my 
experiments  is  that  there  exists  only  one  kind  of  fatigue,  namely,  nervous 
fatigue;  this  is  the  preponderating  phenomenon,  and  muscular  fatigue 
also  is  at  bottom  an  exhaustion  of  the  nervous  system.     (Page  243.) 

Cerebral  fatigue  diminishes  the  force  of  the  muscles,  and  with  the 
ergograph  we  measure  this  phenomenon  with  exactitude.  The  need  of 
rest  after  intense  brain  work  arises  then  from  the  fact  that  the  nervous 
centres  are  exhausted  and  the  muscles  weakened.  The  feeling  of  dis- 
comfort and  the  prostration  which  characterize  intellectual  fatigue  are 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  brain,  which  is  already  exhausted,  has  to  send 
stronger  stimuli  to  the  muscles  in  order  to  make  them  contract.  The 
exhaustion  is  twofold:  central  and  peripheral.  This  explains  why  after 
brain  fatigue  one  feels  one's  energy  exhausted  by  the  slightest  movement, 
and  why  every  obstacle  which  we  have  to  overcome  seems  to  have  grown 
more  serious.     (Page  280.) 


GERMANY  Berliner  Klinische  Wochenschrift,  hi"'  5.  Feb.  4,  1901.  Ermiidung  und 
Erholung.  [Fatigue  and  Repair.]  Prof.  Max  Verworn,  Jena. 
Berlin,  Hirschwald,  1901. 

There  is  an  organ  whose  state  of  fatigue  arouses  our  physiological  and 
pathological  interest  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  does  muscular  fatigue, 
and  this  is  the  central  nervous  system.  The  central  nervous  system,  as 
the  dominating  system  of  our  bodies,  which  communicates  to  all  other 
however  important  organs  the  impulses  which  promote  or  check  their 
activities,  must  always  share  in  the  fatigue  of  single  organs,  such  as  the 


NERVOUS    FATIGUE  75 

muscles,  by  reasons  of  this  co-ordinating  function  and  relation.  But  it  GERMANY 
results,  too,  from  the  centralization  of  the  control  of  all  our  vital  functions 
there,  that  fatigue  of  the  central  nervous  system  has  a  far  more  decisive 
importance  for  the  collective  bodily  activities  than  has  the  fatigue  of  a 
single  group  of  organs  such  as  the  muscles.  This  is  made  most  plainly 
evident  by  all  the  symptoms  of  pathological  fatigue.     (Page  127.) 

Grenifragen  des  Nerven  und  Seelenlehens.  [Borderland  Problems  of  Ner- 
vous and  Psychic  Life.]  Edited  by  Loewenfeld  and  Kurella. 
f^ol.  6.  Uber  die  Geistige  Arbeitskraft  und  ihre  Hygiene.  [On  Mental 
Working  Power  and  its  Hygiene.]  Dr.  L.  Loewenfeld.  JViesbaden, 
Bergmann,  1906. 

The  nerve  elements  of  the  brain,  like  other  nerve  structures,  are  by  no 
means  capable  of  activity  for  unlimited  time  periods.  After  a  certain 
duration  of  activity  the  nerve  elements  lose  their  responsiveness  to  stimu- 
lation, and  fatigue  results,  or,  under  forced  stimulation,  complete  ex- 
haustion follows,  even  though  the  store  of  energy  accumulated  in  the 
chemical  combinations  of  the  nerve  cells  has  not  been  used  up.  If  we 
ask  why  nerve  elements  become  incapable  of  exertion  after  long-continued 
work,  though  their  disposable  energy  is  not  consumed,  we  find  that  we 
have  here  to  do  with  the  effect  of  a  poisonous  product,  the  toxic  waste 
product  of  fatigue.  The  accumulation  of  this  poison  paralyzes  the  nerve 
substance.  This  is  one  of  nature's  protective  measures.  Through  the 
paralyzing  action  of  the  poison  the  elasticity  of  the  tissues  is  protected 
from  overstrain,  and  a  destruction  of  tissue  substance,  which  cannot  be 
compensated  by  rest  and  food,  is  prevented.  (Page  13.)  The  hygiene 
of  the  mental  working  capacity  in  adults  demands  before  all  else  an  eco- 
nomic use  of  the  same,  that  is,  the  avoidance  of  overexertion.  The  in- 
dividual's capital  of  available  nerve  force,  whether  that  capital  is  large 
or  small,  must  not  be  permanently  decreased  by  the  work  executed.  A 
disproportionate  mental  exertion  may  impair  the  nerve-capital  in  two 
ways : 

1.  By  necessitating  a  consumption  of  nerve  elements  which  cannot  be 
fully  compensated  for  by  the  available  nutrition  and  sleep,  thus  leading  to 
a  progressive  diminution  of  strength. 

2.  By  accumulating  poisonous  waste  products  in  the  tissues,  in  excess 
of  excretion.  These  wastes,  as  we  have  seen,  by  virtue  of  their  poisonous 
properties,  and  their  paralyzing  action  on  nerve  elements,  lower  the  mental 
efficiency  even  more  seriously  than  is  the  case  when  the  chemical  constitu- 
ents of  the  tissues  are  impoverished  by  insufficient  nourishment. 


76  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  According  to  all  evidences,  mental  overexertion  does  not  always  ex- 

hibit these  two  phenomena  in  equal  proportion,  but  one  or  the  other 
predominates  according  to  the  circumstances  of  the  nutrition  of  the  in- 
dividual. It  is  clear  that  those  persons  whose  cerebral  circulation  is 
poorer  will  sooner  suffer  a  loss  of  mental  capital  if  they  are  forced  beyond 
their  normal  mental  working  power,  just  because  the  overconsumption  of 
elasticity  that  is  made  necessary  by  the  overexertion  does  not  find  adequate 
reimbursement  in  the  nutritive  properties  of  the  blood;  and  it  is  also 
clear  that  those  whose  cerebral  circulation  is  especially  abundant  are 
enabled  to  retain  their  mental  capital  longer  even  if  subjected  to  severe 
nervous  strain  of  work.  The  disturbances  noted  in  course  of  time  in  such 
an  individual  are  more  likely  to  be  those  of  auto-intoxication  from  re- 
tained waste  products.     (Pages  43-44.) 

Handworterhuch  der  Siaatswissenschaften.  Bd.  I.  [Compendium  of 
Political  Science.  Vol.  /.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor 
of  Political  Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin; 
W.  Lexis,  Professor  of  Political  Science  in  Gottingen;  and  Edg. 
LoENiNG,  Professor  of  Law  in  Halle.  Arbeits^eit.  [Hours  of  Work.] 
Dr.  H.  Herkner,  Berlin,     fena,  Fischer,  1909. 

In  modern  industry  the  activity  of  the  worker  is  usually  confined  to 
certain  muscular  groups  alone.  The  burden  therefore  rests  upon  a  few 
overworked  organs.  The  same  muscles,  the  same  nervous  tissues,  and 
the  same  parts  of  the  brain  are  continually  at  work.  In  this  way  fatigue 
comes  on  much  more  rapidly  than  where  an  alternation  allows  temporary 
use  of  various  organs,  thus  giving  them  time  for  rest.  As,  in  monotonous 
muscular  work,  muscular  fatigue  comes  on  quickly,  so  with  monotonous, 
one-sided  mental  work  (for  instance,  long-continued  addition)  fatigue 
comes  on  very  quickly.  In  general,  fatigue  of  the  nerves  approaches  more 
slowly  than  muscular  fatigue;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  nervous  repair 
takes  a  much  longer  time.     (Page  1215.) 

Man  realizes  fatigue  not  only  by  the  less  satisfactory  results  of  work  but 
also  by  sensations  of  pain  and  aversion.  These  are  warning  signals  and 
protective  devices  of  nature,  by  whose  help  injury  may  be  averted.  But 
it  is  possible  that  in  the  zeal  of  work  these  signals  may  be  ignored.  The 
injurious  effects  will  therefore,  however,  not  be  avoided.  Again,  the  signal 
may  be  noticed  but  cannot  be  heeded  through  the  compulsion  of  circum- 
stances. The  day's  work  must  be  finished,  and  work  must  be  kept  up 
longer  for  the  sake  of  the  day's  wages.  Then,  with  the  utmost  strain  of 
the  will  power,  further  activity  must  be  wrung  from  the  wearied  organism. 


NERVOUS    FATIGUE  77 

But  this  eflFort  of  will  also  means  an  expenditure  of  energy,  probably  a  GERMANY 
more  excessive  drain  upon  albumen.     (Pages  1215-1216.) 

Etude  sur  l' Influence  de  la  Duree  du  Travail  Quotidien  sur  la  Sante  Generale  FRANCE 
de  I'Adulte.     [Study  of  the  Effect  of  the  Length  of  IVorking  Hours  upon 
the  General  Health  of  Adults.]     Ilia  Sachnine.     Lyon,  1900. 

According  to  the  same  author  (Lagrange)  there  are  two  other  types  of 
overwork  which  are  not  due  to  auto-intoxication :  first,  organic  exhaustion ; 
an  individual  compelled  to  work  with  expenditure  of  physical  strength 
must,  if  his  nutrition  is  insufficient  or  imperfectly  assimilated,  draw  upon 
his  reserve  tissues  for  material  for  combustion,  and,  when  this  reserve  is 
exhausted,  the  organs  essential  to  life  are  next  drawn  upon  to  supply  the 
necessary  energy.  The  organism  thus  deprives  itself  of  the  organic 
elements  indispensable  to  the  equilibrium  of  health.  This  is  auto-phagia, 
or  exhaustion.  According  to  Lagrange,  overwork,  insufficient  sleep  and 
nourishment,  and,  above  all,  excessive  hours  of  work,  give  rise  to  organic 
exhaustion.  The  second  type  of  overwork  mentioned  is  dynamic  ex- 
haustion; here  there  is  a  sort  of  exhaustion  of  the  motor  nerve  centres. 
This  form  of  fatigue  shows  no  appreciable  anatomical  changes,  but  only  a 
loss  of  energy.  It  results  from  an  over-expenditure  of  nerve  force. 
(Pages  45-46.) 


Diseases  of  Occupation  from  the  Legislative,  Social,  and  Medical  Points  of 
View.  Thomas  Oliver,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  Medical  Expert  on 
the  White  Lead,  Dangerous  Trades,  Pottery,  and  Lucifer  Match  Com- 
mittees of  the  British  Home  Office.     New  York,  Dutton,  1908. 

As  the  result  of  overwork  Hodge,  an  American  physiologist,  found 
structural  changes  in  the  nerve  cells  which  rest  removed.  F.  H.  Scott 
(Journ.  Physiology,  Vol.  XXX IV,  Nos.  1  and  2,  p.  145)  states  that  in 
nerve  cells  there  is  formed  from  the  nucleus  and  Nissl  bodies  of  the  cell  a 
substance  which  passes  into  the  nerve  fibres.  These  fibres  are  capable 
of  carrying  impulses  without  becoming  fatigued,  but  they  cannot  maintain 
the  end-organs  of  the  nerve  in  a  condition  of  activity  beyond  a  limited 
period.  It  would  appear,  therefore,  as  if  some  substance  were  given  out 
from  the  nerve  cells,  hence  as  a  consequence  the  readier  fatigue  of  the 
central  nervous  system  compared  with  the  peripheral.  Scott  tried  to 
locate  the  seat  of  fatigue.  Muscle  fibre  may  become  fatigued,  also  the 
nerve  cells  in  the  spinal  cord,  owing  to  the  hypothetical  substance  already 
alluded  to  being  used  up  and  time  not  given  for  fresh  secretion  to  have 
been  formed.     (Page  8.) 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


78  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Brain   IVork   and  Overwork.     Dr.    H.    C.   Wood,    Clinical    Professor    of 

STATES 

Nervous  Diseases  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.     Philadelphia, 
Blakiston,  1880. 

Voluntary  motion  of  a  hand  and  arm  is  the  result  of  a  complicated 
series  of  acts.  Successive  discharges  of  nerve  force  occur,  commencing 
in  the  upper  brain  and  passing  downward  along  the  spinal  cord  and  out- 
ward along  the  nerves  until  the  muscles  are  reached  and  are  called  by  the 
nervous  impulse  or  force  into  action.  It  is  a  lesson  not  to  be  forgotten, 
that  in  exercise,  not  merely  the  muscle,  but  almost  the  whole  nervous  sys- 
tem labors;  and  that  muscular  movements  are  just  as  truly  a  putting 
forth  of  nervous  power  or  energy  as  are  mental  efforts.     (Page  92.) 

There  is  certainly  in  the  adult  some  antagonism  between  hard  physical 
and  mental  labor.  Muscular  work  rests  upon  a  putting  forth  of  nervous 
energy,  and  the  man  who  has  exhausted  his  stock  of  nervous  energy  in 
violent  exercise  cannot  be  expected  to  perform  a  prodigy  of  brain  labor. 
(Page  98.) 

Alienist  and  Neurologist.  Vol.  XXI.  Influence  of  Age  upon  the  Pro- 
duction of  Nervous  Diseases.  William  C.  Krauss,  B.S.,  M.D. 
St.  Louis,  Hughes,  1900. 

The  study  of  the  influence  of  exhaustion  upon  the  central  nervous 
system  has  received  renewed  vigor  and  enthusiasm  since  the  classic  ex- 
periments of  the  American  investigator,  C.  F.  Hodge,  and  later  verified 
by  those  of  Vas,  Lambert,  Lugaro,  Mann,  and  others.  In  a  series  of 
brilliant  experimental  researches,  Hodge  has  established  the  existence  of 
definite  morphological  alterations  in  the  cell  bodies  of  neurons  accompany- 
ing the  excessive  exercise  of  their  physiological  function.  His  experi- 
ments on  cats,  sparrows,  pigeons,  and  honey  bees,  showing  that  after 
prolonged  exercise  or  activity  demonstrable  changes  take  place  in  the 
protoplasm  and  nucleus  of  the  cells  of  the  brain  and  cord,  are  familiar  to 
you  all.     (Page  647.) 

The  Harvey  Lectures,  1905-1906.  Fatigue.  Frederic  S.  Lee,  Ph.D. 
Philadelphia,  Lippincott,  1906. 

The  term,  muscular  fatigue,  requires  a  word  of  explanation,  for  it 
has  been  shown  by  various  investigators,  including  Waller,  Abelous, 
Santesson,  and  Joteyko,  that  when  the  muscle  in  fatigue  ceases  to  respond 
to  stimuli  sent  to  it  through  its  nerve,  it  is  still  capable  of  contracting  on 
direct  stimulation.     Their  inference  from  this  fact  is  that  the  motor  nerve 


NERVOUS    FATIGUE  79 

endings  within  the  muscle  are  the  first  part  of  the  mechanism  to  succumb,  united 
This  inference  is  probably  justified;  the  nerve  endings  are  probably  more 
susceptible  to  fatigue  than  the  protoplasm  of  the  muscle  cells,  and  hence 
the  muscle  protoplasm  itself  within  the  organism  probably  never  reaches 
the  stage  of  profound  exhaustion.  .  .  .  (Page  173.)  It  has  long  gone 
without  dispute  that  in  prolonged  activity  the  brain  and  spinal  cord 
succumb  first,  and  thus  the  exhaustion  of  the  peripheral  tissues  is  pre- 
vented. The  nerve  center  has  been  compared  to  the  fuse  of  an  electric 
circuit,  the  burning  out  of  which  protects  the  muscle  from  grievous  in- 
jury. By  most  upholders  of  the  neuron  theory  central  fatigue  has  been 
referred  to  the  bodies  of  the  nerve  cells,  in  which  Hodge,  Vas,  Mann, 
Lugaro,  Eve,  and  others  have  demonstrated  histologic  changes  after 
activity.     .    .    .    (Pages  175-176.) 

While  these  histologic  changes  after  excessive  activity  have  generally 
been  interpreted  as  significant  of  fatigue,  there  does  not  exist  general 
agreement  as  to  their  mode  of  origin.  (Page  176.^  Other  experiments, 
however,  indicate  that  there  is  less  justification  than  has  commonly  been 
supposed  for  the  idea  that  the  central  nervous  system  fatigues  before  the 
muscular  system,  and  lead  us  to  suspect  that  the  reverse  is  true.  (Page  177.) 

With  the  general  problem  in  this  somewhat  uncertain  state,  what  can 
we  say  of  mental  fatigue?  That  it  is  a  reality  can  not,  of  course,  be  de- 
nied. It  is  characterized  pre-eminently  by  a  weakening  of  the  powers  of 
attention  and  the  reproductive  phase  of  memory,  and  the  psychophysical 
laboratories  have  shown  us  in  innumerable  ways  how  it  manifests  itself. 
.  .  .  We  can  not  deny  fatigue  to  psychic  centers,  but  the  intimate  rela- 
tions of  central  and  peripheral  fatigue  are  much  in  need  of  exact  experi- 
mental study.     (Page  180.) 

Bulletin  of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred  on  National  Health.     Prepared 
for  the  National  Conservation  Commission  by  Professor  Irving  Fisher, 
Yale  University.     No.  30.     Washington.     July,  1909. 

The  present  working  day  is  a  striking  example  of  the  failure  to  conserve 
national  vitality.  In  order  to  keep  labor  power  unimpaired,  the  working 
day  should  be  physiological — i.  e.,  it  should  be  such  as  would  enable  the 
average  individual  to  completely  recuperate  over  night.  Otherwise,  in- 
stead of  a  simple  daily  cycle,  there  is  a  progressive  deterioration.  A  re- 
duction in  the  length  of  the  work  day  would  be  a  chief  means  of  improving 
the  vitality  of  workmen,  as  well  as  the  worth  of  life  to  them.  The  fatigue 
of  workmen  is  largely  traceable  to  their  long  work  day  and  serves  to  start 
a  vicious  circle.     Fatigue  puts  the  workman  in  an  abnormal  frame  of 


80  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  mind.     He  seeks  to  deaden  his  fatigue  by  alcohol,  tobacco,  exciting  amuse- 

ments,  and  excesses  of  various  kinds.  The  momentary  relief  which  he 
thereby  obtains  is  purchased  at  the  expense  of  an  increasing  suscepti- 
bility to  fatigue,  resulting  sooner  or  later  in  complete  depletion  of  his  vital 
energies  and  in  the  contraction  of  tuberculosis  or  other  fatal  disease. 
(Page  45.) 

The  relatively  slight  impairment  of  efficiency  due  to  overfatigue  leads 
to  more  serious  impairment.  Just  as  minor  ailments  prove  to  have  an 
unsuspected  importance  when  considered  as  gateways  to  serious  illness, 
so  the  inefficiency  from  fatigue  is  vested  with  great  significance  as  the 
first  step  toward  minor  ailments.  Obviously  if  overfatigue  could  be  re- 
duced to  a  minimum,  this  reduction  would  carry  with  it  the  prevention  of 
the  major  part  of  minor  ailments,  which  in  turn  would  lead  to  a  great  re- 
duction in  more  serious  illness,  and  this  finally  would  lead  to  a  great  re- 
duction in  mortality.  A  typical  succession  of  events  is  first  fatigue,  then 
colds,  then  tuberculosis,  then  death.  Prevention,  to  be  effective,  must 
begin  at  the  beginning.     (Page  47.) 


(4)    Muscular  Fatigue 

The  dangers  of  excessive  working  hours  for  women  are 
increased  by  the  fact  that  the  onset  of  fatigue  is  often  un- 
perceived  by  the  worker.  Not  until  the  damage  is  done  and 
health  is  impaired  by  the  strain  of  overlong  hours  is  the  in- 
jury manifest. 

Yet  though  fatigue  may  thus  accumulate  unperceived, 
the  laws  of  fatigue  and  its  progressive  growth  have  been 
exactly  studied  by  scientific  instruments  of  measurement. 
The  most  important  such  instrument — the  ergograph — 
was  devised  to  measure  the  fatigue  of  a  single  muscle  or 
group  of  muscles.  It  records  the  curves  traced  upon  a 
revolving  cylinder  by  momentary  contractions  of  the  finger 
muscles  lifting  a  known  weight  or  stretching  a  spring  of 
known  tension  at  regular  intervals.  Such  a  record  shows 
a  steady  diminution  of  the  lifting  power  of  the  muscle,  the 
rate  and  regularity  of  the  diminution  varying  with  in- 
dividuals. 


MUSCULAR    FATIGUE  gl 

After  a  certain  degree  of  fatigue  has  set  in,  the  muscle 
becomes  incapable  of  performing  further  work  unless  a 
lighter  weight  or  less  tension  is  involved,  or  its  contractility 
is  restored  either  by  artificially  irrigating  the  muscle  or  by 
allowing  an  interval  of  adequate  rest  to  intervene  before 
renewed  exertion.  If  fatigue  has  not  proceeded  too  far, 
this  suffices  to  remove  the  toxic  fatigue  products  which  have 
been  produced  in  the  muscle.  After  exhaustion  has  set  in, 
a  much  longer  period  of  rest  is  required  to  restore  the  muscle 
to  use,  or  it  may  become  wholly  incapacitated. 

To  prevent  injurious  accumulation  of  unperceived  fa- 
tigue, therefore,  over-exertion  through  excessive  working 
hours  must  be  prevented. 

Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects.     Vol.  IX.     On  the  Measurement  GERMANY 
of  Mental  Fatigue  in  Germany.     C.  C.  Th.  Parez,  German  Master  at 
Merchiston  School.     London,  IVyman,  1902. 

The  application  of  the  first  of  the  above-mentioned  methods  (physical 
or  muscular  test)  is  due  to  Mosso,  professor  of  Physiology  in  Turin,  who 
perfected  a  method  of  measuring  the  work  done  by  a  certain  group  of 
muscles  in  raising  a  definite  weight  again  and  again  at  regular  intervals 
until  complete  exhaustion  ensued. 

For  this  purpose  Mosso  hit  upon  the  idea  of  employing  an  adapted 
form  of  the  myograph,  an  instrument  devised  by  H.  von  Helmholtz  for 
recording  muscular  contractions,  the  principle  of  which  may  be  gathered 
from  the  following  well-known  experiments: 

The  leg  of  a  frog  is  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  body,  and  to  its  ex- 
tremity a  pencil  is  attached,  which  is  so  arranged  that  its  point  comes  in 
contact  with  a  cylinder  covered  with  sooty  paper,  which  revolves  round  a 
vertical  axis;  as  long  as  the  leg  remains  at  rest,  the  pencil  traces  out  an 
even  line  on  the  revolving  cylinder,  but  if  the  nerves  connected  with  the 
muscles  are  excited  by  electricity,  the  muscles  contract,  and  the  pencil 
traces  a  curve  on  the  cylinder,  first  upward  and  then  downward,  whose 
form  corresponds  to  the  muscular  contraction  of  the  leg,  and  gives  a 
measure  of  the  energy  developed  in  the  leg  by  the  nervous  irritation  pro- 
duced by  electricity.  After  continued  application  of  electricity,  the 
muscle  becomes  tired  and  the  curves  traced  on  the  cylinder  show  a  cor- 
responding modification  in  size  and  form. 
6* 


82  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  Acting  on  the  principle  here  exemplified,  Mosso  constructed  the  ergo- 

graph,  an  instrument  designed  to  record  the  work  done  by  a  particular 
muscle  or  group  of  muscles  of  the  human  body.  The  chief  point  aimed  at 
in  the  construction  of  the  instrument  was  to  isolate  the  working  muscles 
completely,  so  that  no  other  muscle  could  be  in  a  position  to  aid  them  when 
tired.  The  apparatus  is  accordingly  arranged  so  that  one  part  of  it  holds 
the  arm,  hand,  and  all  the  fingers  fast,  except  the  middle  finger,  which 
alone  is  capable  of  extension  and  contraction;  that  is,  the  flexor  muscles 
alone  can  be  brought  into  play;  the  other  part  of  the  apparatus  is  similar 
to  Helmholtz's  instrument,  except  that  to  the  writing  apparatus,  which 
records  the  curves  on  the  cylinder,  a  weight  of  two,  three,  or  more  kilo- 
grams is  attached. 

When  using  the  instrument,  the  person  who  is  to  be  subjected  to  the 
test  contracts  his  middle  finger  at  regular  intervals  of  time,  generally 
every  two  seconds;  the  height  to  which  the  weight  attached  to  it  is 
raised,  is  recorded  on  the  cylinder,  and  decreases  gradually  until  at  length, 
in  consequence  of  fatigue,  the  flexor  muscles  have  no  longer  the  power  to 
raise  the  weight  at  all,  so  that  the  mark  on  the  cylinder  appears  simply  a 
straight  line.  If  a  grown  man  uses  a  weight  of  three  to  four  kilograms, 
and  repeats  the  contractions  every  two  seconds,  he  is  usually  able  to  raise 
the  weight  forty  to  eighty  times,  each  lift  being,  as  a  rule,  slightly  less 
than  the  previous  one.  .  .  . 

If  the  highest  points  of  all  the  separate  contractions  as  recorded  on  the 
cylinder  be  joined,  the  result  is  a  line  of  characteristic  form  known  as  the 
Curve  of  Fatigue. 

This  curve  displays  a  characteristic  and  constant  form  for  each  in- 
dividual, supposing  him  to  be  in  fresh  condition  and  the  weight  raised 
and  the  intervals  of  time  to  be  the  same  at  each  trial,  from  which  it  may 
be  inferred  that  every  person  has  special  characteristics  as  regards  capa- 
city for  work,  and  liability  to  fatigue.  This  inference  is  confirmed  by  the 
following  experiment:  The  nerves  of  the  muscles  employed  in  lifting  the 
weight,  attached  to  the  weight  were  subjected  to  the  action  of  an  electric 
current,  so  that  all  mental  influence  was  eliminated.  In  this  case  the 
curve  obtained  from  the  record  of  the  work  done  by  the  excited  muscles 
showed  again  the  characteristic  form  peculiar  to  the  individual,  although 
deficient  in  length  and  height.  At  the  same  time,  however,  variations 
in  the  mental  and  physical  state  of  the  individual  have  of  course  a  direct 
influence  in  the  form  and  size  of  the  curve;  the  curve  is  in  fact,  as  Mosso 
tells  us,  "the  resultant  of  a  complexity  of  causes  which  influence  the 
muscles,  nerve  centres,  and  circulation,  and  depend  upon  the  composition 
of  the  blood,  and  the  general  condition  of  the  system." 


MUSCULAR   FATIGUE  83 

Increase  and  decrease  of  bodily  vigour,  practice,  mode  of  life,  duration  germahy 
of  sleep,  rest,  mental  excitement,  physical  as  well  as  mental  exertion,  all 
tend  to  cause  modification  of  the  curve.  .  .  . 

Practice,  of  course,  strengthens  the  muscles  and  enables  them  to 
perform  more  work  in  course  of  time,  but  the  results  of  practice  can  easily 
be  distinguished  and  do  not  effect  the  characteristic  form  of  the  curve. 
(Pages  531-532.) 

A  comparison  of  curves  obtained  from  different  individuals  affords  an 
interesting  insight  into  their  respective  working  powers. 

Seldom  are  the  curves  alike;  the  number  of  lifts  varies,  as  also  the 
height  of  each  single  effort. 

With  some  persons  the  contractions  attain  the  same  height  for  a  con- 
siderable period  and  drop  suddenly  towards  the  end,  with  others  they  drop 
more  quickly  at  first,  while  in  the  case  of  others  again,  the  height  de- 
creases regularly  for  a  considerable  period  and  suddenly  sinks  to  a  mini- 
mum after  some  time.     (Page  533.) 

In  fact,  the  record  of  the  ergograph  bears  out  the  results  of  ordinary 
observation,  that  some  persons  feel  tired  and  begin  to  play  almost  im- 
mediately while  others  work  at  comparatively  high  pressure  for  some 
time  and  give  way  suddenly  as  complete  exhaustion  ensues,  some  are 
capable  of  longer,  others  of  shorter  periods  of  work.*     (Page  533.  ) 

Handworterhuch  der  Staatswissenschaften.  Bd.  I.  [Compendium  of 
Political  Science,  Vol.  /.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of 
Political  Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin; 
W.  Lexis,  Professor  of  Political  Science  in  Gottingen;  and  Edg. 
LoENiNG,  Professor  of  Law  in  Halle.  Arbeits^eit.  [Hours  of  Work.] 
Dr.  H.  Herkner,  Berlin.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

Precise  estimates  of  phenomena  of  fatigue  are  more  easily  made  in 
the  case  of  muscle  than  of  nerve.  Energetic  muscular  work  makes  extra 
work  for  the  heart,  lungs,  and  digestion,  that  is  easily  estimated.  If, 
for  instance,  the  pulse  rate  exceeds  50-60  per  cent  of  its  rate  when  at 
rest — if  it  is  over  140,  and  if  after  10  minutes'  rest  it  has  not  yet  fallen  to 
normal,  we  have  before  us  an  injurious  degree  of  fatigue. 

Respiration  should  not  exceed  the  rate  existing  in  a  state  of  rest  by 
more  than  75  per  cent,  and  after  a  fifteen  minutes'  pause  for  rest  it  should 
not  remain  higher  than  30  per  cent  above  normal.  Elevation  of  the  body 
temperature  to  39°  or  40°  centigrade  (Fahrenheit  103°-104°)  is  unques- 
tionably very  harmful. 

*  For  another  full  description  of  the  ergograph  see  the  Text  Book  of  Physiology 
by  William  H.  Howells,  M.D.     Philadelphia,  W.  B.  Saunders  Co.,  1907. 


84 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  The  most  exact  estimate  we  can  make  of  the  consumption  of  energy  is 

that  obtained  by  the  test  of  the  oxygen  consumption  of  the  body.  This 
procedure  it  is  true,  requires  the  use  of  complicated  apparatus  in  physio- 
logical laboratories.     (Page  1215.) 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


Diseases  of  Occupation  from  the  Legislative,  Social,  and  Medical  Points  of 
View.  Thomas  Oliver,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  Medical  Expert 
on  the  IVhite  Lead,  Dangerous  Trades,  Pottery,  and  Lucifer  Match 
Committees  of  the  British  Home  Office.  New  York,  Dutton  Co., 
1908. 

During  inactivity  living  muscle  is  absorbing  oxygen  from  the  blood  and 
is  throwing  off  small  quantities  of  carbonic  acid — it  is  storing  up  glycogen 
and  fat;  but  during  activity  the  nutrition  of  the  muscle  is  quite  altered. 
A  larger  quantity  of  oxygen  is  absorbed,  the  carbonic  acid  evolved  is 
considerable,  glycogen  disappears,  for  it  is  used  up,  and  the  temperature 
rises.  The  contractile  substance  of  the  muscular  fibre  becomes  acid  in 
reaction,  owing  to  the  presence  of  lactic  acid  and  other  derivatives.  When- 
ever muscular  activity  is  carried  to  the  point  of  exhaustion,  glycogen, 
which  is  the  source  of  the  muscular  energy,  disappears.  It  is  used  up, 
being  transformed  into  carbon  dioxide  and  water  with  lactic  acid.  Al- 
though deprived  of  glycogen,  muscle  can  still  contract  owing  to  the  nitro- 
genous substances  it  contains.  Muscular  activity  requires  nervous  ac- 
tivity as  well.  Nerve  cells  as  producers  of  force,  nerve  fibres  as  carriers, 
and  muscles  as  the  agents  of  contraction  are  all  involved  in  manual  labour. 
Each  of  these  plays  its  own  part  in  fatigue.     (Page  9.) 


ITALY 


Thirteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Brussels, 
1903.  Vol.  V,  Section  IV.  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on,  par  des 
methodes  physiologiques,  etudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres 
dans  les  diverses  professions?  Quels  sont  les  arguments  que  les  sciences 
physiologiques  et  medicates  peuvent  on  pourraient  faire  valoir  en  faveur 
de  iel  ou  tel  mode  d' organisation  du  travail  ?  [To  what  extent  may  fatigue 
resulting  from  occupation  he  estimated  by  physiological  methods,  and 
what  arguments  can  medical  and  physiological  science  present  in  favor 
of  special  methods  of  industrial  organiiation  ?]  Dr.  Zaccaria  Treves, 
University  of  Turin.     Brussels,  1903. 

The  curves  of  work  production  and  of  contractile  energy  in  voluntary 
muscular  work,  both  under  a  given  rhythm  and  under  a  spontaneous 
rhythm,  have  shown  us  that  the  unfavorable  conditions  of  work  may  be 
unperceived    by    the  workman  who  is  subjected  to  a  task  beyond  his 


MUSCULAR    FATIGUE  85 

Strength.  This  possibility  is  greater  than  is  realized,  for  the  observations  italy 
of  Zuntz  and  Schumberg  have  proved  that,  though  muscular  work  pro- 
vokes ordinarily  a  greater  expenditure  of  albumin,  a  fatiguing  piece  of 
work  performed  by  an  organism  in  a  state  of  slight  inanition  results  in  an 
accumulation  of  albumin,  an  augmentation  of  the  muscular  mass,  from 
whence  there  is  an  augmentation  of  the  absolute  strength  of  the  muscles; 
so  that  even  in  a  condition  of  slight  inanition  the  individual  may  still 
exact  greater  and  greater  efforts  from  his  muscles. 

All  circumstances  which  hamper  work  in  any  way,  such  as  ill  health 
or  local  pain,  have  the  effect  of  augmenting  the  expense  of  energy  in  pro- 
portion to  the  external  work  .  .  .  We  can  then  affirm,  as  a  general  law, 
ihzi  fatigue  finds  its  expression  in  an  abnormal  augmentation  of  the  expendi- 
ture of  tissue  materials  as  compared  with  work  done.     (Page  28.) 

When,  after  fatiguing  work,  ordinary  reagents  show  traces  of  albumin- 
uria, it  must  be  concluded  that  the  muscular  effort,  even  if  it  has  not  been 
too  prolonged,  has  surpassed  the  physiological  limits  of  the  individual. 
The  resistance  of  the  human  body  to  work  depends  on  the  integrity  of  its 
organs;  all  work  results  in  a  destruction  of  organic  substance  which  should 
be  replaced  by  food.  Alimentary  substances  constitute  not  only  an  aid 
to  matter,  but  to  energy  also.  The  sum  of  energy  which  they  represent  is 
estimated  by  the  calories  developed  during  the  combustion  of  aliments, 
while  a  definite  amount  of  mechanical  work  estimated  by  kilogrammeters 
corresponds  to  these  calories.  Now,  man  can  transform  into  motor  force 
the  energy  brought  to  him  by  his  food,  and  this  is  a  more  or  less  economical 
way  according  to  circumstances.  If  conditions  are  favorable,  the  useful 
result  may  correspond  to  a  third  of  the  energy  contained  in  the  substances 
consumed;  but  this  proportion  between  energy  employed  and  useful 
result  may  fall  to  one-sixth,  and  then  there  will  be  waste. 

This  latter  working  system  is  injurious  to  the  organism  and  must  be 
scrupulously  avoided,  since,  if  waste  augments  and  continues,  the  nutri- 
tive alterations  of  the  muscle,  which  at  first  were  only  quantitative,  be- 
come qualitative  as  well;  that  is  to  say,  the  afflux  of  blood  having  become 
insufficient,  the  muscular  substance  undergoes  a  remarkable  and  lasting 
alteration  and  becomes  functionally  damaged.     (Pages  27-28.) 

Archiv  fiir  Anatomie  und  Physiologie,  1890.  Physiologische  Abtheilung. 
Uber  die  Geset^e  der  ErmUdung.  [The  Laws  of  Fatigue.]  Dr.  Ar- 
NALDO  Maggiora,  University  of  Turin.     Leipzig,  1890. 

My  experiments  proved  that  after  one  whole  night's  wakefulness  the 
muscles  weary  much  more  quickly,  so  that  at  8  a.  m.  of  the  following  morn- 


86 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


ITALY  ing  the  amount  of  mechanical  work  obtainable  from  them  is  reduced  to 

the  half  of  what  it  would  be  under  normal  circumstances. 

In  the  daytime,  after  a  night  without  sleep  the  fmger  contractions  give 
one  contraction  of  normal  or  nearly  normal  size,  but  the  next  ones  fall 
off  with  unusual  rapidity.  As  in  anaemia,  the  reserve  strength  may  be 
observed  to  diminish  even  though  spasmodic  or  single  contractions  may 
be  performed. 

Mosso  has  shown  that,  under  such  circumstances  (nightwork  without 
sleep),  not  only  the  irritability  but  the  productive  capacity  is  lessened. 
The  diminution  of  mechanical  work  is  often  more  extreme  than  that 
caused  by  anaemia.     (Page  226.) 

Loss  of  sleep  promotes  muscular  fatigue  for  the  reason  that  it  brings 
about  a  general  exhaustion  of  the  organism.  The  muscles  can,  it  is  true, 
continue  to  perform  some  work,  but  they  more  quickly  give  out  and  the 
amount  of  mechanical  work  they  produce  is  small. 

This  exhausting  effect  of  loss  of  sleep  is  not  altered  by  taking  food,  but 
disappears  only  after  a  compensating  degree  of  sleep.     (Page  227.) 


FRANCE 


Travail  et  Plaisir.     [IVork  and  Enjoyment.]     Charles  Fere,  Doctor  of 
Medicine.     Paris,  Alcan,  1904. 

The  maximum  useful  work  of  a  muscle  is  obtained  (in  experimentation) 
with  a  medium  weight.  Increase  of  this  weight  can  only  be  balanced  by 
a  much  greater  increase  in  the  intervals  of  rest  allowed  between  muscular 
contractions.  The  more  frequent  the  contractions  the  smaller  is  the 
quantity  of  work  and  the  greater  the  fatigue.  The  longer  the  rest  pauses, 
the  less  fatigued  does  the  muscle  become.  The  strength  of  a  muscle  under 
intermittent  work  may  attain  almost  double  that  which  it  displays  under 
continuous  work.  Rapid  contractions  exhaust  the  oxygen  of  the  blood, 
place  the  muscle  in  an  anaerobic  state  which  is  fatal  to  it,  while  inter- 
mittent contractions  permit  the  blood  to  renew  its  oxygen,  which  destroys 
the  noxious  and  toxic  products  of  muscular  activity.  ...  In  voluntary 
ergographic  work  a  rhythm  is  spontaneously  established  which  represents 
the  maximum  frequence  compatible  with  constant  work.     (Page  20.) 


BELGIUM 


Instituts  Solvay.  Travaux  du  Laboratoire  de  Physiologie,  Tome  VI ,  Fasc.  4. 
Les  Lois  de  I'Ergograpbie;  Etude  Physiologique  et  Mathematique. 
[The  Laws  of  the  Ergograph — a  Physiological  and  Mathematical  Study.] 
Mile.  J.  loTEYKO.     Brussels,  Misch  and  Thron,  1904. 

All  physiologists  agree  in  attributing  a  double  origin  to  muscular 
fatigue.     There  is,  from  the  view-point  of  chemistry,  a  predominance  of 


MUSCULAR    FATIGUE  87 

the  process  of  disassimilation  over  that  of  assimilation.  On  one  hand  BELoroM 
there  is  progressive  consumption  of  elements  necessary  to  activity  which 
cannot  rebuild  themselves  rapidly  enough  to  suffice  for  the  exigencies  of 
the  moment,  and  on  the  other  hand  there  is  an  accumulation  of  waste 
products  which  cannot  be  eliminated  or  neutralized  with  sufficient  rapid- 
ity.    (Pages  393-394.) 

Consumption  of  stored  elements  is  never  absolute:  a  muscle  ceases 
to  contract  before  complete  exhaustion  of  its  reserves.  ...  It  is,  then, 
not  so  much  the  consumption  of  all  reserves  as  the  impossibility  of  draw- 
ing further  upon  them  that  characterizes  fatigue.  ...  It  is  generally 
admitted  that,  in  its  initial  contractions,  a  muscle  does  not  consume  the 
same  materials  as  it  consumes  in  its  final  contractions.     (Page  394.) 

Mosso  has  devised  an  apparatus  which  records  the  curve  of  nervous 
effort  which  functions  during  fatigue.  He  has  demonstrated  by  experi- 
ments with  the  ponometer  that  the  nervous  stimulus  necessary  to  produce 
contraction  in  muscle  is  much  greater  if  it  is  fatigued  than  if  it  is  rested. 
"Effort  increases  with  fatigue"  (Mosso).  Thus  ergographic  fatigue  has, 
for  effect  produced,  increasing  resistance  in  the  muscles  (proof  of  the 
peripheral  seat  of  fatigue),  and  it  is  to  overcome  this  resistance  that  the 
nerve  centres  are  compelled  to  send  to  the  periphery  orders  of  increasing 
intensity.  The  ponometric  curve,  says  Mosso,  follows,  therefore,  a 
course  which  is  the  inverse  of  the  ergographic  curve.     (Page  398.) 

The    Harvey  Lectures,    1905-1906.    Fatigue.     Frederic   S.   Lee,   Ph.D.  united 
Philadelphia,     Lippincott,  1906.  states 

Owing  to  the  unequalled  opportunity  of  applying  to  the  study  of  mus- 
cular activity  the  exact  methods  of  the  physicist  and  the  chemist,  the 
phenomena  of  muscular  fatigue  are  known  more  exactly  than  those  of 
other  tissues.  .  .  .  Let  ...  a  muscle  be  stimulated  by  a  series  of  artificial 
stimuli  of  equal  intensity,  regularly  repeated  and  applied  either  directly  to 
the  muscle  itself  or  indirectly  through  the  mediation  of  the  nerve,  and  let 
the  muscle  perform  mechanical  work,  such  as  the  lifting  of  a  certain  load. 
We  may  then  observe  the  following  phenomena:  the  degree  of  shortening 
of  the  muscle  during  each  contraction  increases  for  a  considerable  time, 
hence  the  height  to  which  the  load  is  lifted  or  the  amount  of  work  that  is 
performed  is  gradually  increased.  Later  the  reverse  occurs — the  shorten- 
ing decreases,  reaches  its  original  amount,  falls  below  it,  and  disappears 
slowly  and  very  gradually,  the  muscle  becoming  incapable  of  performing 
further  work  unless  a  stronger  stimulus  or  a  lighter  load  be  emplo>'ed,  or 
a  period  of  rest  be  allowed  to  intervene,  or  the  chemical  composition  of  the 


88  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  muscle  be  artificially  altered  in  a  suitable  manner.     The  irritability  of  the 

muscle  at  first  increases  and  later  decreases;  its  total  capacity  for  per- 
forming work  begins  to  decrease  at  the  beginning  of  the  experiment. 
(Page  170.) 

More  than  twenty  years  ago  the  Italian  physiologist,  Mosso,  devised 
the  important  apparatus  called  the  ergograph,  and  by  its  means  began 
the  long  series  of  studies  of  voluntary  contractions  in  man,  which  has 
made  the  Turin  school  famous,  and  has  immeasurably  extended  our 
knowledge  of  fatigue  in  living  human  beings.  ...  An  ergographic  record 
usually  consists  of  a  series  of  curves  of  momentary  contractions,  at  regular 
intervals,  of  certain  finger  muscles,  either  one  or  more,  a  known  weight 
being  lifted  or  a  spring  of  known  tension  being  stretched.  Such  a  record 
exhibits  in  fatigue  a  gradual  diminution  of  the  lifting  power  of  the  muscle, 
the  rate  and  regularity  of  the  diminution  varying  with  individuals.  .  .  . 
In  the  course  of  the  experiments  I  have  quoted,  it  may  justly  be  said  that 
fatigue  begins  with  the  first  contraction — the  muscle  is  less  capable  of 
work  by  reason  of  this  contraction.  It  is  convenient  to  set  aside  the  late 
stages  as  the  period  of  exhaustion,  although  the  beginning  of  such  a  period 
is  not  marked  by  distinctly  physical  phenomena.  If  at  any  time  the 
muscle  be  irrigated  by  a  stream  of  fresh  blood,  by  Ringer's  solution,  or 
even  by  an  indifferent  isotonic  solution  of  sodium  chloride,  or,  what  is  less 
efficient,  although  in  some  degree  effective,  if  it  be  allowed  simply  to  rest, 
the  physiologic  pendulum  tends  to  swing  back,  the  irritability  and  the 
total  capacity  for  work  increase,  and  physiologically  the  organ  is  pushed 
back  to  an  earlier  stage  of  the  fatigue  process;  in  other  words,  the  muscle 
is  in  some  degree  restored.     (Pages  172-173.) 


(5)    The  Greater  Strain  on  Fatigued  Muscles 

The  need  of  limiting  the  length  of  working  hours  for 
women  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  greatest  strain  is  attend- 
ant upon  "overtime,"  or  work  continued  after  and  in  addi- 
tion to  the  regular  working  day. 

When  the  hours  of  labor  are  so  long  that  work  must  be 
continued  after  fatigue  has  set  in,  the  dangers  to  health 
are  correspondingly  increased.  Greater  injury  results  from 
work  done  by  fatigued  muscles  than  from  severer  labor 
accomplished  before  the  worker  is  tired.     This  is  because 


GREATER    STRAIN    ON    FATIGUED    MUSCLES  89 

strain,  or  the  continued  exertion  of  will  power  to  keep  up,  is 
more  exhausting  than  work  in  itself. 

Scientific  investigation  confirms  this  fact  and  demon- 
strates by  the  ergograph  that  the  final  small  contractions 
of  the  finger  muscles  expend  more  energy  and  exhaust  more 
than  the  first  large  ones,  made  before  fatigue  has  set  in. 

Arcliv  fiir  Anatomie  und  Physiologic,  1890.  Physiologische  Ahtheilung. 
Uher  die  Gesetie  der  Ermiidiing.  [The  Laws  of  Fatigue.]  Dr.  Arnaldo 
Maggiora,  University  of  Turin.     Leipzig,  1890. 

At  the  outset  of  my  experiments  I  found  that  muscles  which  had  been 
wearied  rapidly  regained  their  former  energy  after  the  night's  rest,  but 
that,  by  subjecting  them  to  continuous  work  through  the  day  without 
sufficient  time  for  rest,  they  gave  a  regularly  diminishing  amount  of 
mechanical  work  as  the  day  went  on.     (Page  205.) 

It  was  shown  by  my  experiments  that  for  the  first  three  observations 
an  hour's  rest  period  was  sufficient  for  each  hand,  to  restore  energy  com- 
pletely, but  not  after  the  three  first  trials.  Following  muscular  fatigue 
which  is  not  completely  banished  we  get  a  mechanical  result  which  di- 
minishes in  a  regular  ratio.     (Page  206.) 

Having  found  a  one-hour  pause  insufficient,  I  repeated  the  experi- 
ments with  a  pause  of  an  hour  and  a  half  for  rest.  It  was  proved  that 
this  also  did  not  suffice  to  keep  the  muscles  up  to  their  full  capacity,  as 
the  amount  of  mechanical  work  gradually  diminished.  Then  in  another 
series  of  experiments  I  lengthened  the  pause  to  two  hours,  and  found  this 
period  was  sufficient  to  keep  the  muscles  up  to  their  full  capacity  and  to 
prevent  the  development  of  fatigue,  so  that  from  morning  to  evening  the 
muscles  were  able  to  produce  that  normal  amount  of  mechanical  work 
that  they  exhibited  after  full  and  complete  rest.     (Page  207.) 

It  is  important  to  give  the  muscles  a  rest  in  the  beginning,  so  that 
fatigue  does  not  accumulate,  if  it  is  desired  to  obtain  recurring  me- 
chanical work  from  them  at  regular  periods  throughout  the  day.  (Page 
207.) 

Fatigue  is  complicated  here  (in  certain  experiments  which  have  been 
described)  because  the  utmost  possible  exertion  of  the  will  was  continually 
made.  This  altered  the  results,  because,  as  Mosso  has  shown,  and  as  I 
have  also  demonstrated,  strain  is  more  exhausting  than  work.  (Pages 
210-211.) 

The  work  performed  by  a  muscle  that  is  already  wearied  is  much  more 


ITALY 


go  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ITALY  harmful  in  its  wear  and  tear  than  severer  work  would  be  under  normal 

circumstances.     (Page  211.) 

It  is  a  well-established  fact  that  muscles  weary  much  more  quickly 
under  direct  stimulus  than  when  they  are  indirectly  stimulated  by  the 
nerves,  and  that  a  more  powerful  nerve  stimulus  is  required  to  make  a 
wearied  muscle  contract  than  one  which  is  rested.     (Page  211.) 

It  was  shown  plainly  by  a  series  of  experiments  that,  when  the  strength 
of  the  muscle  was  not  completely  exhausted,  but  the  task  was  remitted 
before  the  final  stage  of  weariness  came  on,  the  muscle  remained  much 
more  capable  and  wearied  less  easily,  being  able  to  produce  an  amount  of 
mechanical  work  which  was  double  that  produced  when  it  was  worked  up 
to  full  exhaustion,  even  though  the  most  favorable  conditions  of  periodical 
rest  were  then  allowed.     (Page  213.) 

These  observations  teach  that  the  last  smaller  contractions  of  a  work 
tracing  exhaust  more  than  the  first  large  ones,  and  this  is  most  important, 
as  it  proves  that  strain  is  more  fatiguing  than  work.  This  result  is  also 
stated  by  Mosso  and  Kronecker.     (Page  213.) 

Anaemia  produces  the  same  results  as  fatigue.     (Page  217.) 

The  fatigue  of  the  working  muscles  reproduces  itself  in  those  that  are 
not  working  directly.     (Page  218.) 

Mayer,  in  his  work  "Die  organische  Bewegung  in  ihrem  Zuzammen- 
hange  mit  dem  StofTwechsel,"  stated  that  weariness,  when  it  did  not 
simply  result  from  a  momentary  excess  of  work,  was  diffused  over  the 
whole  muscular  system;  for  instance,  the  temporary  work  of  one  arm  does 
not  fatigue  the  other  arm,  but  after  a  fatiguing  walk  the  arms  as  well  as 
legs  are  indisposed  to  further  exertion.  This  I  have  demonstrated  experi- 
mentally with  the  ergograph.     (Page  218.) 

After  a  fatiguing  day's  march,  certain  soldiers'  hand  tracings  showed  a 
notable  diminution  of  energy  even  after  the  night's  rest,  being  very  low 
at  7  A.  M.,  less  so  at  9  and  11,  but  only  rising  to  normal  energy  by  3  p.  m. 
(Page  224.) 

Fatigue.  A.  Mosso,  Professor  of  Physiology,  University  of  Turin.  1896. 
Translated  by  Margaret  Drummond,  M.A.,  and  W.  B.  Drummond, 
M.B.,  Extra  Physician,  Royal  Hospital  for  Sick  Children,  Edinburgh. 
New  York,  Putnam,  1904. 

The  consumption  of  our  body  does  not  increase  in  proportion  to  the 
work  done,  if  1  do  a  unit  of  work,  I  cannot  say  that  1  shall  have  a  unit 
of  fatigue,  nor  that,  if  1  do  twice  or  thrice  the  amount  of  work,  1  shall  have 
twice  or  thrice  the  amount  of  fatigue. 


GREATER    STRAIN    ON    FATIGUED    MUSCLES  9I 

Dr.  Maggiora,  in  a  series  of  researches  carried  on  in  my  laboratory,   ITALY 
has  shown  that  work  done  by  a  muscle  already  fatigued  acts  on  that  muscle 
in  a  more  harmful  manner  than  a  heavier  task  performed  under  fiormal  con- 
ditions. 

This  method  was  as  follows:  By  a  preliminary  series  of  experiments, 
he  proved  that  two  hours'  rest  is  required  before  every  trace  of  fatigue 
disappears  from  the  flexor  muscles  of  the  fingers  after  they  have  been 
exhausted  by  a  series  of  contractions  in  the  ergograph.  This  was  the 
period  of  repose  which  Dr.  Maggiora,  for  example,  had  to  allow  his  muscles 
in  order  to  annul  entirely  all  the  effects  of  the  exhaustion.  If  he  dimin- 
ished this  period,  if,  for  example,  he  allowed  only  one  hour  instead  of  two 
to  elapse  between  one  series  of  contractions  and  another,  it  was  only 
natural  that  the  muscle  should  do  less  work  because  it  was  insufficiently 
rested. 

Now,  it  might  be  thought  that  if  the  work  were  reduced  by  one  half, 
the  period  of  repose  might  also  be  reduced  in  the  same  proportion.  But 
by  experiment  it  was  found  that  the  period  of  repose  might  actually  be 
reduced  not  to  a  half,  but  to  a  quarter;  that  is  to  say,  if  thirty  con- 
tractions are  required  to  exhaust  a  muscle  completely,  the  period  of  repose 
necessary  after  fifteen  contractions  is  only  half  an  hour.  These  observa- 
tions show  that  the  expenditure  of  energy  in  the  first  fifteen  contractions 
is  much  less  than  in  those  following;  and  that  the  fatigue  does  not  in- 
crease in  proportion  to  the  work  done.  .  .  .  We  find  that  the  work  done 
during  the  first  fifteen  contractions  is  much  greater  than  that  done  during 
the  second.  ...  If  the  energy  of  the  muscle  is  not  completely  exhausted, 
that  is  to  say,  if  the  final  contractions  are  not  made,  the  fatigue  is  much 
less,  and  the  muscle  is  able  to  perform  more  than  double  the  amount  of 
mechanical  work  which  it  would  do  if  it  worked  to  the  point  of  exhaustion 
with  the  most  favorable  conditions  for  repose. 

Every  one  who  has  made  the  ascent  of  a  mountain  is  familiar  with  the 
fact  that  the  last  part  of  the  climb,  when  the  summit  is  almost  attained, 
demands  a  much  greater  effort  than  that  necessitated  by  greater  difiiculties 
when  one  was  less  fatigued.  Our  body  is  not  constructed  like  a  locomotive 
which  consumes  the  same  quantity  of  carbon  for  every  kilogrammetre  of 
work.  When  the  body  is  fatigued  even  a  small  amount  of  work  produced 
disastrous  effects.     (Pages  150-152.) 

I  have  stated  that  our  organism  is  more  injured  by  work  when  it  is 
already  fatigued.  One  of  the  causes  of  this  is  that  the  muscle  having 
consumed  in  normal  labour  all  the  energy  at  its  disposal  finds  itself  com- 
pelled by  additional  work  to  trench  upon  other  provisions  of  energy  which 
t  has  held  in  reserve;  and  thus  it  happens  that  the  nervous  system  lends 


92 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


ITALY  its  aid  with  a  greater  intensity  of  nervous  action.     But  though  the  nervous 

energy  comes  more  into  play  the  contractions  of  the  fatigued  muscle  are 
weak.     (Page  152.) 

The  workman  that  persists  in  his  task  when  he  is  already  fatigued  not 
only  produces  less  effective  work,  but  receives  greater  injury  to  his  or- 
ganism. 

The  intervals  between  one  effort  and  another  should  be  longer  when  one 
is  tired,  because  one's  energies  are  restored  less  rapidly,  the  excitability  of 
nerve  and  muscle  having  been  diminished  by  fatigue.     (Page  157.) 

FRANCE  Etude  sur  V Influence  du  Travail  Quotidien  sur  la  Sante  Generale  de  I'Adulte. 

[Study  of  the  Effect  oj  the  Length  of  iVorking  Hours  upon  the  General 
Health  of  Adults.]     Ilia  Sachnine.     Lyon,  1900. 

Maggiora,  after  numerous  experiments,  proved  that,  in  order  to  obtain 
a  series  of  tracings  of  normal  fatigue  in  one  and  the  same  day  and  from 
one  hand  only,  it  was  necessary  to  allow  two  hours  to  intervene  between 
the  tracings,  while,  if  the  experiment  was  made  with  a  hand  previously 
fatigued,  it  was  necessary  that  a  much  longer  time  of  rest  be  allowed  in 
order  that  the  strength  of  the  hand  be  completely  restored.  Two  hours 
did  not  suffice  to  restore  the  normal  energy. 

By  the  aid  of  the  ponometer,  Mosso  showed  that  a  much  stronger 
stimulus  is  necessary  to  produce  muscular  contraction  when  the  muscle 
is  fatigued  than  when  it  is  rested.  While  the  output  of  work  produced  in 
a  fatigued  state  is  diminished,  the  nervous  effort  is  progressively  greater; 
the  wearied  muscle  needs  a  more  intense  nervous  action  to  make  it  con- 
tract. This  physiological  law  is  shown  in  all  the  acts  of  our  daily  life. 
.  .  .  Every  one  knows  what  a  fund  of  nerve  energy  must  be  expended  to 
enable  him  to  sustain  with  outstretched  arms  a  weight  which  at  first  was 
hardly  felt.     (Pages  49-51.) 


GERMANY  Handworterhich  der  Staatswissenschaften.  Bd.  I.  [Compendium  of 
Political  Science.  Vol.  /.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of 
Political  Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin;  W. 
Lexis,  Professor  of  Law  in  Halle.  Arbeits^eit.  [Hours  of  IVork.] 
Dr.  H.  Herkner,  Berlin,     fena,  Fischer,  1909. 

A  workman,  in  the  morning  hours,  between  9  and  10,  with  an  ex- 
penditure of  energy  {a),  produces  an  output  (x).  In  the  last  hour  of 
the  day,  on  account  of  fatigue  which  was  plainly  felt  and  required  special 
exertions  of  will  power,  he  produced  an  output  of  \,  but  not  with  the  ex- 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUNCTION    OF    REST  93 

penditure  of  energy  a,  but  with  a  a-\-\.     It  would  therefore  be  a  great  GERMANY 
mistake  to  think  that,  as  x  has  cost  one  hour  of  work,  f  has  cost  only  half 
the  work.     It  would  actually  correspond  to  an  expenditure  of  energy, 
not  of  |,  but  3|. 

Precisely  because  a  general  relation  between  time  spent,  work,  and  out- 
put may  be  assumed,  one  can  easily  fall  into  the  error  of  regarding  all 
prolongation  of  working  hours  as  economic  advantage  and  all  reduction  as 
disadvantage.     (Page  1219.) 

If  this  error  still  persists  it  is  because  practical  and  easily  utilizable 
methods  of  exact  measurement  are  still  new  and  of  recent  development. 
(Page  1220.) 


(6)    The  Physiological  Function  of  Rest 
{a)  Rest  Needed  to  Repair  Expenditure  of  Energy 

During  rest,  fatigue  disappears.  Rest  is  thus  a  physio- 
logical necessity.  With  the  intensity  of  modern  industry, 
the  individual  worker  can  keep  up  efficient  labor  only  on 
condition  that  the  fatigue  engendered  on  one  day  is  com- 
pletely repaired  before  the  next  day.  If  fatigue  is  not 
balanced  by  adequate  rest,  a  deficit  remains  which  may  be 
little  noticed  at  first,  but  which  inevitably  accumulates, 
and  after  a  shorter  or  longer  period  results  in  physical 
breakdown. 

When  an  individual  has  worked  to  exhaustion  through 
excessive  hours  of  labor,  normal  rest  does  not  suffice  for 
repair.     He  has  literally  "used  himself  up." 


Die   Menschliche   Arheitskraft.     [Human   Energy.]     Dr.    Gustav   Jager,   GERMANY 
Professor  of  Zoology,  Physiology,  and  Anthropology,  Stuttgart.     Mu- 
nich, Oldenburg,  1878. 

The  incidents  of  the  transformations  of  albumins  in  the  tissues  make  it 
clear  that  repair  after  overfatigue  is  a  very  slow  process,  .  .  .  and  e.x- 
plain  the  more  remote  fact  that  overfatigue  often  results  in  a  permanent 
ruin  of  the  constitution  by  interfering  with  the  regulatory  apparatus. 
(Page  280.) 


94  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  Gesammelte  Ahhandlungen.  Bd.  III.  [Complete  IVorks.  Vol.  III.] 
Die  Volkswirthschajtliche  Bedeutung  der  Verkiiriung  des  Industriellen 
Arheitstages.  [The  Economic  Significance  of  a  Shorter  IVorking  Day.] 
Ernst  Abbe.  Paper  read  before  the  Political  Society,  Jena,  1901. 
Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 

Now,  when  an  activity  is  repeated  daily  in  the  same  grooves,  in  the 
same  form,  the  individual  concerned  can  keep  up  this  activity  day  by  day 
only  on  condition  that  the  fatigue  engendered  on  one  day  has  been  com- 
pletely banished  by  sufficient  rest  and  proper  nutriment  before  the  next 
day's  work  is  undertaken. 

If  even  the  smallest  deficit  remains  after  the  equalization  of  fatigue 
and  rest, — a  deficit  that  would  not  be  noticeable  on  any  one  single  day, 
but  which  is  added  to  daily  and  accumulates  little  by  little,  then  the  in- 
evitable consequence  is  that,  after  a  more  or  less  prolonged  period  of  time, 
the  individual  goes  to  pieces  physically.  It  is  the  same  as  when  he  spends 
daily  ever  so  little  more  than  his  income.  If  he  keeps  this  up,  there  comes 
a  time  when  he  inevitably  becomes  bankrupt.     (Page  226.) 

I  can  therefore  say:  every  workman  whose  work  is  done  under  these 
labor  conditions  must  be  afforded  daily  recuperation  for  his  expended 
energies,  and  the  daily  compensation  of  rest  and  food  must  wholly  equal 
his  average  total  of  exertion.  The  daily  average  of  fatigue  and  expended 
strength  must  be  absolutely  balanced  by  fresh  strength  and  recuperation, 
because  the  least  deficit  will  accumulate  gradually  and  will  finally  have 
ruinous  effects.     (Page  226.) 


Concordia:  Zeitschrift  der  Zentralstelle  fiir  Volkswohlfahrt,  Nov.  1,  1907. 
Arbeit,  ErmUdung,  tind  Erholung.  [IVorh,  Fatigue,  and  Recuperation.] 
Dr.  F.  RiTZMANN,  Factory  Inspector,  Carlsruhe.     Berlin,  1907 . 

In  a  modern  allegory  of  life  the  three  fates,  weaving  the  destiny  of 
man,  would  bear  the  names  Work,  Fatigue,  and  Recuperation,  for  our 
whole  being  is  so  exclusively  under  the  domination  of  these  three  entities 
that  a  life  free  from  them  is  hardly  conceivable.  It  is  the  more  remark- 
able, then,  to  see  how  superficial  a  knowledge  most  men  have  of  the  actual 
significance  of  these  three  things.  And  yet  an  understanding  of  the  rela- 
tions between  work,  weariness,  and  reparative  rest  is  no  less  important  for 
mankind  and  for  social  betterment  than  the  comprehension  of  other,  defi- 
nitely hygienic,  questions  of  a  general  nature.  The  question  of  the  relation 
between  work,  fatigue,  and  recuperation  is  pre-eminently  a  hygienic  one. 

The  problem  is:  How  must  we  arrange  our  work  in  order  to  remain,  in 
the  widest  sense,  healthy  in  mind,  body,  and  spirit?    What  is  Work? 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUNCTION    OF    REST  95 

The  science  of  psychology  is  concerned,  roughly  stated,  with  the  study  GERMAifY 
of  every  kind  of  mental  process.     Among  these  processes,  again  roughly 
stated,  are  to  be  reckoned  every  manifestation  of  life  not  arising  exclu- 
sively from  muscular  movements;  namely,  the  sensibilities,  desires,  varia- 
tions of  disposition,  thought,  judgment,  and  all  such  manifestations. 

.  .  .  Every  alteration  in  the  condition  of  the  brain  sets  free  a  mental 
wave:  every  mental  process  brings  about  an  alteration  of  the  state  of  the 
brain,  even  as  every  physical  process  is  inseparably  bound  up  with  an 
alteration  of  the  muscular  structure. 

Physiological  investigations  have  taught  us  that  chemical  transformations 
occur  during  these  changes  of  nerve  and  muscular  cells,  and  with  the  knowl- 
edge thus  gained  we  are  able  to  give  a  new  definition  of  the  term  "Work." 

By  "Work"  we  mean  every  process  which  tends  to  destruction  of 
tissue  cells  and  the  production  of  poisonous  waste  matter,  and  in  contrast 
to  this  we  define  the  term  Reparation,  or  Recuperation,  to  signify  all 
those  processes  which  tend  to  a  rebuilding  of  the  tissue  cells  and  the  re- 
moval of  poisonous  wastes.  Full  and  intimate  knowledge  of  the  nature 
of  those  chemical  processes  which  I  have  defined  as  destruction  of  cells  and 
production  of  poisonous  substances  has  not  yet  been  attained.  We  know, 
though,  familiarly,  that  accompaniment  of  work  which  we  call  Fatigue. 

This  conception  of  the  idea  of  work  which  we  attain  through  physiology 
is  the  amplest  that  we  can  imagine.  It  includes  all  fatigue-producing 
activity,  even  when,  as  with  Sport  and  Play,  this  activity  is  not  classed 
in  popular  terms  with  work.  It  includes  also,  however,  as  well, — and 
this  is  essential  for  its  usefulness, — every  activity  which,  according  to 
popular  terms,  whether  in  the  physical  or  in  the  politico-economical  sense 
of  words,  can  be  regarded  as  work. 

Physiology  gives  us  not  only  a  useful  definition  of  the  term  Work,  but  also 
of  the  terms  "  Fatigue"  and  "  Recuperation,"  and  this  brings  us  measurably 
nearer  to  a  solution  of  our  problem — the  hygienic  regulation  of  work. 

Fatigue  is  at  once  the  inseparable  companion  and  the  bitterest  enemy 
of  work.  The  most  important  task  of  the  Hygiene  of  Work  is,  therefore, 
to  combat  fatigue.     (Pages  359-360.) 

Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Berlin, 
Sept.,  1907.  Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV.  Ermiidung  durch  Berufsarbeit. 
[Fatigue  resulting  from  Occupation.]  Dr.  Emil  Roth.  Berlin,  Hirsch- 
wald,  1908. 

The  increasing  use  of  machinery  as  a  substitute  for  handwork,  and  the 
rapid  tendency  toward  subdivision  of  labor,  are  bringing  about  conditions 


96  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  that  are  more  and  more  favorable  for  the  employer,  but  for  the  worker, 
on  the  contrary,  harder  and  less  favorable,  and  especially  more  monoton- 
ous. Therefore,  from  the  point  of  view  of  health  preservation,  it  must  be 
considered  proper  to  regulate  working  hours  in  accordance  with  the  prin- 
ciples enunciated  by  Abbe:  viz.:  The  daily  supply  of  energy  required  for 
daily  labor  must  be  gained  by  sufficiently  long  periods  of  rest  and  econom- 
ical use  of  strength,  and  must  not  exceed  the  expenditure  of  energy  re- 
quired by  the  accelerated  pace  of  industry.     (Pages  593-594.) 

A  consideration  of  all  the  factors  concerned  in  the  study  of  overwork 
resulting  in  over-fatigue,  shows  that  these  factors  are  many.  One  of  the 
most  important  of  all,  from  the  standpoint  of  prevention,  and  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  workers'  health,  is  this:  The  intensiveness  of  the  labor,  or 
the  relation  of  the  energy  expended  in  fulfilling  the  work's  requirements 
to  the  length  of  time  during  which  energy  is  so  expended,  must  not  over- 
step a  certain  fixed  limit.  That  industrial  establishments  fail  notoriously 
in  meeting  this  first  and  fundamental  requirement  of  labor  protection, 
admits  of  no  debate.     (Page  604.) 

H  andworterhuch  der  Staatswissenschafien.  Bd.  I.  [Compendium  of 
Political  Science.  Vol.  I.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of 
Political  Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin; 
W.  Lexis,  Professor  of  Political  Science  in  Gottingen,  and  Edg. 
LoENiNG,  Professor  of  Law  in  Halle.  Arbeits^eit.  [Hours  of  IVork.] 
Dr.  H.  Herkner,  Berlin.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

Quotation  from  Pope  Leo  XI II.  Encyclical  on  the  Labor  Problem: 

"Justice  and  Humanity  protest  against  demands  upon  laboring  men, 
so  excessive  that  the  body  gives  way  and  the  spirit  is  dulled.  As  in  man 
all  things  have  their  limitations,  even  so  is  it  with  the  capacity  for  labor, 
and  no  one  can  exceed  the  limits  of  his  powers. 

"Working  strength  is  enhanced,  it  may  be  true,  by  practice  and  habit, 
but  yet  it  attains  its  due  efficiency  only  when,  at  proper  times,  rest  is 
provided. 

"In  respect  to  hours  of  work  the  principle  should  be  recognized  that 
they  should  not  be  longer  than  is  proportioned  to  the  workmen's  strength." 
(Page  1205.) 

"In  general  it  should  be  a  fixed  rule  that  as  much  rest  should  be  granted 
the  worker  as  is  needed  to  restore  his  strength;  for  the  release  from  work 
has  the  restoration  of  strength  as  its  purpose."     (Page  1205.) 

These  declarations  are  in  so  far  noteworthy  that  they  state  with  great 
clearness  the  fundamental  principle  that  the  time  for  rest  after  the  day's 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUNCTION    OF    REST  97 

work  must  allow  complete  restoration  of  the  expended  strength.  .  .  .  GERMANY 
On  the  other  hand  the  laborer's  right  to  a  compensation  that  exceeds 
mere  recuperation,  his  right  to  pleasure,  enjoyment  of  family  life,  etc.,  is 
not  recognized.     (Page  1205.) 

It  is  a  cause  for  thankfulness  that  some  employers  have  with  great 
pains  voluntarily  undertaken  a  methodical  and  unprejudiced  presentation 
of  material  (relating  to  the  problem  of  overwork),  and,  also,  that  the 
symptoms  of  fatigue  are  at  present  receiving  a  thorough-going  investiga- 
tion at  the  hands  of  factory  hygienists  and  physiologists.  In  this  way 
alone  will  it  be  possible  to  understand  the  causal  relations  of  fatigue,  and 
discriminate  between  typical  and  adventitious  features  described  in  in- 
dividual observations.  Then,  too,  for  the  first  time  it  will  become  possible 
with  exact  estimates  of  fatigue  symptoms  (by  instruments  of  precision) 
to  agree  upon  the  proper  times  for  pauses  for  rest,  and  upon  that  duration 
and  intensity  of  work  which  will  yield  the  maximum  of  product,  while 
at  the  same  time  the  working  power  of  the  laborer  is  fully  conserved. 
(Page  1212.) 

The  numerous  instances  of  favorable  results  from  reduced  hours  can 
no  longer  be  ignored,  even  though  all  are  not  of  equal  value.  Taken  in 
connection  with  the  most  recent  psychological  and  physiological  researches, 
they  strengthen  the  presumption  that,  where  working  hours  exceed  ten, 
.  .  .  either  the  employer  suffers  from  slack  work  or  the  worker  from  over- 
fatigue. A  reduction  to  ten  hours  would  therefore,  as  a  rule,  not  only 
work  no  injury  to  economic  interests,  but  would  further  them  in  many 
cases.  As  to  how  far  a  progressive  reduction  to  9  or  8  hours  could  go 
without  injury  to  commerce,  this  must  also  be  learned  by  special  investi- 
gations which  should  cover  every  detail  and  accessory  circumstance  in  the 
case.  Above  all  it  must  be  shown,  by  perfected  statistics  and  scientific 
methods  of  precision  both  physiological  and  psychological,  whether,  or 
why,  with  a  10-hour  day  a  sober  workman  of  normal  physical  and  mental 
equipment  should  suffer  fatigue  which  cannot  be  compensated  for  by  the 
daily  resting  times. 

(Length  of  work,  heat,  dust,  nutrition,  etc.,  must  be  estimated.)  If 
it  appears  that  the  direct  or  indirect  origin  of  this  fatigue  is  to  be  found  in 
the  length  of  working  hours,  then,  in  such  cases,  in  the  interests  of  the 
general  health,  a  reduction  of  hours  must  be  sought,  even  if,  economically, 
some  risk  is  run.  If  this  reduction  cannot  be  assured  by  the  contracting 
parties,  then  the  state  must  take  it  in  hand.  Should  there  be  no  necessity 
on  hygienic  grounds,  nevertheless  from  the  standpoint  of  commercial 
progress  it  may  appear  desirable  to  approach  the  9  or  8  hour  limit.  (Page 
1216.) 

7* 


98  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ITALY  Revue  Internationale  de  Sociologie,  Nov.,  1895.     Le  Travail  Hnniain  et  ses 

Lois.     [The  Laws  of  Human  IVork.]     Francesco  S.  Nitti,  Professor, 
University  of  Naples.     Paris,  Giard  et  Briere,  1895. 

In  every  case  it  is  certain  that  the  workman  disposes  of  a  certain  amount 
of  potential  energy,  which,  within  certain  limits,  is  capable  of  augmenta- 
tion and  of  diminution. 

A  workman,  even  one  sufficiently  nourished,  cannot  produce,  beyond  a 
certain  limit,  without  injury.  Beyond  this  limit,  if  he  continues  his 
work,  he  exposes  himself  absolutely  to  fatigue  and  exhaustion  and  his 
productivity  is  gained  at  the  expense  of  his  own  organism.     (Page  1026.) 

There  is  a  cruel  antithesis  between  the  interests  of  the  capitalist  and  of 
society.  .  .  .  If  for  the  benefit  of  the  former  the  workman  must  consume 
his  own  tissues  and  is  not  able  to  protect  himself,  then  production  proceeds 
along  with  the  degeneracy  of  the  worker.     (Page  1026.) 

The  consequent  loss  of  energy  is  a  social  loss.  .  .  .  Society  sees  the 
average  strength  of  the  workman  diminishing,  morbidity  and  mortality 
extending,  the  physical  development  of  the  masses  retrograding.  .  .  . 
It  is  therefore  natural  that  society  should  awake  to  the  need  of  interference, 
(Page  1027.) 

It  is  certain  that  there  is  a  work-limit  which  the  average  workman 
cannot  exceed  without  danger,  as  beyond  it  he  risks  fatigue  and  degen- 
eracy.    (Page  1027.) 

The  physiological  law  that  work  done  by  a  tired  muscle  injures  it  more 
than  work  done  under  normal  conditions  can  be  verified  by  every  one 
from  his  own  experience.     (Page  1027.) 


Thirteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Brussels, 
1903.  Vol.  V,  Sec.  IV.  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on  par  des  methodes 
physiologiques  etudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres  dans  les 
diverses  professions?  Quels  sont  les  arguments  que  les  sciences  physio- 
logiques et  medicales  peuvent  ou  pourraient  faire  valoir  en  faveur  de  tel 
ou  tel  mode  d' organisation  du  travail?  [To  what  extent  may  fatigue 
resulting  from  occupation  he  estimated  by  physiological  methods,  and 
what  argument  can  medical  and  physiological  science  present  in  favor  of 
special  methods  of  industrial  or ganiiation'?]  Dr.  Zaccaria  Treves, 
University  of  Turin.     Brussels,  1903. 

In  answer  to  a  political  economist,  who  has  said  "the  physiological 
limits  of  the  duration  of  work  have  not  yet  been  found  and  cannot  easily 
be  found,"  the  physiologist  replies  that  the  physiological  limit  of  the  dura- 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUNCTION    OF    REST  99 

tion  and  the  intensity  of  work  is  that  limit  beyond  which  the  organism  is  ITALY 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  working  wastefully.     (Page  32).) 

Royaume  de  Belgique.     Conseil  Superieur  du  Travail,  6e  Session.  1901-  BELGIUM 

1902.     T.  I,  Fasc.  II.     [Higher  Council  of  Labor,  6th  Session.  1901- 

1902.     Vol.  I,   Part  II.]     Note  sur  la  Legislation  relative  au  Repos 
Hebdomadaire.     [The  Weekly  Rest  Day.]     Brussels,  1902. 

M.  Adolphe  Prins  (Member  of  Council): 

To-day  under  present  conditions  of  competition  and  production  it  is 
more  than  ever  necessary  to  protect  working  men  from  overstrain.  Rest 
is  more  and  more  indispensable  as  work  becomes  more  intense.  In  every 
line  of  activity,  only  the  regular  alternation  of  work  and  rest  is  able  to 
conserve  energy,  and  those  individuals  and  nations  whose  lives  are  so 
regulated  will  surpass  others  in  economic  rivalry.     (Pages  81-82.) 

M.  Beco: 

The  man  who  works  must  have  rest.  Rest  must  alternate  with  work; 
this  is  a  physiological  necessity.  The  workman  becomes  incapable  of  any 
physical  or  mental  work  whatever  if  after  a  certain  number  of  hours  he 
is  not  able  to  rest.  The  desire  for  sleep,  after  a  certain  time,  overcomes 
him.  .  .  .  Then  in  addition  to  rest  during  the  day,  the  worker  needs 
periodic  rests.     (Page  124.) 

Every  health  regulation  must  have  a  scientific,  exact,  and  acknowledged 
basis.  .  .  .  Thus  the  demands  of  hygiene  justify  the  legal  protection  of 
workers  against  special  dangers,  poisons,  and  physical  overstrain  from 
excessive  labor  unreasonably  prolonged.  No  one  contests  the  legality  of 
such  legislation;  ...  on  such  lines  the  police  power  is  extensive  and 
effectual,  and  its  right  to  be  so  is  not  disputed.     (Page  129.) 

M.  Denis  (Member  of  Council): 

.  .  .  Man  has  a  new  right,  the  right  to  leisure  and  rest,  as  well  as  work. 
.  .  .  The  history  of  labor  legislation  can  be  given  in  two  words:  the  right 
to  rest  is  inherent  in  man's  physiological  structure.  It  involves  an  in- 
flexible social  necessity  to  do  away  with  the  exhaustion  resulting  from 
overwork,  and  to  conserve  working  power,  the  most  precious  possession 
of  a  nation. 

On  this  the  most  learned  physiologist  of  I  taly  has  said :  "  The  prodigious 
development  of  industry  and  of  machinery  is  resulting  in  extreme  intensity 
of  labor  and  the  law  of  exhaustion  must  of  necessity  put  a  limit  to  greed  for 
gain." 

Science  traces  out  a  path  for  the  modern  lawmaker:  his  difficult  but 
glorious  mission  is  to  accomplish  the  normal  synthesis  of  these  two  in- 


lOO 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


BELGIUM  alienable  rights  springing  from  the  very  laws  of  life — the  right  to  employ 
one's  working  powers  and  the  right  to  conserve  them.     (Page  169.) 

When  we  compare  the  actual  working  day  (in  Belgium)  with  the  most 
moderate  requirements  for  rest  endorsed  by  scientists,  we  find  that  there 
is  an  absolute  necessity  for  a  periodic  rest  day. 

At  the  International  Conference  on  Sunday  Rest  in  1889,  Dr.  Haegler's 
report  justified  the  weekly  rest  day  from  the  point  of  view  of  hygiene,  as 
he  said,  "The  labor  of  each  day  leaves  an  organic  deficit,  and  the  weekly 
rest  day  is  essential  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  this  loss."     (Page  172.) 

Maggiora  has  demonstrated  that  in  order  to  obtain  the  same  quantity 
of  muscular  work  evenly  throughout  the  day,  the  muscles  must,  from  the 
outset,  have  their  proper  periods  of  rest,  so  that  they  can  act  each  time 
with  fresh  energy  and  so  that  fatigue  will  not  accumulate.  This  accumu- 
lation of  fatigue  is  the  most  important  phenomenon  to  consider  now;  it 
arises  in  the  course  of  the  day,  from  every  breach  of  equilibrium  between 
work  accomplished  and  rest  given  to  the  muscles.  As  soon  as  work  is  in 
excess,  or  rest  is  insufficient,  there  is  an  accumulation  of  fatigue,  and  this, 
as  Maggiora  has  shown,  is  displayed  by  a  diminution  of  effectiveness. 
What  is  true  of  the  different  hours  of  the  day  is  true  from  one  day  to  an- 
other. Waste  products  of  fatigue  are  carried  over  from  one  day  to  another 
with  cumulative  effect.  Maggiora's  writings  contain  a  remarkable  chart 
showing  the  effects  of  a  sleepless  night, — that  is,  a  night  without  repair. 
From  this  chart  we  may  gain  an  idea  of  the  rapid  cumulation  of  waste 
substances,  and  the  gradual  extension  of  the  organic  deficit.     (Page  174.) 

School  children  have  been  submitted  to  valuable  tests.  Intellectual 
fatigue  is  measured  by  tactile  sensibility  as  recorded  by  the  esthesiometer. 
This  sensibility  diminishes  gradually  as  fatigue  increases,  and  there  is 
a  veritable  accumulation  from  one  day  to  another.  To  return  to  the 
normal  condition  of  tactile  sensibility,  a  weekly  rest  day  must  be  obtained. 
(Pages  173-174.) 

Thus,  the  accumulation  of  fatigue  which  is  favored  by  the  modern  in- 
dustrial system  and  the  intensive  character  of  machine  work  takes  place 
from  day  to  day,  and  the  weekly  rest  is  a  liquidation  period — a  necessary 
re-establishment  of  the  physiological  equilibrium.     (Page  174.) 


FRANCE  Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.      Berlin, 

1907.  Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV.  Die  Ermiidung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  [Fa- 
tigue as  a  Result  of  Occupation.]  Prof.  Imbert,  Montpellier.  Berlin, 
Hirschwald,  1908. 

An  industrial  machine  works,  but  is  not  fatigued. 

A  muscle,  on  the  contrary,  works,  and  becomes  fatigued. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUNCTION    OF    REST  lOI 

Fatigue,  essentially  and  exclusively  a  physiological  phenomenon,  France 
characterizes  the  human  organism  when  the  latter  is  regarded  as  a  working 
machine.  Consequently,  even  from  the  economic  point  of  view,  the  dis- 
cussion of  every  question  involving  the  factor  of  labor  in  industry  is  in- 
complete if  the  influence  and  the  possible  consequences  of  fatigue  are  not 
contemplated.  Fatigue,  on  the  other  hand,  disappears  during  rest,  both 
as  to  its  causes  and  effects,  if  the  rest  is  as  much  prolonged  as  the  labor 
has  been  exacting. 

Rest  is  thus,  quite  aside  from  any  social  or  humanitarian  consideration, 
a  physiological  necessity.  .  .  . 

It  is  physiologically  and,  one  may  add,  economically  essential  that  the 
nights  rest  and  the  weekly  rest  should  suffice  to  permit  the  human  or- 
ganism, which  has  been  subjected  to  a  period  of  labor,  to  return  to  its 
normal  state.  If  this  does  not  happen,  the  human  machine  deteriorates, 
as  complained  of  by  the  worker,  and  the  output  suffers,  which  affects  the 
employer,  to  say  nothing  of  the  charges  upon  society  which  may  result 
from  such  deterioration. 

Overstrain  is  present  if,  after  the  daily  or  weekly  rest,  at  the  moment  of 
resuming  labor,  traces  of  fatigue  still  remain  and  the  primal  and  normal 
productive  capacity  has  not  been  restored.     (Pages  634-635.) 

Eighth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.      Budapest,  AUSTRIA 
1894.     Vol.  Ill,  Sec.  IV.     De  V Influence  de  la  Duree  du  Travail  sur 
I'Etat  de  Sante  des  Travailleurs.     [The  Influence  of  Working  Hours  on 
the  Conditions  of  Health  of  Working  People.]     Dr.   Jules   Felix, 
Hungary.     Budapest,  1895. 

Every  being  must  obey  the  law  of  work,  which  is  nothing  else  than  the 
regular  and  harmonious  functioning  of  the  body  .  .  .  but  there  is  also 
another  law,  that  of  the  necessity  of  rest,  the  need  of  repair  ...  for  or- 
ganisms, as  well  as  for  separate  organs,  all  prolonged  activity  leads  to 
exhaustion,  and  to  effect  repair,  periods  of  rest  from  functioning  are  im- 
perative. .  .  .  The  time  needed  for  rest,  and  the  materials  required  for 
repair  must  be  proportioned  to  the  organic  expenditure,  to  the  intensity 
and  duration  of  work;  or,  in  other  words,  the  duration  of  rest  and  the 
reparative  material  of  every  organism  must  be  proportioned  to  the  length 
and  intensity  of  its  activity.  (Page  2.)  For  civilized  man  sleep  alone 
is  not  enough  for  rest.  It  is  also  necessary — even  indispensable,  if  man  is 
to  preserve  the  plenitude  of  his  physiological,  intellectual,  and  moral 
faculties,  and  not  degenerate — that  he  shall  vary  his  work  as  well  as  his 
recreation.     (Page  3.) 


102  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  History  of  the  Factory  Movement  from  the  Year  1802,  to  the  Enactment  of  the 

BRITAIN  j^^  ;/^^^^^.   g'li    -^^  ig^j^     "Alfred."     (Samuel   Kydd.)     London, 

Simpkin,  Marshall,  1857. 

Rest  of  body  is  the  first  requisite  for  one  who  is  habitually  overworked; 
no  evil  can  flow  from  this  requirement  being  reduced  to  practice.  Ex- 
perience has  proved  that  factory  regulation  has  been  beneficial  in  body, 
mind,  and  morals  to  those  for  whose  good  it  was  intended.  Its  promoters 
have  not  been  deluded  theorists,  they  have  been  practical  statesmen. 
(Vol.  I,  page  268.) 

Transactions  of  the  National  Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Social  Science. 
Vol.  XI,  1867.  On  Public  Recreation.  Wm.  Hardwicke,  M.D. 
London,  Longmans,  1868. 

The  necessity  for  lessening  the  hours  of  severe  labour  begins  to  show  it- 
self in  many  ways. 

In  former  times  when  labour  was  not  so  ardent,  holidays  were  many; 
now  that  civilization  advances  and  labour  begins  to  be  more  intense,  the 
exhaustion  is  consequently  greater,  and  the  period  of  rest  must  be  more 
frequent  or  more  prolonged.     (Page  476.) 

The  Lancet.  Vol.  I,  March  4,  1905.  "Overwork."  {Editorial.) 
London. 

Ingenious  attempts  have  been  made  by  Maschek  and  other  writers 
to  classify  work  under  the  three  headings  of  effort,  velocity,  and  duration, 
and  to  arrive  at  formulae  which  should  show  the  proper  relations  of  these 
three  elements  to  each  other.  Such  attempts  have  not  been  conspicu- 
ously successful,  but  they  at  least  serve  to  call  attention  to  the  distinctness 
of  the  elements  in  question  and  to  the  necessity  of  taking  each  of  them  into 
consideration  when  endeavoring  to  estimate  the  output  of  an  individual. 
They  remind  us  that  the  spurt  of  a  tired  man  may  be  more  injurious  to 
him,  may,  in  common  parlance,  "take  more  out  of  him,"  than  sustained 
efforts  more  deliberately  accomplished.  .  .  . 

Maschek  succeeded  in  establishing  at  least  one  formula  which  appears 
to  show  that  the  time  occupied  in  strenuous  endeavor  should  not  greatly 
exceed  one-third  of  the  twenty-four  hours. 

...  Of  the  three  elements  .  .  .  that  of  duration  is  usually  most  under 
our  command,  and  those  who  would  retain  health  and  attain  longevity 
should  see  to  it  both  that  their  efforts  are  not  too  prolonged  and  that 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUNCTION    OF    REST  IO3 

they  are  followed  by  corresponding  periods  of  rest.  .  .  .  If  we  turn  to  the  great 
elements  of  velocity  in  work  we  shall  find  abundant  reasons  for  the  belief 
that  its  predominance  implies  an  amount  of  strain  greatly  in  excess  of  the 
actual  accomplishment  and  calls  for  a  corresponding  equivalent  of  repose. 
The  wise  man  who  must  spend  his  life  in  living  will  be  all  the  more  solicit- 
ous so  to  manage  his  expenditure  that  it  may  not  be  wasteful  and  he  will 
be  careful  to  guide  his  activities  to  this  end.  ...  He  will  realize  that 
exceptional  duration  and  exceptional  speed  of  work  should  be  avoided 
whenever  possible,  and  that  when  they  cannot  be  avoided,  they  should 
be  followed  by  correspondingly  exceptional  periods  of  repose.  (Pages 
579-580.) 

The  Harvey  Lectures.     1905-1906.     Fatigue.     Frederic  S.   Lee,   Ph.D.  united 
Philadelphia,     Lippincott,  1906. 

Mankind  at  present  can  administer  no  food  or  drug  that  can  push  the 
wearied  cells  up  the  metabolic  grade,  either  simultaneously  with  their 
descent  or  quickly  after  the  descent  has  ceased.  Only  the  assimilation 
and  detoxication  that  normally  come  with  rest — and,  best,  rest  with  sleep 
— are  capable  of  adequate  restoration  of  working  power.     (Page  190.) 

(&)  Rest  Needed  to  Repair  the  Deficit  of  Oxygen 

The  injuries  from  excessive  working  hours  are  confirmed 
by  medical  observation  and  science,  which  has  demon- 
strated that  during  over-exertion  the  expenditure  of  oxygen 
of  any  individual  exceeds  the  amount  respired,  and  must  be 
met  by  the  reserves  of  the  organism,  by  the  oxygen  of  the 
blood  and  tissues.* 

Handworterhuch  der  Staatswissenschaften,  Bd.  I.  [Compendium  of  Po-  GERMAlTsr 
litical  Science,  Vol.  /.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of  Po- 
litical Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin;  W. 
Lexis,  Professor  of  Political  Science  in  Gottingen;  and  Edg.  Loening, 
Professor  of  Law  in  Halle.  Arbeitsieit.  [Hours  of  IVork.]  Dr.  H. 
Herkner,  Berlin.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

We  distinguish  Exhaustion  from  Fatigue. 

In  exhaustion  there  is  a  deficiency  of  reparative  material  for  the  resto- 
ration of  the  vital  tissues.     This  is  especially  a  deficiency  of  oxygen. 
*  See  footnote  on  page  109. 


104 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  During  work  more  oxygen  is  taken  from  the  red  blood  corpuscles  than  can 
be  normally  replaced  by  them  from  respiration  and  food.  (Verworn.) 
While  fatigue  can  be  banished  by  rest,  exhaustion  can  only  be  overcome 
by  fresh  supplies  of  oxygen  and  organic  tissue  building  material  in  food. 
Recuperation  takes  place  in  fullest  extent  only  in  sleep,  as  during  sleep  the 
consumption  of  oxygen  is  diminished. 

Now  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  consumption  of  energy  takes  place 
not  only  in  work,  but  also  in  the  vital  processes  themselves.  We  are 
continually  losing  heat  (energy)  to  our  environment.  There  is,  however, 
a  great  difference.  The  organism  at  rest  requires,  in  24  hours,  about 
2770,  the  actively  working  organism  4550,  calories. 

The  consumption  of  energy  during  work  results  from  the  mechanical 
and  mental  activities  required  by  the  occupation  processes.  To  this  is 
added  further  consumption  by  standing;  certain  postures  of  the  body; 
strain  of  special  senses;  jarring  of  the  body,  by  machinery,  etc. 

In  this  wise,  fatigue  of  the  muscular  and  of  the  nervous  apparatus  is 
brought  about.  In  laborious  work,  involving  the  whole  body,  fatigue  of 
the  entire  muscular  apparatus  appears.     (Page  1215.) 


FRANCE  Tenth     International    Congress    of   Hygiene    and    Demography.      Paris, 

1900.  In  one  vol.  Legislation  et  Reglementation  du  Travail  au  point 
de  vue  de  I'Hygiene.  [Labor  Legislation  and  Regulation  from  the 
Standpoint  of  Hygiene.]  M.  Edouard  Vaillant,  M.R.C.S.  Eng- 
land.    Paris,  Mas  son  et  Cie.,  1900. 

Physiological  researches  have  proved  that  if  work  has  been  pushed  to 
exhaustion,  normal  aliment  and  normal  rest  no  longer  suffice  for  repair; 
that  any  work  acts  more  injuriously  upon  a  wearied  muscle  than  even 
heavy  work  under  normal  conditions,  that  when  the  normal  muscular 
energy  has  been  expended,  the  nervous  system  is  under  excessive  strain 
and  becomes  exhausted;  that  this  nerve  exhaustion,  combined  with  physi- 
cal work,  increases  with  a  rapidity  proportionate  to  the  expense  of  nervous 
force  and  attention  demanded  by  the  work;  that  all  muscular  work,  how- 
ever light,  aggravates  a  condition  of  intellectual  fatigue  and  nervous 
tension,  and  that  rest  must  be  sufficient  to  ward  off  fatigue. 

It  is  most  important  to  determine  the  physiological  limits  of  work  which 
the  workman  should  not  overpass.  .  .  . 

This  limit  contracts  or  expands  with  the  physical  and  intellectual 
strength,  the  age,  sex,  general  and  technical  education,  training,  the 
nature  and  surroundings  of  the  work,  and  a  number  of  other  temporary 
or  permanent  conditions.     (Page  509.) 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUN'CTION    OF    REST  IO5 

The  principle  of  organic  protection  is  this:  an  individual,  in  no  matter  France 
what  category,  should  never  exceed  the  ph>siological  boundary  of  labor 
where,  through  duration,  or  intensit}'  of  effort,  overwork  and  fatigue 
begin. 

This  limitation  could  be  easily  determined  by  simple  hygienic  and 
medical  oversight  of  that  kind  now  established  in  an  elementary  way  by 
the  German  wage-earners  insurance,  if  carried  to  completion  and  estab- 
lished generally  throughout  industry.     (Page  510.) 

But  even  now  this  physiological  limit  can  be  determined.  .  .  , 

Combustion,  the  principal  source  of  energy,  can  be  measured.  The 
transformation  of  gases,  the  pulmonary  respiration,  being  the  sum  of 
all  partial  respiratory  processes  and  the  amount  of  ox}gen  absorbed  and 
of  carbonic  acid  eliminated  increasing  directly  with  work,  there  is  a  dis- 
turbance of  equilibrium  and  an  organic  deficit,  whenever  the  expenditure 
of  oxygen  in  the  formation  of  carbonic  acid  has  exceeded  the  amount 
respired,  and  has  been  met  by  the  reserves  of  the  organism,  by  the  oxygen 
of  the  blood  and  the  tissues.  Intoxication  then  begins  with  stasis  of 
carbonic  acid. 

The  robust  workman,  turning  the  wheel  of  Pettenkofer  and  \'oit,  dem- 
onstrated how  much  he  had  surpassed  this  limit  even  in  his  nine-hour 
day,  and  despite  his  rest.     (Page  511.) 

The  respiratory  quotient  .  .  .  varies  precisely  with  work,  its  factors 
increasing  with  work  and  diminishing  with  rest,  for  the  relation  of  the 
carbonic  acid  produced  to  the  oxygen  consumed  expresses  exactly  the 
expenditure  of  potential  glycogen  during  work  and  its  renewal  during  rest. 
(Page  511.) 

The  value  of  the  preservative  individual  warnings  of  fatigue  is  evident. 

This  signal  of  alarm,  from  an  organism  that  has,  by  overwork,  or 
defect  of  training  and  education,  arrived  at  the  physiological  limit  of 
work,  is  not  an  uncertain  psychic  incident.  It  is  a  warning:  in  default 
of  rest,  physical  effects  will  follow:  morbid  effects,  menacing  intoxication, 
organic  alteration  caused  by  overwork  (surtravail)  and  fatigue.  (Page 
513.) 

As  the  work  of  each  day  causes  an  organic  deficit,  the  weekly  rest,  as 
shown  by  Dr.  Haegler,  is  a  necessity  to  make  up  this  deficit:  the  effort 
is  to  add  one  half  day  of  Saturday. 

But  even  with  this  addition,  the  reparative  rest  is  not  sufficient,  its 
effect  is  only  apparent.  The  rest  of  the  Sunday  and  Saturday  half 
holiday  should  be  entered  upon  without  a  deficit,  without  fatigue,  and 
it  should  be  a  period  of  recuperation  of  strength  and  of  the  organic  equi- 
librium, bringing  it  to  a  higher  level,  giving  more  moral  and  physical 


io6 


FATIGUE    .\ND    EFFICIENCY 


FRANCE  Strength  to  man, — the  active  energy  necessary  to  carry  him  without  en- 

cumbrance of  fatigue  through  his  next  period  of  work.     (Page  514.) 

For  all  these  reasons  overtime  should  be  forbidden  by  law,  as  infract- 
ing the  limitation  of  hours,  causing  overwork,  and  contributing  to  non- 
employment.     (Page  517.) 

Etude  sur  l' Influence  de  la  Duree  du  Travail  Quotidien  stir  la  Sante  Generale 
de  I'Adulte.  [Study  of  the  Effect  of  the  Length  of  Working  Hours  upon 
the  General  Health  of  Adults.]     Ilia  S.\chnine.     Lyon,  1900. 

During  the  night,  and  above  all  during  sleep,  man  absorbs  more  ox\"gen 
than  he  exhales.  According  to  Voit  and  Pettenkofer,  this  surplus  ox_\gen 
is  stored  up  to  be  used  later  in  the  exertions  of  the  day.     (Page  173.) 

Dr.  Haegler  demonstrated,  on  the  basis  of  Pettenkofer's  experiments, 
that,  as  each  day's  work  added  a  slight  deficit  of  oxygen  to  the  deficit  of 
the  day  before,  a  weekly  rest  of  24  hours  was  necessary  to  replenish  the 
normal  sum  of  oxygen  used  in  labor  or  continuous  exertion  throughout  the 
week.     (Page  175.) 


De  la  Fatigue  et  de  son  Influence  Pathogenique.  [Fatigue  and  its  Patho- 
genic Influence.]  Dr.  M.  Carrieu,  University  of  Montpellier.  Paris, 
Bailliere  et  Fils,  1878. 

It  had  been  well  established  (by  Lavoisier  and  others)  that  the  organism 
consumed  more  oxygen  during  activity  than  in  a  state  of  rest,  but  the 
experiments  of  Voit  and  Pettenkofer  necessitate  some  modifications  of  the 
results  of  previous  experiments.     (Zeitschr.  f.  Biol.,  1866.) 

Their  researches  put  into  evidence  interesting  differences  in  the  same 
individual,  accordingly  as  he  was  at  work  or  at  rest,  awake  or  asleep. 
The  subject  of  the  experiment  was  a  vigorous  workman  of  28  years  of  age. 
He  had  the  same  quantity  of  food  whether  working  or  resting  except  that 
when  working  he  drank  an  additional  600  grams  of  water.  The  results 
are  thus  shown: 

July  31,  1868.     Day  of  Rest 


Absorbed 

Eliminated 

Oxygen 

COi 

HO 

Urea 

0  of  COi 

From  6  a.  m.  to  6  p.  m. 
From  6  p.  m.  to  6  a.  m. 

234.6 
474.3 

532.9 
378.6 

344.4 
483.6 

21.7              175 
15.5                58 

Total  for  24  hours 

708.9 

911.5 

828.0 

37.2 

233 

PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUNCTION    OF    REST  IO7 

August  3,  1868.     Day  of  Work 


FRA!fCE 


Absorbed 

Elimin.ated 

0 

Oxygen    1 

CO2 

HO 

L'rea 

of  CO2 

From  6  a.  m.  to  6  p.  m. 
From  6  p.  m.  to  6  a.  .\i. 

294.8 
659.7 

884.8 
309.4 

1094.8 
947.3 

20.1 
16.7 

218 
44 

Total  for  24  hours 

954.5      , 

1284.2 

2042.1 

37.8 

262 

These  numbers  show  that  the  excretion  of  carbonic  acid  is  more  con- 
siderable by  day  than  by  night,  and  that  per  contra  the  absorption  of 
oxygen  is  more  active  by  night  than  b%'  day.     (Page  14.) 

Further  the  amounts  of  water  and  of  carbonic  acid  excreted  are  much 
greater  during  work  than  during  rest,  whilst  the  oxygen  absorbed  does  not 
vary  to  the  same  extent.  Finally,  a  larger  proportion  of  oxA'gen  is  in- 
spired during  the  night  following  the  da>'  of  work,  whilst  the  amount  of 
carbonic  acid  excreted  was  nearly  the  same  in  both  cases. 

The  authors  conclude  from  these  experiments  that  oxygen  inspired  at 
night  is  stored  up  to  be  drawn  upon  next  day  to  oxidize  food  materials. 
If  one  works,  he  exhales  a  greater  amount  of  CO2  and  then  ox\"gen  must 
be  inspired  in  greater  amount  during  rest.     (Page  15. j 

Revue  Internationale  de  Sociologie,  Nov.  1895.     Li  TraiaU  Hv.rnain  et  ses  ITALY 
Lois.     [The  Laws  of  Human  IVork.]     Fr.ancesco  S.  Nitti,  Professor, 
University  of  Naples.     Paris,  Giard  et  Br i ere,  1895. 

The  workman,  busy  with  his  work,  does  not  perceive  the  oncoming 
of  fatigue,  or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  he  only  perceives  it  when  it  has 
attained  a  certain  intensity.  This  is  the  principal  reason  why  he  does  not 
and  cannot  protect  himself:  it  is  the  principal  reason  wh.\'  every  society, 
which  desires  to  prevent  a  wasteful  loss  of  energ>",  must  necessarily  resort 
to  regulation  to  protect  him.     (Page  1041.) 

Variations  between  individuals,  it  is  true,  are  ver\'  great,  but  .  .  . 
there  is  an  average  limit  which  may  be  found  and  applied  in  legislation. 
What  shall  this  limit  be?  .  .  .  In  the  experiments  of  Voit  and  Pettenkofer 
it  was  found  that  the  workman  at  the  end  of  nine  hours'  labor  had  ex- 
pended, in  the  form  of  carbonic  acid,  192  grammes  of  ox\'gen  more  than 
he  had  been  able  to  inhale  during  this  time.  He  had  therefore  had  to  give 
up  20  per  cent  of  the  supply  of  oxygen  stored  up  in  his  tissues.    We  may 


io8 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 


ITALY  ask,  therefore,  if  the  average  limit  of  eight  hours  would  seem  altogether 

arbitrary.     (Page  1041.) 


mnxED 

STATES 


Text  Book  of  Physiology.  Wm.  H.  Howell,  Ph.D.,  M.D.,LL.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Physiology  in  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore. 
Philadelphia,  IV.  B.  Saunders  Co.,  1907. 

Chemical  Changes  in  the  Muscle  during  Contraction  and  Rigor. — Perhaps 

the  most  significant  change  in  the  muscle  during  contraction  is  the  pro- 
duction of  carbon  dioxid.  After  increased  muscular  activity  it  may  be 
shown  that  an  animal  gives  off  a  larger  amount  of  carbon  dioxid  in  its 
expired  air.  In  such  cases  the  carbon  dioxid  produced  in  the  muscles  is 
given  off  to  the  blood,  carried  to  the  lungs,  and  then  exhaled  in  the  expired 
air.  Pettenkofer  and  Voit,  for  instance,  found  that  during  a  day  in  which 
much  muscular  work  was  done  a  man  expired  nearly  twice  as  much  CO2 
as  during  a  resting  day.  The  same  fact  can  be  shown  directly  upon  an 
isolated  muscle  of  a  frog  made  to  contract  by  electrical  stimulation.  The 
carbon  dioxid  in  this  case  diffuses  out  of  the  muscle  in  part  to  the  sur- 
rounding air,  and  in  part  remains  in  solution,  or  in  chemical  combination 
as  carbonates,  in  the  liquids  of  the  tissue,  it  has  been  shown  by  Hermann 
and  others  that  a  muscle  that  has  been  tetanized  gives  off  more  carbon 
dioxid  than  a  resting  muscle  when  their  contained  gases  are  extracted  by 
a  gas  pump.  This  CO2  arises  from  the  oxidation  of  the  carbon  of  some  of 
the  constituents  of  the  muscle,  and  its  existence  is  an  indication  that  in 
their  final  products  the  changes  in  the  muscle  are  equivalent  in  those  of 
ordinary  combustion  at  high  temperatures,  the  burning  of  wood  or  fats, 
for  instance.  Moreover,  the  formation  of  the  CO2  in  the  muscle  is  ac- 
companied by  the  production  of  heat,  as  in  combustion;  and  for  the  same 
amount  of  CO2  produced  in  the  two  cases  the  same  amount  of  heat  is 
liberated.  It  has  been  shown,  however,  in  the  frog's  muscle  freshly  re- 
moved from  the  body,  that  the  CO2  is  produced  whether  or  not  any  oxygen 
is  supplied  to  the  muscle, — that  is,  when  the  muscle  is  made  to  contract 
in  an  atmosphere  containing  no  oxygen,  or  in  a  vacuum.  In  this  respect 
the  parallel  between  physiological  oxidation  and  ordinary  combustion 
fails.  Wood,  oil,  and  other  combustible  material  cannot  be  burnt  at  high 
temperatures  in  the  absence  of  oxygen.  We  must  believe,  therefore,  that 
in  the  muscle  there  is  a  supply  of  stored  oxygen,  and  that  the  muscle  will 
give  off  CO2  as  long  as  this  supply  lasts.  The  oxidation,  instead  of  being 
direct,  as  in  the  case  of  combustions,  is  indirect.  .  . 

The  oxygen  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the  normal  activity  of  the  muscu- 
lar tissue,  but  the  tissue,  by  stormg  the  oxygen,  can  function  for  some 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUNCTION    OF    REST 


109 


time  when  the  suppl}'  is  suspended.  As  Pfliiger  has  expressed  it,  in  a 
most  interesting  paper,  the  ox\'gen  is  Hke  the  spring  to  a  clock — once 
wound  up,  the  clock  will  go  for  a  certain  time  without  further  winding. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  diiterent  tissues  show  consider- 
able variation  in  the  time  during  which  they  will  function  normally  after 
suspension  of  their  oxygen  supply.  The  cortex  of  the  brain,  for  instance, 
loses  its  activity, — that  is,  unconsciousness  ensues  almost  immediately 
upon  cessation  or  serious  diminution  in  the  supply  of  blood,  and  the  same 
may  be  said  of  the  functional  activity  of  the  kidney.  In  the  cold-blooded 
animals,  with  their  slower  chemical  changes,  the  supply  of  stored  oxygen 
maintains  irritability  for  a  longer  time  than  in  the  warm-blooded  animals. 
(Pages  62-63.)* 


UNITED 
STATES 


Du  Repos  Hehdomadaire. 
Antwerp,  1907. 


[The  Weekly  Rest  Day]     Esteve  de  Bosch.  Belgium 


Dr.  Haegler  has  represented  in  an  ingenious  fashion  the  variations 
which  occur  in  the  entirety  of  our  vital  forces,  in  the  form  of  a  line,  "h," 
which,  instead  of  remaining  on  the  same  level  at  all  times,  rises  or  falls 
according  to  the  alternations  of  work  and  rest.     (Page  49.) 

The  night's  sleep  repairs  a  part  of  the  losses  which  we  suffer  by  day, 
but  it  is  not  sufficient  to  make  up  entirely  for  the  deficit  produced  by  the 
hours  of  work.  The  result  is  that  the  line  is  not  found  to  be  on  the  same 
level  in  the  morning  that  it  was  24  hours  before,  and  the  level  of  our  energy 
is  lowered  slightly  from  da\^  to  day.     (Page  50.) 

This  chart  was  shown  b_\'  Haegler  at  the  Swiss  International  Exposition 
in  1896  in  Geneva.  Another  chart,  also  by  Dr.  Haegler,  and  shown  at 
the  same  exhibition,  shows  that  the  length  of  life  is  longer  with  those 
who  observe  the  custom  of  a  weekly  day  of  rest.     (Page  51.) 

*  Note. — Since  this  brief  was  compiled  and  presented  to  the  courts,  the  suc- 
ceeding editions  of  Howell's  Textbook  of  Physiology  omit  the  passage  quoted  above 
and  state  instead: 

"The  fact  that  a  muscle  will  continue  to  contract  on  stimulation  even  when  in 
an  atmosphere  free  from  oxygen  was  formerly  interpreted  to  mean  that  some  oxy- 
gen had  been  stored  previously  by  the  muscle  and  that  contractions  were  possible 
only  as  long  as  this  supply  held  out.  But  since  it  has  been  found  that  the  con- 
tractions under  these  circumstances  are  not  accompanied  by  an  output  of  carbon 
di-oxid,  this  supposition  has  been  rendered  doubtful.  It  has  been  suggested,  on 
the  contrary,  that  the  energy  for  the  contractions  in  these  cases  may  be  obtained 
from  other  than  oxidative  changes,  for  example,  from  the  small  amount  of  heat- 
energy  liberated  in  the  splitting  of  sugar  into  lactic  acid."  (Edition  of  1911, Page 
66.) 


no 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


BELGIUM 


Haggler's  Chart 


Fatigue  curves  showing  morning  rise  and  afternoon  depression.     The  upper  line 

shows  the  effect  of  the  weekly  day  of  rest. 
The  lower  line  shows  the  gradual  depression  of  strength  with  daily  work  and  no  time 

of  rest. 

(Page  50,  in  "  Du  Repos  Hebdomadaire.") 


Haegler's  Chart,  Geneva,  1896 


Line  A  shows  the  normal  average  of  life  with  proper  time  of  rest. 
Line  B  shows  the  average  life  line  under  overwork  and  insuflTicient  rest. 

(Page  51,  in  "Du  Repos  Hebdomadaire.") 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUNCTION    OF    REST  I  I  I 

(c)  Adequacy  of  Resting  Time  Allowed  between  Working  Hours 
1.  In  Ordinary  Work 

The  adequacy  of  rest  depends  on  the  length  of  time  al- 
lowed between  working  hours.  Hence  the  shorter  working 
day  benefits  the  worker,  not  alone  by  requiring  less  expen- 
diture of  energy,  but  by  allowing  a  more  adequate  period  of 
rest  before  the  next  working  day  begins. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  precisely  after  excessive  working 
hours  that  the  need  of  repair  is  greatest  and  the  time  al- 
lowed away  from  work  is  least, 

Handhuch  der  Hygiene.     Bd.8^.     [Handbook  of  Hygiene.     Vol.  8^.]     Edited  Germany 
by  Dr.  Theodore  Weyl.     Allgemeine  Gewerbehygiene  und  Fabrik- 
gesetigebung.     [General  Industrial  Hygiene  and  Factory  Legislation.] 
Dr.  Emil  Roth.     Jena,  1894. 

,  .  .  We  may  point  out  that  the  social  condition  of  the  worker,  his 
home,  nutrition,  and  conduct  of  life  are  highly  important  factors  in  the 
rate  of  sickness,  and  that,  the  longer  the  working  hours,  the  less  oppor- 
tunity is  left  to  him  of  utilizing  these  health-preserving  forces.  (Pages 
27-28.) 

Handbuch  der  Arbeiterwohlfahrt.  [Handbook  of  the  General  Welfare  of  the 
Working  Classes.]  Edited  by  Dr.  Otto  Dammer.  Vol.  II.  Ar- 
beiterschuti.  [Protection  of  Working  Men.]  Dr.  Ascher.  Stuttgart, 
Enke,  1902. 

The  injurious  consequences  of  bad  conditions  upon  health  cannot, 
unfortunately,  all  be  as  clearly  demonstrated  [as  that  of  dust  in  the 
experiments  of  Moritz  and  Ropke];  we  know,  however,  that  for  the 
elimination  of  dangerous  substances  from  the  body  a  certain  time — 
dependent  upon  the  nature  of  the  material  and  the  constitution  of  the 
individual — is  essential,  and  that  therefore  a  shortened  exposure  to  the 
unfavorable  conditions  has  a  double  advantage — first,  in  that  the  prob- 
ability of  elimination  of  unhealthful  material  is  increased  and  its  unhy- 
gienic consequences  more  fully  avoided.  In  this  connection  we  must 
consider  also  the  severer  forms  of  fatigue  or  exertion  of  organs  beyond  the 


112 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY        physiological  limits  of  their  endurance  and  the  impossibility  of  repairing 
their  waste  and  restoring  them  to  normal  conditions  without  ample  resting 

time.     (Page  78.) 


Gesammelte  Abhatidlungen.  Bd.  III.  {Complete  Works.  Vol.  III.] 
Die  Folkswirthschaftlkhe  Bedeuiung  der  Verkur-iing  des  hidnstriellen 
Arheitstages.  [The  Economic  Significance  of  a  Shorter  IVorking  Day.] 
Ernst  Abbe.  Paper  read  before  the  Political  Society,  Jena,  1901. 
Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 

I  have  brief!}'  referred  to  the  balance  between  expenditure  and  renewal 
of  strength.  Renewal  of  strength  by  nutriment  and  rest — upon  what 
does  it  depend?  For  any  one  specific  individual  it  is  beyond  a  doubt 
that  the  length  of  resting  time  allowed  is  the  paramount  condition  for 
recuperation  of  strength.  There  cannot  be  the  smallest  doubt  that  one 
who  has  16  hours  rest  between  his  working  hours  can  repair  a  greater 
amount  of  previous  fatigue  than  he  who  has  only  10.  Every  one  can  prove 
this  for  himself.     (Page  231.) 

Therefore,  aside  from  the  personal  factors  which  one  may  call  the  in- 
tensity of  metabolism  or  of  the  vital  functions  in  different  individuals, 
the  important  thing  is  the  length  of  time  permitted  for  rest.  The  day 
has  only  24  hours;  so  the  time  for  rest  must  be  the  difference  between  the 
working  day  and  24  hours.  If  the  former  is  8  hours,  there  are  16;  if  10 
hours,  only  14  for  rest.     (Page  231.) 


FRANCE  Tenth     International    Congress    of   Hygiene    and    Demography.       Paris, 

1900.  In  one  vol.  Legislation  et  Reglemeniation  dii  travail  au  point 
de  vue  de  V Hygiene.  [Labor  Legislation  and  Regulation  from  the  stand- 
point of  Hygiene.]  M.  Edouard  Vaillant,  M.R.C.S.,  England. 
Paris,  1900. 

Professor  Setschenoff  has  dealt  cleverly  with  the  physiological  problem 
of  the  necessary  relative  length  of  rest  and  work  so  that  the  weariness  of 
one  day  shall  not  be  felt  on  the  morrow.  The  normal  heart  with  its  regu- 
lar rhythm  of  contraction  and  relaxation,  gains  sufficient  rest  during  every 
second  to  work  for  a  lifetime,  its  total  rest  being  to  its  total  work  as  10 
hours  to  6  in  16  hours.  Now,  giving  the  industrial  worker  8  hours  of 
sleep,  he  has  16  left  for  work  and  rest. 

it  then  seems  that  during  the  16  hours  of  waking  time  remaining  for 
the  worker,  his  relative  rest  should  not  be  less  in  duration  than  that  of  the 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUNCTION    OF    REST  II3 

heart,  especially  as  the  skeletonic  muscles  are  less  richly  supplied  with  france 
blood  than  those  of  the  heart  and  as  physical  rest  is  not  complete  in  the 
waking  state.     (Page  512.) 


British  Sessional   Papers.     Vol.   XV.    1831-32.     Report  from  the  Select  ^^^j^ 
Committee  on  the  "Bill  to  regulate  the  Labour  of  Children  in  the  Mills 
and  Factories  of  the  United  Kingdom." 

Thos.  Hodgkin,  Esq.,  M.D.,  physician  to  the  London  Dispensary, 
Lecturer  at  Guy's  Hospital: 

1094L  Is  not  the  body  in  your  opinion,  in  a  very  unfit  state  to  renew 
its  exertion  when  it  has  been  insufficiently  recreated  by  sleep,  and  when 
therefore  labour  has  to  be  commenced  at  the  beginning  of  the  day  with  the 
feelings  and  signs  of  weariness  still  remaining? — Certainly,  it  is.  .  .  . 

10942.  That  accumulated  fatigue  you  conceive  to  be  peculiarly  in- 
jurious to  the  constitution? — Yes;  without  the  interposition  of  intervals 
sufficient  to  repair  the  demand  which  has  been  made  on  the  system. 
(Page  549.) 

John  iVlorgan,  Esq.,  surgeon  to  Guy's  Hospital: 

10998.  Do  you  not  think  that  the  body  is  in  a  very  unfit  state  to 
renew  its  daily  labour  when  the  preceding  evening's  sleep  has  been  in- 
sufficient to  remove  a  sense  of  weariness  and  fatigue?— Certainly,  in  a 
very  unfit  state.     (Page  553.) 

Joseph  Henry  Green,  Esq.,  F.R.S.,  surgeon  to  St.  Thomas's  Hospital 
and  Professor  of  Surgery  at  King's  College: 

11386.  Do  you  not  think  that  labour  is  peculiarly  pernicious  and 
prejudicial  when  it  has  to  be  commenced  in  the  morning;  the  body  not 
being  sufficiently  refreshed  and  recruited  by  the  insufficient  sleep  of  the 
preceding  evening? — Certainly. 

11387.  And  that  fatigue  perpetuated  is  peculiarly  wearisome,  of 
course,  to  the  body,  and  pernicious  to  all  the  functions  of  life? — Yes,  I  do. 
(Page  588.) 

Benjamin  Travers,  Esq.,  F.R.S.,  senior  surgeon  to  St.  Thomas's 
Hospital  in  Southwark: 

11605.  Is  it  not  a  strong  indication  that  labour  is  pernicious  when  it 
has  to  be  resumed  in  the  morning  with  a  great  sense  of  remaining  weariness 
and  fatigue,  which  has  not  been  dissipated  by  the  rest  of  the  preceding 
night? — Certainly. 

11606.  That,  long  continued,  will  be,  in  your  opinion,  pernicious  to 
the  constitution? — Certainly,  especially  so.     (Page  606.) 


114  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

2.  hi  Work  involving  Absorption  of  Injurious  Substances 

Adequate  resting  time  between  working  hours  is  par- 
ticularly important  in  trades  where  injurious  substances, 
such  as  dust,  fluff,  or  industrial  poisons  may  be  absorbed 
by  the  worker.  As  all  trades  share  these  dangers  in  greater 
or  less  degree,  the  longer  the  period  away  from  work,  the 
greater  the  possibility  that  injurious  substances  may  be 
eliminated  from  the  body  before  another  workday. 


GERMANY  Handhuch  der  Arbeiterwohlfahrt.  [Handbook  of  the  General  Welfare  of  the 
Working  Classes.]  Edited  by  Dr.  Otto  Dammer.  l^ol.  II.  Ar- 
beiterschuii.  {Protection  of  Working  Men.]  Dr.  Ascher.  Stuttgart, 
Enke,  1902. 

When  we  arrange  the  medical  testimony  given  in  regard  to  the  longer 
or  shorter  working  time  the  following  conclusion  appears:  in  any  or  every 
trade  when  a  substance  injurious  to  health  (poison)  may  possibly  be  taken 
into  the  body  tissues  of  the  worker,  the  danger  is  lessened  by  just  so  much 
as  the  time  during  which  the  worker  is  so  exposed,  is  shortened.  The 
longer  the  period  of  rest  away  from  work,  the  greater  the  possibility  of  the 
injurious  material  being  eliminated  from  the  body.  The  same  is  true  of 
mechanically  irritant  dust.  Moritz  and  Ropke  found  that,  when  work- 
men were  exposed  continuously  to  breathe  in  the  dust  from  polishing  during 
a  considerable  period  of  time,  the  sensitiveness  of  the  mucous  membranes, 
larynx,  and  bronchi  was  so  diminished  that  the  in-breathed  dust  could 
not  be  coughed  up  and,  instead,  found  lodging  place  on  the  delicate  vocal 
cords.  A  short  time  of  rest  outside  of  the  dusty  air  sufficed  to  restore  to 
the  tissues  their  normal  irritability,  so  that  the  harmful  dust  acted  as  an 
irritant  and  could  be  expelled  by  coughing.  On  this  ground  they  argued 
for  longer  rest  periods  and  shorter  working  time.  Similar  reasons  hold 
for  shorter  hours  in  all  occupation  where  individual  organs — eyes,  muscles, 
bony  structure,  nerves,  heart,  lungs — are  liable  to  overexertion.  Nat- 
urally, then,  the  free  time  must  be  given  to  healthful  exercise  and  recrea- 
tion. .  .  .  Through  all  these  reports  a  gradual  tendency  to  shorten 
the  hours  of  labor  may  be  accepted  as  a  modern  movement.  (Pages 
61-62.) 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    FUNCTION    OF    REST  II 5 

Handworierbuch  der  Staatswissenschaften.  Bd.  I.  [Compendium  of  Po-  GERMANY 
litical  Science.  Vol.  I.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of 
Political  Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin; 
W.  Lexis,  Professor  of  Political  Science  in  Gottingen;  and  Edg. 
LoENiNG,  Professor  of  Law  in  Halle.  Arbeitsieit.  [Hours  of  JVork.] 
Dr.  H.  Herkner,  Berlin,     fena,  Fischer,  1909. 

.  .  .  The  more  injurious  any  process  of  work  is  by  reason  of  great  heat, 
poison,  dust,  noise,  etc.,  the  more  important  does  it  become  to  provide 
some  counterbalance  to  these  harmful  influences  by  shortening  the  time 
given  to  labor  under  these  conditions.     (Page  1204.) 

An     das     Schwei^.     Industriedepartement,     Bern.     Die     Eidgenossischen  switzer- 
Fahrikinspectoren.     [Report  of  the   Swiss   Factory   Inspectors   to   the 
Swiss  Department  of  Labor  on  the  Revision  of  the  Factory   Laws.] 
Schaffhausen,  1904. 

Finally  we  must  mention  those  arguments  in  favor  of  a  shorter  day 
which  have  been  presented  by  medical  men.  A  prominent  hygienist, 
Dr.  Ascher,  declares:  "In  all  those  industries  where  more  or  less  injurious 
foreign  material  is  taken  into  the  body  of  the  workman,  the  danger  is 
lessened  in  proportion  to  the  brevity  of  the  time  during  which  he  is  ex- 
posed. The  longer  the  periods  of  rest  outside  and  away  from  his  work 
place,  the  greater  the  possibility  of  the  tissues  of  the  body  casting  off  the 
injurious  substances.  It  has  been  found  that,  with  long  or  continuous 
inspiration  of  dust,  the  irritability  of  the  mucous  membrances,  lar}'nx  and 
bronchi  is  so  much  lessened  that  the  inspired  dust  is  no  longer  coughed  up, 
and  remains  to  find  lodging  place  on  the  delicately  sensitive  vocal  cords. 
For  this  reason  longer  periods  of  rest  and  shorter  working  hours  are  es- 
sential. Analogous  reasons  are  in  force  for  every  occupation  in  which 
overexertion  of  special  organs — eyes,  muscles,  bones,  nerves,  heart,  or 
lungs — is  necessitated  by  the  work."     (Page  26.) 

Eighth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Budapest,  AUSTRIA 
1894.  Vol.  VII,  Sec.  V.  Ober  das  Verhdltniss  der  Dauer  des  Ar- 
beitstages  {ur  Gesundheit  des  Arbeiters  und  dessen  Einfluss  auf  die 
offentliche  Gesundheit.  [The  Leyigth  of  the  Working  Day  in  its  Rela- 
tion to  the  Workman's  Health  and  its  Influeyice  upon  Public  Health.} 
Dr.  E.  R.  J.  Krejcsi,  Vice-Secretary  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  in 
Budapest.     Budapest,  1896. 

The  longer  the  hours  of  work,  the  longer  the  organism  is  exposed  to 
injurious  influences; — the  sooner  bodily  resistance  is  overcome,  and  conse- 


ii6 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


AUSTRIA  quently  occupation  diseases  are  early  established  which  might  have  been 

avoided  or  at  least  postponed  to  a  much  later  period  if  the  hours  of  labor 
had  been  short.     (Page  327.) 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor.  No.  95.  July,  1911. 
Industrial  Lead  Poisoning  in  Europe.  Sir  Thomas  Oliver,  M.D., 
F.R.C.P. 

Increase  of  the  hours  of  work  has  been  found  to  be  associated  with  a 
rise  in  the  number  of  cases  of  plumbism.  A  change  from  six  to  eight-hour 
shifts  of  employment  was  in  a  Scotch  factory  found  to  be  the  only  ex- 
planation of  an  outbreak  of  plumbism  in  a  works  which  had  hitherto  been 
free.     (Page  9.) 


C.  Bad  Effects  of  Long  Hours  on  Health 
(i)  General  Injuries  to  Health 

The  fatigue  which  follows  excessive  working  hours  be- 
comes chronic  and  results  in  general  deterioration  of  health. 
While  it  may  not  result  in  immediate  disease,  it  under- 
mines the  whole  system  by  weakness  and  anaemia.  Con- 
tinuous overexertion  has  proved  even  more  disastrous  to 
health  than  a  certain  amount  of  privation;  and  lack  of  work 
in  industrial  crises  has  entailed  less  injury  to  health  than 
long-continued  overwork.  The  excessive  length  of  work- 
ing hours,  therefore,  constitutes  in  itself  a  menace  to  health. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XV.  1831-1832.  Report  from  the  Select 
Committee  on  the  "Bill  to  regulate  the  Labour  of  Children  in  the  Mills 
and  Factories  of  the  United  Kingdom." 

William  Sharp,  Esq.,  .  .  .  surgeon  to  the  Dispensary,  Bradford, 
Yorkshire: 

7097.  Do  you  consider  that  excessive  labour,  or  labour  too  long  con- 
tinued, has  a  direct  tendency  to  produce  disease  and  debility,  and  to 
shorten  life? — Yes,  I  do. 

7080.  Do  you  not  think  the  worst  effects  are  produced  by  the  ter- 
minating hours  of  a  long  day's  labour? — Yes.     (Page  302.) 


BAD    EFFECTS    OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    HEALTH  II7 

Samuel  Smith,  Esq.,  .  .  .  member  of  College  of  Surgeons  and  practis-  great 


ing  surgeon  in  Leeds: 

10341.  Do  you  consider  the  very  uniformity  of  the  exertion  would, 
in  all  probability,  occasion  fatigue,  and  abate  the  energies  of  those  who 
have  to  endure  it? — Even  supposing  no  labour  whatever  were  required 
under  such  circumstances,  the  merely  having  to  sustain  the  erect  position 
of  the  body  for  so  long  a  period  is  harassing  in  the  extreme  and  no  one  can 
have  an  adequate  idea  of  it  unless  he  has  himself  been  subjected  to  it. 
(Page  497.) 

10493.  Should  you  attribute  part  of  the  pernicious  effects  upon 
the  constitution  of  those  employed,  to  their  being  deprived  of  fresh  air? — 
Certainly;  the  long-continued  labour  and  the  want  of  fresh  air  are  the  two 
principal  causes  of  the  general  effects  to  which  1  have  alluded.     (Page  514.) 

Sir  Anthony  Carlisle,  F.R.S.,  .  .  .  surgeon  in  the  Westminster  Hos- 
pital: 

11035.  Is  it  not  an  equally  received  opinion  with  medical  authorities, 
that  exercise  or  labour,  so  long  continued  as  to  produce  great  fatigue  of 
mind  and  body,  without  affording  due  intermissions  for  meals,  recreation, 
and  sleep,  is  inconsistent,  generally  speaking,  with  the  maintenance  of 
health? — I  think  every  one  of  the  points  of  that  question  may  be  answered 
in  the  affirmative.  I  can,  from  my  own  experience  and  knowledge,  affirm 
that  it  is  so. 

11036.  Your  affirmation  in  the  respect  is  founded  upon  the  principles 
of  your  profession  as  well  as  upon  your  personal  experience? — Certainly. 
(Page  556.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXI.  1833.  Second  Report  of  the 
.  .  .  Commissioners  for  inquiring  into  the  Employment  of  Children  in 
Factories  .  .  .  and  Reports  by  the  Medical  Commissioners. 

Sir  David  Barry's  report  (Scotland): 

Although  both  the  young  and  the  adult  mill-workers  may  command 
more  abundant  food  and  better  clothing  than  their  unemployed  neighbors, 
there  are  causes  to  whose  operation  they  are  exposed,  which,  in  a  sanitary 
point  of  view,  counterbalance  the  advantage  alluded  to. 

1.  The  first  and  most  influential  of  all  is  the  indispensable,  undeviating 
necessity  of  forcing  both  their  mental  and  bodily  exertions  to  keep  exact 
pace  with  the  motions  of  machinery  propelled  by  an  unceasing,  unweary- 
ing power. 

2.  The  continuance  of  an  erect  posture  for  periods  unnaturall}'  pro- 
longed and  too  quickly  repeated. 

3.  The  privation  of  sleep.     (Page  72.) 


BRITAIN 


Il8  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  Hansards'  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  LXXIII.     1844. 

BRITAIN 

He  [Lord  Ashley]  had  been  told  by  operative  spinners  that,  under  the 
present  system  of  working  12  hours  a  day,  their  exhaustion  was  so  great 
that  it  was  absolutely  necessary  they  should  have  at  least  4  meals  a  day; 
but  that,  with  a  reduced  period  of  labour,  they  would  be  content  with  3 
meals  per  day.  They  stated  that  under  the  existing  system  they  were 
obliged  to  take  food  even  without  appetite  as  a  stimulus  to  enable  them 
to  go  through  the  closing  hours  of  their  days'  work.  ...  It  was  calcu- 
lated .  .  .  that,  if  the  hours  of  labour  were  reduced  from  12  to  10,  it 
would  have  the  effect  of  prolonging  by  at  least  3  years  the  duration  of  the 
working  life  of  the  operatives.     (Page  1386.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XIX.  1873.  Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  half  year  ending  30th  April,  1873. 

The  house  surgeon  of  a  large  hospital  has  stated  that  every  year  he  had 
a  large  number  of  cases  of  pulmonary  disease  in  girls,  the  origin  of  which 
he  could  distinctly  trace  to  long  and  late  hours  in  overcrowded  and  un- 
healthy workrooms.     (Page  43.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  LV.  1873.  Report  to  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board  on  Proposed  Changes  in  Hours  and  Ages  of  Employment  in 
Textile  Factories.    J.  H.  Bridges,  M.D.,  and  T.  Holmes. 

Experience  afforded  by  residence  in  the  worsted  manufacturing  town 
of  Bradford,  and  extensive  practice*  among  its  population  during  periods 
of  from  one  to  thirty-five  years: 

A.  Amongst  the  women  of  factory  operatives,  much  more  than  among 
the  general  population,  derangements  of  the  digestive  organs  are  common, 
e.  g.,  pyrosis,  sickness,  constipation,  vertigo,  and  headache,  generated  by 
neglect  of  the  calls  of  nature  through  the  early  hours  of  work,  the  short 
intervals  at  meals,  the  eating  and  drinking  of  easily  prepared  foods,  as 
bread,  tea,  and  coffee,  and  the  neglect  of  meat  and  fresh  cooked  vegeta- 
bles.  .   .  . 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  Bradford  Medico,  Chirurgical  Society,  at  a 
meeting  held  February  4,  1873. 

Sub-Committee, 

President,  J.  H.  Bell,  M.D. 

P.  E.  MiALL,  M.R.C.S. 
Secretary,  David  Goyder,  M.D. 

(Pages  39-40.) 


BAD    EFFECTS    OF    LONG    HOURS    OX    HEALTH  II9 

British   Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XVI.     1875.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of  great 
tactories. 

The  breaking  down  of  the  health,  the  curved  spine,  the  deformity  of 
the  extremities  are  not  now  to  be  met  with;  but  we  are  confronted  with  a 
new  evil  which  has  come  upon  us  in  the  development  of  the  factory  system 
which  improved  sanitary  arrangements  of  dwellings,  better  water  supply, 
purer  air,  more  satisfactorv'  drainage,  are  not  sufficient  to  eradicate. 
I  mean  the  increased  and  increasing  employment  of  women  in  factories. 
.  .  .  Evidence  has  been  given  again  and  again  of  the  unhappy  conse- 
quences to  child-life  and  infant  development  of  the  working  of  the  mothers 
in  factories.  A  great  deal  has  been  advanced  latel}-  against  the  impolicy 
of  placing  any  restrictions  upon  the  labour  of  adult  women  and  upon  se- 
curing to  them  the  power  of  making  contracts  as  adult  men,  and  even 
those  who  admit  the  force  of  these  principles  cannot  shut  their  e\-es  to  the 
evils  which  have  existed  and  still  exist  in  the  emplo}'ment  of  mothers  in 
factories,  and  which  from  the  demand  for  adolescent  and  adult  female 
labour  in  factories  are  not  likeh-  to  subside  of  themselves.  The  abstention 
from  factory  labour  of  women  for  a  month  or  six  weeks  after  confinement 
would  to  a  small  extent  mitigate  the  evil  as  regards  their  more  certain 
restoration  to  health,  but  it  would  not  touch  the  evils  of  the  loss  to  the 
infant  of  its  natural  food  and  of  maternal  care  and  love.  .  .  .  Here  is 
a  question  which  demands  our  most  serious  consideration,  whether,  either 
by  means  of  legislation  or  by  other  less  direct  but  as  effective  means,  the 
health  of  the  mother  and  well-being  and  physical  development  of  the 
offspring  can  be  protected,  so  as  to  prevent  eventual  deterioration,  and 
to  promote  health  and  happiness  in  so  large  a  population  as  our  factory 
operatives.     (Pages  25-26.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXXIV.     1893.     Royal  Commission  on 
Labour.     Group  C. 

Mr.  Kenneth  M.  Milligan,  Scottish  Shopkeepers'  and  Assistants'  L'nion: 
30962.  .  .  .  1  have  letters  here  from  a  good  man\' eminent  physicians 
in  Glasgow  proving  that  not  only  want  of  sanitary  conveniences,  but  the 
long  hours,  and  the  long  time  that  the  girls  especially-  have  to  stand,  is 
very  injurious  to  their  health.  I  have  one  letter  here  from  a  doctor  to 
whom  I  wrote,  Dr.  Yellowlees,  from  the  Gartnavel  Asylum,  Glasgow. 
It  says,  "1  am  sure  that  the  long  hours  of  shop  assistants  are  injurious  to 
health,  and  that  much  might  be  done  to  lessen  the  evil.  The  mental 
disorders  which  1  have  observed  in  shop  girls  have  been  chiefl}'  traceable 


I20  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  to  bodily  weakness  and  poverty  of  blood,  caused  by  confinement  and 

BRITAIN  ,Qj^g   hours."     (Page   434.) 

British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XII.     1895.     Report    oj    Select    Com- 
mittee on  Shops  {Early  Closing)  Bill. 

Witness,  Dr.  Percy  Kidd,  M.D.,  University  of  Oxford,  Fellow  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Member  of  the  College  of  Surgeons;  attached 
to  the  London  Hospital  and  the  Brompton  Hospital: 

5281.  .  .  .  The  most  common  effect  1  have  noticed  of  the  long  hours 
is  general  deterioration  of  health;  very  general  symptoms  which  we 
medically  attribute  to  over-action,  and  debility  of  the  nervous  system; 
that  includes  a  great  deal  more  than  what  is  called  nervous  disease,  such 
as  indigestion,  constipation,  a  general  slackness,  and  a  great  many  other 
indefinite  symptoms.     (Page  215.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XII.     1902.     Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

Ten  and  a  half  hours  sitting  bent  over  stitching,  requiring  very  careful 
attention,  with  two  intervals  so  short  that  only  a  hasty  meal  can  be  eaten, 
that  there  is  no  time  for  exercise,  even  were  the  workers  permitted  to  go 
out,  and  that  day  after  day,  might  well  try  the  strongest  constitutions 
and  ruin  the  best  digestions  and  nerves.  That  its  effect  on  the  health  is 
injurious  is  constantly  brought  before  one,  and  anaemic  and  heavy-eyed 
workers  who  suffer  from  neuralgia  who  form  too  large  a  proportion  of  the 
whole  number,  make  one  feel  very  strongly  that  some  reform  is  needed. 
(Page  176.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXXII.     1904.     Report  of  Inter-depart- 
mental Committee  on  Physical  Deterioration. 

147.  Miss  Anderson,  Chief  Lady  Inspector  of  Factories,  gave  a 
classification  of  the  sources  of  injury  to  health,  life  and  limb,  from  factory 
employment  as  follows: 

1.  Accidents. 

2.  Poisoning  and  damage  from  toxic  agents,  or  excessive  dust,  fumes, 
etc. 

3.  Overfatigue. 

4.  Defective  ordinary  hygiene. 

As  regards  the  first  two,  men  suffer  most,  as  regards  the  third,  women. 


BAD    EFFECTS    OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    HEALTH  121 

And  on  this  head  Miss  Anderson  as  well  as  Dr.  Scott  thought  there  had  great 
not  been  a  sufficient  amount  of  scientific  study.  .  .  .  In  many  cases  hours  ^^"^^^ 
are  too  long  for  women,  and  in  some  industries,  especially  the  clothing 
trade  and  dressmaking,  there  are  not  sufficient  pauses  for  food.  Laundries 
and  food-preserving  industries  give  an  example  of  too  long  hours;  and 
excessive  strain  by  carrying  heavy  weights  takes  place  in  food-preserving 
works,  bleach  and  d\'e  works,  earthenware  and  china  works,  and  various 
metal  trades.     (Page  28.) 

The  Pioneer  of  Progress.     John  Dennis.     London,  Hatnilton  Adams,  1860. 

But  close  and  prolonged  confinement,  at  the  desk  or  in  the  warehouse 
and  shop,  will  enervate  the  strength  of  even  the  strongest  constitution. 
The  want  of  time  for  anything  beyond  the  daily  task-work,  the  monotony 
and  hopelessness  of  toil  which  ceases  not  except  on  the  Sunda\',  and  often 
not  then,  and  the  stolid  listlessness,  and  in  many  cases  the  dissipation, 
which  are  thus  induced,  very  greatly  affect  the  health,  and  as  far  as  the 
evil  extends  destroy  the  high  courage  and  athletic  vigour  which  formed  at 
one  time  the  conspicuous  heritage  of  Englishmen.     (Pages  34-35.) 

Hours  of  Labour.  George  J.  Eccarius.  London,  Office  of  Labour 
Representation  League,  1872. 

The  death  rate  settles  all  disputes  as  to  the  effect  of  overvvork  on  health 
and  life.  On  two  recent  occasions  the  death  rate  has  proved  that  constant 
work,  which  is  generally  synonymous  with  overwork,  is  more  dangerous  to 
life  than  a  certain  amount  of  privation.  During  the  cotton  famine  the 
death  rate  of  Manchester  fell,  and  when  all  work  stopped  in  the  East  of 
London,  and  the  distress  of  the  poor  was  at  its  height,  the  death  rate  of 
St.  George's  in  the  East  sunk  to  the  level  of  the  most  favored  districts. 
(Page  27.) 

A  general  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labour  is  necessary  on  social,  eco- 
nomical, sanitary,  and  moral  grounds,  and  is  demanded  by  the  working 
classes  all  over  the  world.     (Page  29.) 

Tie  Hygiene,  Diseases,  and  Mortality  of  Occupation.  J.  T.  Arlidge,  M.D., 
A.B.,  F.R.C.P.,  Late  Milroy  Lecitirer  at  Royal  College.  London,  Per- 
cival,  1892. 

Excessive  exertion  may  operate  either  over  a  long  period  and  produce 
its  ill  results  slowly,  or  be  sudden  and  severe.  .  .  .  When  such  people  are 
seized  by  some  definite  lesion,  attention  is  so  completely  attracted  to  it 


122 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


that  the  antecedent  over-toil  laying  the  foundation  for  the  malady  is  apt 
to  be  overlooked.     (Page  16.) 

The  want  of  exercise  of  the  body  induces  general  torpidity  of  functions, 
reduces  lung  capacity  and  respiratory  completeness,  and  the  activity  of 
the  abdominal  muscles,  which  aid  both  respiration  and  the  functions  of 
the  digestive  organs.  Hence,  the  proclivity  to  venous  stasis  (congestion), 
particularly  in  the  pelvis  and  lower  extremities  and  in  the  rectal  vessels, 
with  the  production  of  constipation, — and  in  women  of  menstrual  dif- 
ficulties,— add  to  these  disorders  of  digestion  in  their  multiform  shape, 
debilitated  muscular  power,  and  a  low  vitality  and  vigor  generally. 
(Page  19.) 


GERMANY        Jahres-Berichte  der  k.   Preussischen  Gewerherdthe.     {Report   of  the  Royal 
Prussian  Industrial  Commission,  1894.]     Berlin,  1895. 

While  the  legally  restricted  working  day  has  been  introduced  through- 
out in  establishments  coming  under  the  law,  such  is  not  the  case  in  the 
smaller  work  places  or  in  the  laundries,  where  the  health  of  the  working 
women  is  still  seriously  endangered  by  the  long  hours  of  work  frequently 
spent  in  unsanitary,  ill-ventilated  rooms.     (Page  252.) 

An  excessive  working  day  obtains  in  the  laundries,  where  the  hours 
are  almost  always  from  12  to  14  .  .  .  so  long  a  work  day  as  this,  and 
under  such  conditions  cannot  but  be  regarded  as  ominous  for  health,  and 
in  fact  its  bad  result  is  proved  by  the  records  of  the  laundresses'  sickness 
funds.     (Page  252.) 


Amtliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichts- 
beamten.  XXI.  1896.  [Official  Information  from  Reports  of  the  {Ger- 
man) Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,  Bruer,  1897. 

Complaints  are  not  lacking  about  the  unhealthful  influence  of  industry 
on  physical  development.  The  inspector  for  Dantzig  writes:  "On 
account  of  the  predominatingly  rural  character  of  the  region  the  women 
alternate  between  factory  and  outdoor  work  and  seldom  remain  for  a 
long  time  in  the  factory.  Consequently  their  health  is  good  even  in 
comparatively  unhealthy  trades  such  as  rag-picking,  etc.,  and  occupation 
diseases  are  not  found  here."     (Page  246.) 

The  occupations  of  women  show  no  ill  results  upon  morals,  but  there 
are  cases  where  physical  development  is  injuriously  affected  and  definite 
ailments  fostered.  In  weaving  rooms  and  other  places  where  women  are 
obliged  to  stand  at  their  work  varicose  veins  are  more  than  commonly 
frequent  and  naturally  enough  occur  more  frequently  among  the  married 
women.    Zittau.     (Page  249.) 


BAD    EFFECTS    OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    HEALTH  I23 

As  to  the  effect  of  industrial  work  on  health  it  is  undeniable  that  when  Germany 
women  can  work  out  of  doors  (as  in  tile  works)  they  always  have  a  healthy 
and  vigorous  appearance.  But  in  industries  where  they  are  compelled 
to  sit  for  a  long  working  day  this  is  not  the  case.  The  workwomen  of  the 
large  cities  make  a  distinctly  poorer  impression  in  their  appearance  than 
those  of  country  districts.     Posen.     (Page  250.) 

Most  of  the  working  women  who  are  no  longer  young,  that  is  from  about 
30  years  upward,  give  the  impression  of  being  chronically  overtired. 
They  look  badly,  worn  and  old.  But  the  younger  working  women  now 
have  a  fresher,  more  robust  appearance  than  formerly.  Here  we  see  the 
good  effects  of  the  prohibition  of  child-labor  and  the  improved  hygiene  of 
workrooms.  True,  during  the  years  of  youth  the  favorable  and  unfavor- 
able influences  of  occupation,  affecting  the  female  organism,  appear  to 
balance  each  other,  but  the  latter  outweigh  the  former  as  time  goes  on. 
The  long  standing,  in  itself,  causes  serious  disturbances  of  the  female 
organism.  There  is  no  difference  of  opinion  among  the  medical  profession 
on  this  point.  When  first  youth  is  past  these  injuries  make  themselves 
felt.     (Page  251.) 


Amtliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichts- 
heamten,  XXII,  1897.  [Official  Information  from  the  Reports  of  the 
{German)  Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,  Bruer,  1898. 

.  .  .  The  results  are  shown  in  an  incredible  extent  of  chlorosis,  tuber- 
culosis, nervous  diseases,  and  genital  disorders.     (Page  263.) 

The  inspector  for  Baden  writes  that  a  physician  had  called  his  attention 
to  the  inordinate  length  of  working  hours  in  laundries,  where  work  is 
often  carried  on  until  late  at  night.  The  physician  finds  a  shockingly 
large  number  of  cases  of  swollen  veins  and  varicose  ulcers  among  these 
people,  as  well  as  conjunctival  inflammations  of  the  eyes. 

The  ironers  had  the  appearance  of  utter  exhaustion;  they  were  anaemic, 
and  tuberculosis  was  not  unusual  among  them.  The  at  times  extreme 
length  of  hours  in  laundries  is  also  specified  in  the  report  from  Leipzig. 
(Page  264.) 


Amtliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichts- 
beamten,  XXII,  1897.  [Official  Information  from  the  Reports  of  the 
{German)  Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,  Bruer,  1898. 

The  physicians  connnected  with  the  local  insurance  against  sickness 


124  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  in  Aachen,  in  reply  to  a  question  of  the  president  as  to  how  far  the>-  at- 
tributed ill-health  among  adult  working  men  to  extremel\-  long  hours  of 
work,  replied  that  the  freedom  of  employers  to  work  their  men  without 
legal  restriction  had  certainl\'  led  to  grave  abuses,  and  that  there  were 
workmen  who  at  times  were  subject  to  over-exertion  that  could  not  but 
be  prejudicial  to  health.     (Page  240.) 

In  the  interest  of  the  workingmen's  health  it  is  greatly  to  be  regretted 
that  such  long  hours  are  prevalent  .  .  .  especially  as  experiments  have 
so  often  shown  that  product  has  not  been  lessened  by  reduction  of  hours 
of  work.  It  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that  the  physically  broken  down  fac- 
tory workers  (of  this  region)  might  have  the  beneficent  aid  of  a  maximum 
working  day. 

Well-meaning  and  clear-sighted  emploxers  lament  the  conditions,  but 
can  do  nothing  individually. 

One  employer  declares  that  "the  very  fact  that  weavers  who  have  3  or 
4  looms  to  attend  to  cannot  even  stand  up  straight,  because  they  must 
keep  them  continuously  going — is  reason  enough  for  a  shorter  day." 
(Page  241.) 

Bad  conditions  are  prevalent  in  tailoring  and  shoemaking.  .  .  .  The 
results  of  excessively  long  hours  and  bad  conditions  are  seen  in  the  pale 
faces,  round-shouldered  attitude  and  low  vitality  of  these  workers. 
Their  most  apparent  disease  forms  are  articular  rheumatism,  e\e  troubles, 
chest  and  lung  diseases,  inflammation  of  the  joints  and  of  the  abdominal 
organs.  In  order  to  overcome  the  evils  of  shoemaking  and  tailoring,  there 
should  be  the  same  regulation  of  working  time  and  pauses  as  in  bakeries. 
(Page  259.) 

Jahresberichte  der  Ge-werhe-AiifsicMsheamten  im  Kbnigreich  IViirttemherg 
jiir  das  Jahr  1901.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  IViirttemherg,  1901.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1902. 

Human  physique  has  not  progressed  proportionately  with  the  per- 
fection of  machinery, — on  the  contrary,  there  are  signs  that  it  is  suffering 
deterioration,  and  it  is  therefore  not  surprising  that  the  workman's  body 
cannot  for  a  long  stretch  of  time  keep  pace  with  the  machine  and  the 
extensive  demands  it  makes  upon  his  attention  and  vigilance,  without 
suffering  serious  injury  to  health.  The  efforts  made  in  consequence  by 
the  workers  to  preserve  their  health  (their  only  capital)  by  attaining  a 
reduction  of  working  hours  and  a  legal  normal  day  are  entirely  justifiable. 
(Page  14.) 


BAD    EFFECTS    OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    HEALTH  125 

Jahresberichte  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichtsheamten  und  Bergbehorden  fur  das  Jahr  GERMANY 
1903.     Bd.  I.     Preussen.     [Annual  Reports  of  the  {German)  Factory 
and  Mine  Inspectors  for  1903.    Vol.  I.    Prussia.]    Berlin,  Decker,  1904. 

Although  laundries  are  usually  ample  enough,  yet  the  workwomen  here 
incur  dangers  to  health  from  the  hot  stoves  .  .  .  from  the  continuous 
standing,  the  strenuous  character  of  the  work  and  the  unreasonably  long 
hours,  which  even  robust  constitutions  can  hardly  resist  for  any  great 
length  of  time.     (Page  58.) 


Die  Arheitsieit  der  Fabrikarbeiterinnen.  Nach  Berichten  der  Gewerbe- 
Aufsichtsbeamten  bearbeitet  im  Reich samt  des  Innern.  [The  fVorking 
Hours  of  IVomen  in  Factories.  From  the  Reports  of  the  (German) 
Factory  Inspectors  Compiled  in  the  Imperial  Home  Office]  Berlin, 
Decker,  1905. 

The  Inspector  for  Erfurt  urges  the  introduction  of  the  ten-hour  day 
for  women  because  "eleven  hours'  daily  toil  in  a  factory  is  extremely 
exhausting  for  the  weaker  physical  organization  of  woman.  Although 
perhaps  under  good  sanitary  conditions  of  work  no  direct  injury  to  health 
may  be  traced  to  the  eleven-hours  day,  still  it  is  certain  that  women  and 
girls  who  work  in  factories  are  worn  out  much  sooner  than  those  who  do 
not.  The  factory  worker  who  has  most  likely  a  poor  physical  inheritance 
to  contend  with,  and  is  poorly  nourished,  is  liable  to  frequent  attacks  of 
sickness." 

Report  for  Cassel :  The  ill  effects  of  factory  work  for  women  are  most 
marked  in  those  cases  where  long  hours  are  joined  to  heavy  work.  The 
female  frame  is  not  strong  enough  to  resist  the  harmful  influence  of  such 
work  for  any  length  of  time.  Although  the  ill  effects  may  not  show  them- 
selves at  once,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  injuries  to  health  which  manifest 
themselves  years  after  may  be  traced  back  to  former  work  in  the  factory. 
The  total  exclusion  of  women  from  the  factories  is  not  at  present  con- 
templated, but  the  introduction  of  the  ten-hour  day  will  tend  towards 
reducing  the  harmful  influence  of  factory  work.     (Page  107.) 

From  Wurttemberg: 

The  manager  of  a  certain  large  factory  which  had  shortened  its  working 
day  considerably,  found  that  the  amount  of  sick  time  lost,  as  compared 
with  the  amount  under  the  previous  11  hour  day,  showed  a  remarkable 
decrease.  He  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  strenuous  character  of 
modern  industry  made  the  10  hour  day  as  much  as  working  women  could 
well  endure,  and  that  all  over  this  time  was  directly  destructive  to  good 


126  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  '      health.     This  view  was  corroborated  by  other  employers  who  had  adopted 
the  10  hour  day.     (Page  109.) 

Jahresberichte  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichtsheamten  und  Bergbehorden  fiir  das 
Jahr  1906.  Bd.  III.  [Reports  of  the  (German)  Factory  and  Mine 
Inspectors  for  the  Year  1906.     Vol.  III.]     Berlin,  Decker,  1907. 

Elsass-Lothringen : 

The  efforts  toward  establishing  shorter  hours  are  so  gratifying  that  it  is 
all  the  more  regrettable  still  to  find  a  number  of  industries,  even  some 
which  stand  high,  retaining  the  systematically  long  hours  of  work  which 
are  bound  to  exhaust  prematurely  the  mental  and  physical  power  of  the 
workers.     (Page  26.^^) 


Annalen  des  Deutschen  Reichs.  Bd.  XXI.  1888.  [Annals  of  the  German 
Empire.  Vol.  XXI.  1888.]  Der  inter nationale  Schidi  der  Arheiter. 
[International  Labor  Legislation.]  Dr.  George  Adler,  University  of 
Freiburg.     Munich  and  Leipsic,  1888. 

The  results  to  the  worker  of  an  unduly  long  working  day  are  easy  to 
perceive.  His  health,  his  energy,  and  working  capacity  are  undermined. 
His  body  becomes  more  receptive  to  disease;  his  family  life  is  ruined. 
His  whole  time  is  spent  in  work,  except  for  the  sleep  that  is  necessary  to 
maintain  life — with  the  result  that  he  is  deprived  of  all  that  tends  to 
culture  and  is  reduced  to  a  purely  animal  existence.     (Page  482.) 


Handhiich  der  Hygiene.  Bd.  8^.  [Handbook  of  Hygiene.  Vol.  8^.] 
Edited  by  Dr.  Theodore  Wevl.  Allgemeine  Gewerbehygiene  und 
Fabrikgeset^gebung.  [General  Industrial  Hygiene  and  Factory  Legis- 
lation.]    Dr.  Emil  Roth.     Jena,  1894. 

Among  the  dangers  of  occupation  in  the  more  restricted  sense  those 
injuries  that  are  induced  by  a  too  prolonged  working  time  and  by  too 
heavy  an  amount  of  work  take  first  place. 

It  is  evident  that  the  health  of  even  the  most  robust  workingman 
suffers  if  he  is  compelled  to  exceed  the  limits  of  his  physical  capacity — if 
wearied  organs  are  denied  the  necessary  reparation.  There  must  be, 
therefore,  in  every  case  a  relation  between  the  length  of  working  time 
and  severity  of  work  if  occupation  dangers  are  to  be  considered.  (Page 
26.) 


BAD    EFFECTS    OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    HEALTH  127 

BericUe  iiber  die  Fabrikinspekiion  im  Jahr  1879.     [Reports  of  the  (Swiss)  swiTZER- 
Factory  Inspectors,  1879.]     Bern,  Stdmpflische  Printing  House,  1880. 

It  is  a  great  pity  that,  in  estimating  the  pros  and  cons  of  the  "normal 
day  of  work,"  so  little  consideration  is  paid  to  the  results  of  the  long  hours 
both  on  the  physical  and  moral  well-being  of  the  worker. 

In  going  about  in  the  embroidery  regions,  one  hardly  thinks  of  physical 
drawbacks,  when  seeing  the  factories,  which  are  usually  clean,  light,  and 
airy;  but  when  one  meets  men  who,  formerly  robust,  have  lost  their 
healthy  looks  after  a  few  years  of  the  excessively  long  hours  of  work  and 
who  are  now  worn  out  and  unstrung;  when  one  hears  embroiderers  of  48 
years  called  old  and  invalid,  one  feels  like  inquiring  further.  It  will  be 
found  that  the  work  is  in  itself  extraordinarily  strenuous.  .  .  .  The  phy- 
sicians in  these  regions  universally  affirm  the  extreme  danger  to  health  in 
the  unreasonably  long  hours  of  work.     (Page  14.) 


Berichte  iiber  die  Fabrikinspektion  im  Jahr  1881.     [Reports  of  the  {Swiss) 
Factory  Inspectors,  1881.]     Schaffhausen,  Brodtmann,  1882. 

When  the  normal  day  was  introduced  by  law  for  factory  workers,  it 
was  first  of  all  based  on  reasons  of  health.  More  and  more  numerous 
protests  had  been  made  as  to  the  excessive  labor  imposed  upon  the  worker, 
and  the  injury  to  health  and  strength  that  was  being  suffered  by  our  people 
was  emphasized  on  all  sides.  Measures  of  prevention  against  these  abuses 
were  regarded  as  counselled  by  nature,  which  provides  men  with  the  in- 
stincts of  self-preservation.  To  these  reasons  were  added  others  of  a 
social  nature.  It  was  hoped  to  elevate  the  working  classes  morally  and 
intellectually,  to  give  them  more  time  for  family  life,  social  amenities  and 
education.     (Page  13.) 


Sixth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Vienna,  1887. 
Part  XIV.  Sec.  on  Hygiene.  Fabrikhygiene  und  Gesetigebung. 
[Factory  Hygiene  and  Legislation.]  Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Swiss 
Factory  Inspector,  Vienna,  1887. 

In  the  factory  inspection  reports  of  many  countries  there  may  be  found 
ample  observation  of  the  destructive  influence  of  long  hours.  Thus  a 
Saxon  report  says  of  glassmakers  "they  have  high  wages,  and  live  well,  but 
do  not  live  to  old  age.    They  have  excessive  hours  of  work."     (Page  35.) 


128 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


FRANCE 


Untersuchungen  iiber  die  Gesiindheitsverhdltnisse  der  Fabrikbevolkerung 
der  Schweii-  [Investigations  into  the  Conditions  oj  Health  of  the  Swiss 
Factory  IVorkers.]  Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Swiss  Factory  Inspector, 
and  Dr.  A.  E.  Burckhardt,  Prof,  of  Hygiene,  Basle.  Aarau,  Saner- 
lander,  1889. 

Labor  of  an  exacting  kind,  involving  extreme  muscular  exertion,  must, 
if  it  is  long  continued,  have  an  injurious  secondary  effect  on  every  part  of 
the  body.     (Page  176.) 

Etude  stir  V Influence  de  la  Diiree  du  Travail  Quotidien  sur  la  Sante  Generale 
de  V Adidte.  [Study  of  the  Effect  of  the  Length  of  IVorking  Hours  upon 
the  General  Health  of  Adults.]     Dr.  Ilia  Sachnine.     Lyon,  1900. 

There  is  a  weighty  factor,  over  and  above  such  external  conditions  as 
housing,  nutrition,  etc.,  etc.,  which  exercises  a  widespread  influence  upon 
the  health  of  the  people.  This  is  no  other  than  the  duration  of  the  working 
hours  of  wage-earners.  The  day's  work  of  the  workman,  the  shop  girl, 
...  is  too  long.     (Page  20.) 

Revue  d'Hygiene.  T.  26,  1904.  Enquete  sur  la  Situation  Sanitaire  des 
Ouvriers  du  Textiles  dans  I'Arrondissement  de  Lille.  [Inquiry  into 
the  Sanitary  Conditions  in  the  Textile  Trades  in  Lille  and  its  Environs.] 
Dr.  D.  Verhaeghe.     Paris,  Masson  et  Cie. 

The  longer  the  working  hours  and  the  whole  period  of  occupation  in 
the  mills  the  less  probability  is  there  that  the  textile  worker  may  retain 
his  health  unimpaired.     (Page  1066.) 

42.08  to  100  of  the  textile  workers  had  poor  health.  .  .  .  Some  ail- 
ments were  due  to  bad  hygienic  conditions,  .  .  .  the  others  were  due 
rather  to  physical  overstrain.     (Page  1078.) 


ITALY  La   Reglementation   Legale  du   Travail  des  Femmes  et  des   Enfants  dans 

I'Industrie     Italienne.     Lionel     Baudoin.     [Labor     Legislation    for 
iVomen  and  Children  in  Italian  Industry.]     Paris,  Paulin,  1905. 

At  the  International  Congress  at  Milan,  on  accidents  among  the  labor- 
ing class,  in  May,  1894,  Mr.  Luigi  Belloc  (Factory  Inspector  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor)  represented  Italy.  He  stated  that  the  continuous 
motion  of  the  body  taxes  the  nervous  system,  causing  the  gravest  troubles. 
The  sewing-machine,  which  requires  of  the  operator  40,000  movements  a 


BAD    EFFECTS    OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    HEALTH  129 

day,  causes  in  the  long  run  abdominal  and  renal  troubles,  disarrangement  ITALY 
of  the  menstrual  function,  and  falling  and  deviations  of  the  uterus.  Func- 
tional weaknesses  and  paralysis  are  the  result  of  the  continual  performance 
of  the  same  movement.  The  necessity  of  standing  or  sitting  for  the  whole 
day  causes  malformation  of  the  body  or  curvature  of  the  spine,  as  a  result 
of  the  strained  position.  The  attention  required  in  watching  a  machine, 
especially  an  automatic  one,  is  very  fatiguing,  on  account  of  the  large 
number  of  wheels  operating  at  the  same  time  which  need  attention.  .  .  . 

Tuberculosis  spreads  with  alarming  rapidity,  especially  among  cotton 
and  wool  weavers.  Those  whom  tuberculosis  spares  drag  along  with 
anaemia,  the  most  common  malady  of  the  women  factory  workers,  es- 
pecially the  textile  workers,  who  are  subject  to  long  hours  of  labor.  .  .  . 

For  the  cotton  industry  in  particular  Mr.  Luigi  Belloc  demands  the 
ten-hour  day.     (Pages  14-16.) 

Bericht  der  k.  k.  Gewerbe-Inspedoren  iiber  ihre  Amtstdtigkeit  im  jahre  1895.  AUSTRIA 
[Reports  of  the  {Austrian)  Royal  and  Imperial  Factory  Inspectors  for 
1895]     Vienna,  1896. 

The  most  frequent  cause  of  diapproval  by  the  inspector  lies  in  the 
employment  of  girls  between  14  and  16,  not  indeed  on  account  of  hard 
work,  but  because  of  excessive  hours  of  work.  This  is  found  in  many 
lines  of  industry  .  .  .  (flower-making,  etc.).  The  adult  women,  too, 
in  these  lines  are  excessively  overstrained  by  the  unreasonably  long  hours, 
and  their  health  is  severely  injured  thereby,  the  more  so  because  of  arti- 
ficial light,  etc.,  etc.     (Page  38.) 

Ihid.,  1896.  Published  1897.  It  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that  these 
(jute)  factories,  where  mostly  women  and  very  young  men  are  employed, 
and  where  extreme  attention  must  be  continuously  given  to  the  machin- 
ery; where,  moreover,  the  work  requires  almost  continuous  standing  and 
where  dust  and  jarring  are  especially  marked, — should  establish  a  shorter 
working  day.  By  reason  of  the  disadvantages  mentioned,  the  hours  of 
work  ought  to  be  diminished.     (Page  14.) 

Ihid.,  1888.  Published  1899.  (General  remarks.)  In  close  relation 
to  the  efforts  made  for  the  protection  of  life  in  industrial  occupations  are 
all  those  special  provisions  for  minimizing  special  dangers  arising  from 
heat,  dust,  etc.,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  all  influences  that  are 
in  themselves  injurious,  such  as  the  constrained  bodily  posture,  dampness, 
etc.,  assume  a  vastly  greater  dangerous  quality  by  reason  of  the  very  con- 
siderable proportion  of  his  life  during  which  the  workman  is  exposed  to 
them.  (Page  11.) 
9* 


130 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


AUSTRIA  Eighth  International  Congress   of  Hygiene  and   Demography.     Budapest, 

1894.  Vol.  VII ,  Sec.  V.  Cher  das  Verhdltniss  der  Dauer  des  Arheits- 
tages  lur  Gesundheit  des  Arheiters  imd  dessen  Einfluss  auf  die  offent- 
liche  Gesundheit.  [The  Length  of  the  IVorking  Day  in  its  Relation 
to  the  Workman' s  Health  and  its  Influence  upon  Public  Health.]  Dr. 
E.  R.  J.  Krejcsi,  Vice-Secretary  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  in 
Budapest.     Budapest,  1896. 

All  accumulated  experience  and  evidence  fully  justify  the  conclusion 
that  the  length  of  working  time  is  of  weighty  importance  to  the  work- 
man's health  and  that  overwork  is  accompanied  by  most  harmful  con- 
sequences to  the  organism. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  practising  physicians  observe  among  persons  with 
excessive  hours  of  work,  such  as  bakers,  tailors,  sewing  women,  shop 
girls,  etc.,  definite  disturbances  of  health  for  which  they  hold  the  long 
hours  directly  responsible.  And  yet  a  direct  proof  of  every  injury  result- 
ing from  overwork  is  almost  unattainable.  For,  connected  with  the 
overwork  are  other  and  related  factors  that  are  injurious,  such  as  a  fixed 
artificial  posture,  or  dust,  or  poisons,  insanitary  shop  and  factory,  or 
insufficient  nutrition,  and  it  is  often  almost  impossible  to  separate  their 
effects.  Other  complicating  factors  might  also  be  adduced  in  many  cases, 
such  as  insufficient  sleep,  great  haste  at  meals,  imperfect  safety  appliances 
in  the  lesser  industries.  Nevertheless  the  relation  of  long  working  hours 
to  health  is,  in  certain  forms  of  ill  health,  easily  demonstrable.  So,  for 
instance,  in  certain  trades,  definite  maladies  result  from  too  long  standing. 
.  .  .  Others  equally  definite  are  caused  by  too  long  sitting.  .  .  .  and 
others  are  conspicuous  as  resulting  from  excessive  muscular  over-exertion. 
.  .  .  Now,  though  we  may  say,  in  such  cases,  that  the  injuries  to  health 
are  the  direct  results  of  standing,  sitting,  or  lifting,  there  can  scarcely  be 
room  for  disagreement  when  we  take  it  to  be  a  settled  fact  that  the  under- 
lying relation  of  the  length  of  the  working  hours  to  the  state  of  the  health 
is  clearly  established. 

Taking  for  granted  that  all  other  conditions  (nutrition,  housing,  gen- 
eral sanitation,  etc.)  remain  unchanged,  this  difference  of  time  in  the 
occurrence  of  sickness  must  be  attributed  to  the  excessive  hours  of  work, 
which  reach  beyond  the  limits  of  endurance.     (Pages  326-327.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


New  Hampshire.  House  Journal.  June,  1847.  Report  recommending 
Shortening  Hours  of  Labor,  Regulating  Child  Labor,  and  Establishing 
10-hour  Day. 

Their  duties  do  not  generally  require  great  exertion  of  physical  strength. 


BAD    EFFECTS    OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    HEALTH  I3I 

but  are  rendered  fatiguing  bv  the  constant  attention  required  by  the  united 
rapid  and  increasing  motion  of  the  machines,  attended  by  a  constant 
noise  and  jar  which  are  distracting  to  persons  unaccustomed  to  the  mills. 
It  seems  certain  to  the  undersigned  that  labor  of  this  nature  cannot 
be  continued  any  great  length  of  time  without  serious  injury  to  the  health 
of  the  operatives.  ...  If  the  slow  and  fearful  diseases  which  this  mode 
of  life  tends  to  bring  on  are  escaped,  a  loss  of  strength  and  activity  must 
ensue  from  it,  which  may  result  in  the  perpetual  evil  of  a  sickly  and 
enervated  population  in  all  the  large  manufacturing  towns.     (Page  476.) 

Massachusetts  House  Documents.     No.  153.     1850.     Minority  Report  Re 
Limitation  of  Hours  of  Work. 

Excessive  labor  not  only  debilitates  the  body,  and  thereby  exposes  it 
to  disease,  but  also  tends  to  exhaust  the  mental  powers,  and  thus  expose 
the  whole  moral  and  intellectual  character  to  undue  and  dangerous 
depression.  To  this  evil  and  danger  the  factory  operatives — that  large 
and  valuable  class  of  the  population  of  this  State  which  by  their  labor 
produce  so  large  a  portion  of  its  material  wealth — are  especially  exposed. 
(Page  19.) 

Massachusetts  House  Documents.     No.  98.     1866. 

Dr.  Jarvis,  physician  of  Dorchester,  says: 

Every  man  has  a  certain  amount  of  constitutional  force.  This  is  his 
vital  capital,  which  must  not  be  diminished.  Out  of  this  comes  daily  a 
certain  and  definite  amount  of  available  force,  which  he  may  expend  in 
labor  of  muscle  or  brain,  without  drawing  on  his  vital  capital.  He  may 
and  should  work  every  day  and  expend  so  much  force  and  no  more,  that 
he  shall  awake  the  next  morning  and  every  succeeding  morning  until  he 
shall  be  threescore  and  ten,  and  find  in  himself  the  same  amount  of 
available  force,  the  same  power,  and  do  his  ordinary  day's  work,  and 
again  lie  down  at  night  with  his  .  ,  .  constitutional  force  unimpaired. 
(Page  36.) 

Judging  by  this  standard,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  serious  injury 
often  resulting  from  overwork,  even  when  no  palpable  evidence  appears. 
(Page  36.) 

Dr.  Ordway,  practising  physician  many  years  (in  Lawrence),  has  no 
hesitation  in  saying  that  mill  work,  long  continued,  is  injurious  to  bodily 
and  mental  health,  and  materially  shortens  life,  especially  of  women. 
(Page  63.) 


132  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Massachusetts  Legislative  Documents.     Reports   of  Commissioners   on  the 

STATES  ff^^j,^   ^j  i^j^^^        ^^^^^        ^^     ^       jg^y 

Workmen  and  .  .  .  women  are  held  under  the  present  customs  and 
ideas  to  at  least  five  hours  each  half  day  of  continuous  work,  often  in  the 
most  tedious,  minute,  and  monotonous  employ.  It  is  assumed  .  .  .  that 
they  have  no  lower  limbs  to  ache  with  swollen  or  ruptured  veins,  no  deli- 
cacy of  nerve,  or  versatilit}'  of  mind,  to  revolt  from  such  severity  of  appli- 
cation.    (Pages  66-67.) 

Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1870-71. 

"The  11th  hour  was  the  worst — we  are  worn  out  and  we  feel  that  we 
can't  get  off  as  much  work.  That  hour  is  a  great  deal  worse  than  the 
first  hour.  1  feel  faintly  when  I  come  out  of  mill  at  night,  and  I  did  not 
when  I  worked  10  hours.  That  last  hour  is  dreadful  bad."  An  operative. 
(Page  499.) 

"Has  lived  in  twenty  different  factory  towns,  and  has  observed  that 
young  women  who  work  in  the  factories  are  many  of  them  ruined  in 
morals  and  nearly  all  in  health.  A  ros\'-cheeked  girl  put  in  a  mill  will 
begin  to  fade  in  three  months."     G.  Bootcutter.     (Page  606.) 

Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1872.     Domestic 
Labor  and  IVoman's  IVork. 

In  the  cotton  mills  at  Fitchburg  the  women  and  children  are  pale, 
crooked,  and  sickly-looking.  The  women  appear  dispirited,  and  the 
children  without  the  bloom  of  childhood  in  their  cheeks,  or  the  elasticity 
that  belongs  to  that  age.     Hours,  60  to  61^  a  week.     (Pages  94-95.) 

Rhode  Island.     Governor's  Message.     1875. 

Governor  Henry  Howard: 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  time  has  come  for  considering  the  question 
of  regulating  by  legislation  the  hours  of  employment  of  women  and 
children  in  our  factories.  ...  I  know  that  many  regard  it  as  wisest  to 
leave  such  matters  to  their  own  adjustment.  Protracted  observation 
and  some  experience  lead  me  to  an  opposite  conclusion.  Work  in  our 
factories  is  largely  made  up  of  the  labor  of  women  and  children.  The 
disposition  of  the  former  to  sacrifice  enjoyment,  comfort,  health,  nay, 
even  life  itself,  to  the  pressing  demands  of  family  necessity,  is  well  known. 
...  In  trades  which  are  mainly  occupied  by  men,  ten  hours  is  allowed 


BAD    EFFECTS    OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    HEALTH  1 33 

to  constitute  a  day's  work.     Why  should  women  and  children  be  com-  united 
pelled  to  labor  at  an  employment  quite  as  trying  both  to  brain  and  body,   ^'^^'^^^ 
and  more  confining  than  almost  any  other,  for  a  longer  period  of  time? 
Experience  shows  that  impaired  health  is  most  frequent  in  those  mills 
which  run  the  greatest  number  of  hours  daily.     (Pages  16-17.) 

Report  of  tie  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1884. 

We  secured  the  personal  history  of  these  1032  of  the  whole  20,000 
working  girls  of  Boston,  a  number  amply  sufficient  for  the  scientific 
purposes  of  the  investigation.     (Page  5.) 

Long  hours,  and  being  obliged  to  stand  all  day,  are  very  generally 
advanced  as  the  principal  reasons  for  any  lack  or  loss  of  health  occasioned 
by  the  work  of  the  girls.     (Page  69.) 

Report  of  the  New  fersey  Inspector  of  Factories  and  Workshops.     1885. 

Dr.  Gledden,  the  town  physician,  testified  that  the  emplo\'ees  of  the 
mills  were  not  as  healthy  as  those  outside,  and  this  he  fairl}^  attributed  to 
the  long  hours  of  labor.     (Page  46.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  State  Factory  Inspector.     1887. 

Inquiry  among  those  females  above  the  statutory  age  who  worked 
twelve  and  fifteen  hours  a  day  in  printing  offices,  candy  factories,  woolen, 
mills,  and  other  manufacturing  establishments,  elicited  the  information 
that  the  women  who  labor  these  long  hours  were  more  subject  to  fits  of 
nervous  prostration  and  debility  than  those  who  worked  the  normal  day 
of  ten  hours.     (Page  28.) 

Report  of  Pennsylvania  Factory  Inspector.     1895. 

Great  is  my  disappointment  when  advised  of  overtime,  in  visiting  the 
premises  in  question,  to  find,  out  of  a  force  of  upward  of  a  hundred  or 
more,  from  four  to  ten  minors  are  employed.  Their  time  is  at  once 
curtailed,  while  the  other  goes  merrily  on  grinding  out  the  very  lives  of 
these  beings  called  women.  It  may  be  that  they  were  intended  to  fill 
the  places  of  such,  but  their  very  industrial  environment,  being  utterly 
slavish,  soon  makes  of  them  subjects  not  for  home  grace  and  beauty,  but 
rather  a  physically  degenerating  class  fit  only  for  treatment  in  the  hospital 
and  home.     It  would  be  interesting  to  secure  an  exact  statistical  record 


UNITED 
STATES 


134  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

based  upon  this  particular  question,  the  effect  of  overtaxation  upon 
women's  physical  health  caused  by  long  hours  and  arduous  labor.  (Pages 
17-18.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Factory  Inspector.     1897. 

In  our  opinion  there  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  why  there  should  be 
any  age  limit  at  all  placed  on  the  hours  of  labor  of  any  working  woman. 
The  restrictive  clause  limiting  the  hours  of  toil  to  sixty  per  week  should 
apply  to  all  females  irrespective  of  their  age. 

Any  woman  employed  at  manual  labor  for  ten  consecutive  hours  per 
day  and  constantly  employed,  is  performing  a  task  beyond  her  strength, 
whether  she  is  just  under  or  over  twenty-one  years  of  age.     (Pages  25-26.) 

Report  of  the  Michigan  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1898. 

The  long  working  hours,  the  close  air  of  the  shop,  with  the  cold  lunch 
hastily  eaten,  are  no  small  factors  in  the  rapid  change  of  appearance  and 
health  many  of  these  women  and  children  undergo  in  the  first  few  years 
of  factory  life.     (Page  77.) 

Report  of  the  New  Jersey  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  and  Industries.     1902. 

The  weak,  physical  condition  of  the  operatives,  especially  the  females, 
is  very  noticeable.     (Page  378.) 

The  long  hours  of  labor,  frequently  ten  or  twelve,  and  the  foul  air  of 
the  workroom  is  most  marked  in  its  effects  upon  the  female  operatives. 
In  addition  to  throat  and  lung  diseases,  which  are  almost  equally  prevalent 
among  both  sexes,  the  suffering  of  the  female  operatives  from  causes 
peculiar  to  the  sex  is  very  greatly  aggravated  by  the  conditions  under 
which  they  work.     (Pages  377-378.) 

A  physician  of  high  standing  whose  practice  is  largely  among  the 
operatives  of  these  mills  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  a  large  major- 
ity of  female  mill-workers  are  sufferers  from  some  one  or  more  of  the 
organic  complaints  brought  on  or  intensified  by  the  conditions  under 
which  they  work.  If  no  such  disease  existed  before  entering  the  mill, 
it  was  almost  sure  to  develop  soon  after  beginning  work;  if  it  did  exist 
before,  it  was  aggravated  to  a  degree  that  made  them  easy  victims  of 
consumption. 

The  long  hours  of  labor,  being  constantly  standing,  the  foul  air  of  the 
workroom,  and,  more  than  all,  the  ceaseless  vibration  of  the  floor  from  the 


INJURIES    TO   THE    FEMALE    FUNCTIONS  1 35 

motion  of  the  great  mass  of  machinery  are  the  prime  factors  in  producing  united 

,  ,  *^     \  STATES 

these  diseases.     (Page  378.) 

Report  of  the  Minnesota  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1901-1902. 

A  writer  in  the  British  Medical  Journal  (September  2,  1899),  in  dis- 
cussing the  influence  of  prolonged  standing  in  the  production  of  women's 
diseases,  declares  that  while  only  a  comparatively  small  number  of  factory 
and  shop  girls  break  down  at  an  early  age,  forty  per  cent  of  married  women 
who  have  been  factory  or  shop  girls  "come  under  medical  attention  for 
pelvic  troubles  under  thirty  years.  The  girls  are  broken  down  and 
wearied,  but  keep  at  their  work  by  force  of  circumstances."  (Pages  339- 
340.) 


(2)  Injuries  to  the  Female  Functions  and  Childbirth 

The  evil  effect  of  overwork  and  continuous  standing 
before  as  well  as  after  marriage  is  marked  and  disastrous 
upon  the  female  functions  and  childbirth. 

British    Sessional   Papers.     Vol.    XXI.     1833.     Second    Report    of  .  .  .   great 
the  Commissioners  for  inquiring  into  the  Employment  of  Children  in 
Factories  .  .  .  and    Reports    by    the    Medical    Commissioners.     Dr. 
Hawkins  {Lancashire  district).     Elizabeth  Taylor,  Midwife   .... 
Pth  May,  1833. 

.  .  .  Are  miscarriages  more  common  among  factory  women  than 
among  others  whom  you  attend? — Much  more  frequent  among  the  factory 
women.  .  .  . 

Do  you  find  the  children  of  factory  women  are  as  healthy  when  first 
born  as  those  of  other  women? — No,  certainly  not;  they  are  more  delicate. 
.  .  .  You  often  examine  the  persons  of  factory  wives;  do  you  often  find 
any  hurt  or  blemish? — I  often  find  their  feet  and  legs  swelled.  .  .  . 

Whom  do  you  find  most  lean,  the  factory  wives  or  the  others  whom  you 
attend? — The  factory  wives  are  a  good  deal  more  lean.     (Page  14.) 

Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  LXXIII.     1844. 

Lord  Ashley: 

Many  anatomical  reasons  are  assigned  by  surgeons  of  the  manufactur- 
ing towns,  that  "the  peculiar  structure  of  the  female  form  is  not  so  well 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


136  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

adapted  to  long-continued  labour  and  especially  labour  which  is  endured 
standing."     Mr.  Smith  of  Leeds  declares: 

"This  [the  operation  of  the  factory  labour]  occasionally  produces  the 
most  lamentable  effects  in  females  when  they  are  expecting  to  become 
mothers." 

On  the  anatomical  difificulty  of  parturition,  he  states: 

"It  is  often  the  painful  duty  of  the  accoucheur  to  destroy  the  life  of 
the  child.  I  have  seen  many  instances  of  the  kind,  all  of  which,  with  one 
exception,  have  been  those  of  females  who  have  worked  long  hours  in 
factories.     (Pages  1089-1090.) 

He  (Mr.  Saunders)  often  witnesses  the  effect  of  so  much  standing 
when  parturition  comes  on,  adding: 

"Work  in  the  night  is  the  most  injurious;  it  is  unnatural,  and  not 
adapted  to  the  constitution  of  women." 

Another  surgeon  of  great  experience  in  Lancashire,  writes  to  me 
that  .  .  . 

"The  effects  of  long-continued  labour  in  factories  become  more  appar- 
ent after  childbirth.  The  infants  are  at  birth  below  the  average  size, 
have  a  stunted  and  shrivelled  appearance.  .  .  .  Miscarriages  very  fre- 
quent, and  all  the  physical  and  surgical  mischiefs  of  mistreated  pregnancy 
— varicose  veins  produced  by  the  continued  evil  practice — aggravated 
greatly  in  pregnant  women.  Again  troublesome  ulcers  of  the  legs,  arising 
from  varicose  veins  which,  in  some  cases,  burst,  and  bring  on  a  dangerous 
and  sometimes  fatal  hemorrhage.  The  practice  of  procuring  abortion 
is  very  frequent  even  among  married  women." 

I  have,  moreover,  the  personal  testimony  of  several  females  to  the  truth 
of  these  statements  they  speak  of — the  intolerable  pain  in  their  breasts  by 
such  long  absences  from  children,  and  the  suffering  of  returning  to  work 
within  ten  days  of  confinement.     (Page  1093.) 

"Very  young  children  (says  Dr.  Johns)  are,  by  the  existing  system, 
not  sufficiently  taken  care  of  by  their  mothers;  as  regards  themselves 
during  gestation,  and  their  offspring,  after  childbirth — the  women  during 
pregnancy  continue  as  long  as  possible  at  their  work."     (Page  1094.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  LV.  1873.  Report  to  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board  on  Proposed  Changes  in  Hours  and  Ages  of  Employment  in 
Textile  Factories.     J.  H.  Bridges,  M.D.,  and  T.  Holmes. 

Experience  afforded  by  residence  in  the  worsted  manufacturing  town 
of  Bradford,  and  extensive  practice  among  its  population  during  periods 
of  from  one  to  thirty-five  years: 


INJURIES    TO   THE    FEMALE    FUN'CTIONS  1 37 

A.  Amongst  the  v:omen  of  factory  operatives,  much  more  than  among  great 


the  general  population.  .  .  .  Other  deranged  states  of  a  still  worse 
character  are  present,  e.  g.,  leucorrhoea  and  too  frequent  and  profuse 
menstruation.  Cases  also  of  displacement,  flexions,  and  versions  of  the 
uterus,  arising  from  the  constant  standing  and  the  increased  heat  of  and 
confinement  in  the  mill.     (Pages  39—40.) 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  Bradford  Medico-Chirurgical  Society,  at  a 
meeting  held  February  4,  1873. 
Sub-Committee, 

President,  J.  H.  Bell,  M.D. 

P.  E.  MiALL,  M.R.C.S. 
Secretary,  David  Goyder,  M.D. 

(Pages  39-40.) 

Artisans  and  Machinery:  The  Moral  and  Physical  Condition  of  the  Manu- 
facturing Population.  P.  Gaskell,  Esq.,  Surgeon.  London,  John 
Parker,  1836. 

That  the  physical  energies  of  the  factory  women  are  injured  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  miscarriages  are  exceedingly  common  amongst  them. 
We  have  had  many  opportunities  of  noting  this  circumstance  in  girls 
engaged  in  both  silk  and  cotton  mills.     (Page  189.) 

History  of  the  Factory  Movement,  from  the  Year  1802  to  the  Enactment  of 
the  Ten-hours'  Bill  in  1847.  "Alfred."  {Samuel  Kydd.)  Mr. 
Sadler's  speech  before  the  House  of  Commons,  March,  1832.  London, 
Simpkin,  Marshall,  1857. 

.  .  .  But  again  taking  with  me  the  highest  medical  authorities,  1 
refer  to  the  consequences  of  early  and  immoderate  labor;  especially  at 
the  period  when  the  system  rapidly  attains  its  full  development  and  is 
peculiarly  susceptible  of  permanent  injury.  Still  more  are  the  effects  felt 
when  they  become  mothers,  for  which,  I  fear,  their  previous  pursuits 
have  little  qualified  them.  It  is  in  evidence  that  long  standing  has  a 
known  tendency — how  shall  I  express  it? — contrahere  et  minuere  pelvem, 
and  thereby  to  increase  greatly  the  danger  and  difficulty  of  parturition, 
rendering  embryotomy — one  of  the  most  distressing  operations  which  a 
surgeon  ever  has  to  perform — occasionally  necessary.  I  have  communi- 
cations on  this  subject  from  persons  of  great  professional  experience; 
but  still  I  prefer  to  appeal  to  the  evidence  before  the  public;  and  one 
reference  shall  suffice.  Dr.  Jones,  who  had  practised  in  the  neighborhood 
of  certain  mills,  in  favor  of  which  much  evidence  was  adduced,  which 


BRITAIN 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


138 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


indeed  it  is  rarely  difficult  to  procure,  states  that  in  the  eight  or  ten 
years  during  which  he  was  an  accoucheur,  he  met  with  more  cases  requir- 
ing the  aid  of  instruments  (that  circumstance  showing  them  to  be  bad 
ones),  than  a  gentleman  of  great  practice  in  Birmingham,  to  whom  he  was 
previously  a  pupil,  had  met  with  in  the  whole  course  of  his  life.  Abundance 
of  evidence  is  before  me.     But  1  forbear.     (Vol.  1,  Page  181.) 


The  Hygiene,  Diseases,  and  Mortality  of  Occupation.  J.  T.  Arlidge, 
m'd.,  A.B.,  F.R.C.P.     London,  Percival,  1892. 

Continuous  standing  for  hours  together  is  a  strain  especially  upon  the 
arch  of  the  feet  and  the  ankle  joints;  a  cause  of  weary  spine  and  spinal 
curvature,  favoring  also  pelvic  fulness,  and  in  the  female  sex,  productive 
of  derangements  of  the  uterine  functions  and  of  uterine  displacements. 
(Page  170.) 

Condition  of  the  IVorking  Class  in  England  in  1844.  Frederick  Engels. 
{Originally  issued  in  Germany,  1845.)  Translated  by  Florence 
Kelley.     London,  Sonnenschein,  1892. 

The  influence  of  factory  work  upon  the  female  physique  also  is  marked 
and  peculiar.  The  deformities  entailed  by  long  hours  of  work  are  much 
more  serious  among  women.  Protracted  work  frequently  causes  defor- 
mities of  the  pelvis,  partly  in  the  shape  of  abnormal  position  and  develop- 
ment of  the  hip  bones,  and  partly  of  malformation  of  the  lower  part  of 
the  spinal  column. 

"Although,"  says  Dr.  Loudon,  in  his  report,  "no  example  of  malfor- 
mation of  the  pelvis  and  of  some  other  affections  came  under  my  notice, 
these  things  are  nevertheless  so  common  that  every  physician  must 
regard  them  as  probable  consequences  of  such  working  hours,  and  as 
vouched  for  besides  by  men  of  the  highest  medical  credibility." 

That  factory  operatives  undergo  more  difficult  confinement  than  other 
women  is  testified  to  by  several  midwives  and  accoucheurs,  and  also  that 
they  are  more  liable  to  miscarriage.     (Pages  160-161.) 


GERMANY  AmtUche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichts- 
heamten,  XXII,  1897.  [Official  Information  from  Reports  of  the 
{German)  Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,  Bruer,  1898. 

The  inspector  in  Hesse  regards  a  reduction  of  working  hours  to  ten 
for  women  in  textile  mills  as  "absolutely  imperative,"  as  the  continuous 
standing  is  very  injurious  to  the  female  organism.     (Page  241.) 


INJURIES    TO    THE    FEMALE    FUNCTIONS  1 39 

Die  Beschdftigung  Verheiratheter  Fraiien  in  Fabriken.  Nach  den  Jahres-  GERMANY 
berichten  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichtsbeamten  jiir  das  Jahr  1899  bearbeitet 
im  Reich samt  des  Innern.  [The  Employment  of  Married  Women  in 
Factories.  From  Reports  of  the  {German)  Factory  Inspectors  for  the 
Year  1899.  Compiled  in  the  Imperial  Home  Office]  Berlin,  Decker, 
1901. 

The  harm  from  continuous  standing  or  sitting  was  repeatedly  empha- 
sized. It  was  stated  that  continuous  standing  was  extremely  injurious 
for  all  women  in  the  years  of  developing  maturity,  as  it  caused  uterine 
relaxation  and  malpositions  (falling  of  the  womb). 

.  .  .  The  inspector  from  Dresden  wrote:  "It  is  an  undisputed  fact 
that  prolonged  standing  as  required  in  many  lines  of  manufacture  as 
well  as  continuous  sitting  (sewing  and  many  trades),  is  a  cause  of  impair- 
ment to  health.  Unmarried  women  are  as  liable  as  married  ones  to  the 
ill  results  of  long  hours  of  sitting  or  standing."     (Page  101.) 

In  Wiirttemburg,  where  anaemia  and  disturbances  of  the  abdominal 
organs  (intestines,  etc.)  were  widely  characteristic  of  working  women 
in  all  the  various  lines  of  industry,  "it  was  found  that  the  bent  attitude 
standing  up  in  the  mills,  and  the  equally  bent  attitude  sitting  down  in 
the  lace  curtain  factories,  etc.,  both  promoted  illness.  Sometimes  still 
other  unhealthful  influences  were  added  to  these,  such  as  continuous 
standing  on  wet  and  cold  stone  floors,  as  was  the  case  in  certain  mills. 

In  the  report  from  Anhalt  it  was  stated  as  an  accepted  fact  that,  if 
continuous  standing  or  continued  sitting  while  at  work  was  combined  with 
long  hours  of  work,  definite  impairment  of  the  health  of  women  followed 
(varicose  veins,  uterine  disorders,  etc.).     (Page  101.) 


SWITZER- 


Untersuchungen    ilber   die    Gesundheitsverhdltnisse    der    Fahrikhevolkerung 

der  Schweii.     [Investigations  into  the  Conditions  of  Health  of  the  Swiss  land 
Factory  IVorkers.]     Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Swiss  Factory  Inspector, 
and  Dr.  A.  E.    Burckhardt,  Prof,  of  Hygiene,  Basle.     Aarau,  Saiier- 
Idnder,  1889. 

The  high  morbidity  of  women  is  not  a  little  influenced  by  the  frequency 
of  uterine  disorders.  It  is  known  that,  on  the  whole,  women  are  more 
subject  to  diseases  of  the  genitalia  than  men,  yet  the  difference  shown  in 
the  statistics  of  the  sick  benefit  funds  cannot  be  regarded  as  normal. 
These  disorders  are  not  equally  prevalent  in  all  occupations,  nor  do  they 
always  appear  in  the  same  varieties.  Next  to  the  kind  of  employment  it 
is  important  to  know  whether  the  workers  are  married  or  single,  and  have 


140 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


borne  children  or  not.  Among  young  unmarried  workers  one  finds  lower 
figures,  chiefiy  of  menstrual  disorders  and  slight  catarrh.  (Cotton  mill 
and  silk  mill  operatives.)  The  figures  rise  as  the  genital  organs  are  more 
directly  alTected  by  the  kind  of  work.  Again,  in  certain  industries  (weav- 
ing, cotton  print  works),  we  find  figures  which  call  for  serious  considera- 
tion. Here  the  forms  of  disease  become  more  threatening.  Miscarriages 
are  frequent,  displacements  and  chronic  metritis  take  a  prominent  place. 
If  we  wish  to  apply  a  remedy  we  must  study  all  the  circumstances  which 
contribute  to  these  abnormalities. 

First  of  all,  as  already  stated,  the  kind  of  work  and  way  in  which  it  is 
done  must  not  be  overlooked.  Pre-eminently  must  continuous  standing, 
jarring  of  machinery,  whirling  dust,  and  direct  or  indirect  pressure  upon 
the  abdominal  organs  be  condemned.  By  the  utmost  possible  avoidance 
of  bad  conditions  much  improvement  may  be  reached  even  without  ex- 
cluding women  from  their  share  of  industrial  work.     (Pages  170-171.) 


International  Congress  for  Labor  Legislation,  Zurich,  1897.  Official  Re- 
port of  the  Organisation  Committee.  Die  Beurteilung  der  Folgen  der 
Kinder arheit  vom  Standpunkte  des  Aretes.  [The  Results  of  Child 
Labor  as  judged  from  the  Physicians'  Standpoint.]  Dr.  F.  Gehrig, 
in  IViener  Staatswissenschaftliche  Studien,  Bd.  V.,  1903. 


We  may  place  special  injuries  in  two  groups,  accordingly  as  work  re- 
quires the  sitting  or  standing  position. 

In  the  first  group  stasis  is  promoted  in  abdominal  organs  by  the  ob- 
structed circulation  and  chronic  constipation,  hemorrhoids,  and,  in  wo- 
men, uterine  disorders  follow.  The  fixed  position  leads  to  scolioses  and 
asymmetrical  thorax,  curvatures  of  the  spine,  etc.  The  obstacles  to  free, 
unconstrained  respiration  induce  pulmonary  tuberculosis.  With  the  over- 
use of  certain  groups  of  muscles  distinct  neuroses  arise. 

It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  these  diseases  by  no  means  always  declare 
themselves  in  youth;  the  seeds  only  of  many  ills  are  planted  by  over- 
exertion in  youth,  and  from  them  develop  later  disease  or  invalidism. 
(Page  190.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1871. 

Exhaustion  from  overwork.  In  consequence  of  the  long  hours  of 
labor,  the  great  speed  the  machinery  is  run  at,  the  large  numbers  of  looms 
the  weavers  tend,  and  the  general  overtasking,  so  much  exhaustion  is 
produced  in  most  cases  that,  immediately  after  taking  supper,  the  tired 


INJURIES    TO   THE    FEMALE    FUNCTIONS  I4I 

operatives  drop  to  sleep  in  their  chairs.  ...  10.  Predisposition  to  pelvic  united 

1-  Ti  r  u  ^-  •*  J-         STATES 

disease.  There  appears,  as  far  as  my  observation  goes,  quite  a  predis- 
position to  pelvic  disease  among  the  female  factory  operatives,  producing 
difficulty  in  parturition.  The  necessity  for  instrumental  delivery  has 
very  much  increased  within  a  few  years,  owing  to  the  females  working  in 
the  mills  while  they  are  pregnant  and  in  consequence  of  deformed  pelvis. 
Other  uterine  diseases  are  produced,  and,  in  other  cases,  aggravated  in 
consequence  of  the  same.     (Pages  505-506.) 

Report  oj  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1875. 

Profuse,  difficult,  deficient,  or  retarded  menstruation,  anaemia,  chloro- 
sis, anasarca  and  oedema  of  feet,  pains  of  back  and  limbs,  nervous  head- 
aches, hacking  coughs,  by-and-by  tubercular  symptoms,  and  more  or 
less  early  decline,  is  the  usual  list  and  order  of  complaints  that  our  errors 
of  industrial  employment  are  establishing  with  this  proportion  of  our 
working  world,  and  with  their  results  are  grafting  upon  our  nationality  to 
its  steadily  progressive  decline  and  decay.     (Page  70.) 

It  seems  to  be  the  back  that  gives  out.  Girls  cannot  work  more  than 
eight  hours,  and  keep  it  up;   they  know  it,  and  they  rarely  will, — and  ■" 

even  this  seems  to  "pull  them  down,"  so  that  it  is  extremely  rare  that  a 
girl  continues  more  than  a  few  years  at  the  business.     (Page  91.) 

Mr.  B ,  foreman  of  a  large  printing  establishment,  says:    "Girls 

must  sit  at  the  'case.'  I  never  knew  but  one  woman,  and  she  a  strong, 
vigorous  Irishwoman,  of  unusual  height,  who  could  stand  at  the  case  like 
a  man.  Female  compositors,  as  a  rule,  are  sickly,  suffering  much  from 
backache,  headache,  weak  limbs,  and  general  'female  weakness.'"  (Page 
91.) 

Miss ,  for  several  years  in  charge  of  the  female  department  of  one 

of  the  largest  telegraph  offices  in  the  country,  testified:  "One  year  is  as 
long  as  one  can  work  in  a  busy  office  without  a  good  vacation.  The 
confined  position,  constipation,  heat,  and  dizzy  headache,  I  think,  are 
the  most  noticeable  troubles  of  'lady  operators'  who  are  'grown  up.' 
The  hours  are  too  long  for  such  strained  employment.  From  8  a.  m. 
to  6  p.  M.,  with  only  an  hour  for  dinner,  makes  too  long  a  day  for  the  kind 
of  work."     (Page  96.) 

Miss  J ,  a  lady  compositor,  says:   "We  cannot  stand  at  the  'case.' 

It  increases  back  and  head  ache,  and  weakness  of  limbs,  as  well  as  a  drag- 
ging weight  about  the  hips.  I  have  been  at  this  work  five  years,  but  have 
been  frequently  obliged  to  give  up  for  vacations  from  peculiar  troubles  and 
general  debility.     I  began  to  menstruate  when  fourteen;  I  am  now  twenty- 


142 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


UNITED 
STATES 


two.  I  was  well  until  1  had  set  type  for  a  year,  when  I  began  to  be 
troubled  with  difficult  periods,  and  have  been  more  or  less  ever  since. 
When  I  go  away  I  get  better,  but,  as  often  as  1  return  to  my  work,  1  am 
troubled  again.  Have  wholly  lost  color,  and  am  not  nearly  as  fleshy  and 
heavy  as  when  1  began  work.  1  have  now  a  good  deal  of  pain  in  my  chest, 
and  some  cough,  which  increases,  if  I  work  harder  than  usual.  I  am  well 
acquainted  with  many  other  lady  compositors  who  suffer  as  1  do."  (Pages 
91-92.) 

Miss  S ,  a  lady  long  in  charge  of  the  "composing-room"  (female 

department)  of  a  large  printing  establishment  testifies:  "1  was  myself  a 
compositor,  and  have  had  scores  of  girls  under  me  and  with  me,  many  of 
whom  1  have  known  intimately.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  I 
think  I  never  knew  a  dozen  lady  compositors  who  were  'well.'  Their 
principal  troubles  are  those  belonging  to  the  sex,  and  great  pain  in  back, 
limbs,  and  head."     (Page  92.) 


(3)  Injuries  to  the  Feet  and  Legs  from  Long  Standing 

Long  hours  of  standing  result  in  injuries  to  the  tissues 
of  the  legs  and  feet,  often  persisting  for  years,  occasioning 
much  pain  and  in  some  cases  total  disability.  Varicose 
veins  and  flat  foot  are  the  most  common  injuries. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XV.  1831-1832.  Report  from  the  Select 
Committee  on  the  "Bill  to  regulate  the  Labour  of  Children  in  the  Mills 
and  Factories  oj  the  United  Kingdom." 

James  Blundell,  Esq.,  M.D.  (Lecturer  on  Physiology  and  Midwifery 
in  the  School  of  Guy's  Hospital): 

10850.  Is  not  the  exertion  necessary  to  sustain  the  erect  position  of  the 
body  for  a  great  length  of  time  more  fatiguing  than  any  other  natural 
position  ordinarily  maintained,  or  moderate  exertion  equally  and  alter- 
nately exercising  the  various  muscles  of  the  body? — Decidedly  it  is.  .  .  . 

10851.  According  to  physiological  principles,  might  the  excessive 
fatigue  that  a  person  endures  who  has  to  maintain  an  erect  position  for  a 
great  length  of  time  be  explained  and  accounted  for? — 1  think  it  might, 
inasmuch  as  the  movements  of  the  body  in  locomotive  exercise  tend 
effectually  in  man  to  help  circulation,  and  further,  the  standing  position 
implies  that  the  same  muscles  are  kept  continually  in  action,  while  in 


INJURIES    TO   THE    FEET   AND    LEGS  .  I43 

the  locomotive  movements  there  are  alternate  changes  of  the  operative  ^^^jj 
muscles. 

10852.  Is  there  not  alternate  rest  and  exercise  in  the  varied  movements 
of  the  body,  which  is  not  the  case  in  the  standing  position  so  fully? — 
Exactly  so,  alternate  rest  and  exercise  of  different  sets  of  muscles.  (Page 
542.) 

Thos.  Hodgkin,  Esq.,  M.D.  (Physician  to  the  London  Dispensary, 
Lecturer  at  Guy's  Hospital): 

10928.  It  has  been  asserted  by  witnesses  before  this  committee,  that 
diseased  and  ulcerated  legs,  especially  among  the  female  part  of  the  opera- 
tives, have  been  produced;  should  you  conceive  that  long  standing  at  the 
labour  in  question  might  produce  that  effect? — Certainly,  by  interfering 
with  the  circulation.     (Page  548.) 

John  Morgan,  Esq.     (Surgeon  to  Guy's  Hospital): 

10990.  Should  you  be  prepared  to  expect  that  diseases  of  the  legs, 
especially  in  the  female  sex,  would  result  from  very  long  standing  at 
their  labour? — I  should  consider  it  as  a  necessary  consequence.  (Page 
553.) 

Benjamin  Collins  Brodie,  Esq.,  F.R.S.  .  .  .  (Surgeon  of  St.  George's 
Hospital) : 

11098.  Is  not  the  maintenance  of  the  erect  position  of  the  body  fatigu- 
ing when  continued  for  a  great  length  of  time? — It  is  more  fatiguing  than 
a  recumbent  or  sitting  posture,  inasmuch  as  more  muscular  exertion  is 
necessary  to  maintain  it.     (Page  565.) 

11110.  Many  of  the  operatives,  it  is  said,  especially  the  females,  suffer 
from  this  labour  other  effects,  namely,  diseases  in  the  legs? — Diseases  in 
the  legs  generally,  and  especially  varicose  veins  and  ulcers  of  the  legs  are 
more  likely  to  occur  in  persons  who  are  constantly  in  an  erect  posture. 
I  observe  in  this  town  those  who  are  a  great  deal  in  an  erect  posture, 
especially  if  they  carry  weights,  become  flat-footed,  which  is  a  very  dis- 
tressing complaint.     (Page  566.) 

Sir  William  Blizard,  F.R.S.  (Surgeon  to  the  London  Hospital  and 
Lecturer  on  Surgery,  Anatomy,  and  Physiology): 

11200.  May  the  committee  ask  you,  appealing  now  to  the  principles 
of  your  profession,  whether  it  does  not  require  some  considerable  degree 
of  muscular  exertion  to  maintain  the  erect  position  for  a  great  length  of 
time  together? — No  doubt  of  it,  and  it  is  a  position  which,  if  long  main- 
tained, is  unfavorable  in  many  respects,  and  leading  to  consequences  very 
serious.     (Page  572.) 

Sir  George  Leman  Tuthill,  F.R.S.  (Physician  to  the  Westminster 
Hospital  and  Bethlem  Hospital): 


144  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  11307.     Is  the  muscular  effort  to  sustain  for  a  great  length  of  time 

^^  ^  together   the   erect    position   of  the   body   very   fatiguing? — Certainly. 

(Page  580.) 

11308.  So  that  such  labour,  so  pursued,  would  be  still  more  exhaust- 
ing?—I  think  it  would.     (Page  580.) 

Joseph  Henry  Green,  Esq.,  F.R.S.  (A  surgeon  of  St.  Thomas's  Hos- 
pital and  Professor  of  Surgery  at  King's  College) : 

11375.  Does  not  the  maintaining  of  an  erect  position  of  the  body  itself 
induce  considerable  fatigue  if  long  endured?  In  order  to  maintain  an 
erect  position  of  the  body,  it  is  necessary  that  a  muscular  action  should 
be  constantly  exerted,  therefore  it  necessarily  induces  fatigue.     (Page  587.) 

James  Guthrie,  Esq.,  F.R.S.  (Vice-President  of  Royal  College  of 
Surgeons,  surgeon  to  the  Westminster  Hospital  and  to  Westminster 
Eye  Hospital): 

11474.  Is  not  the  exertion  necessary  to  sustain  the  erect  position  for  a 
great  length  of  time  more  fatiguing  than  any  other  natural  posture  ordi- 
narily maintained,  or  moderate  exertion  equally  and  alternately  exercising 
the  muscles  of  the  body? — Unquestionably.     (Page  595.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXI.  1833.  Second  Report  of  the 
.  .  .  Commissioners  for  Inquiring  into  the  Employment  of  Children  in 
Factories  and  .  .  .  Reports  by  the  Medical  Commissioners. 

Sir  David  Barry's  report  (Scotland): 

In  examining  the  feet  and  ankles  of  mill  girls,  I  find,  that  in  reference 
to  their  being  swelled  or  otherwise  a  good  deal  depends  upon  the  hour  of 
the  day  at  which  they  are  examined.  Most  of  them  acknowledge  that 
their  feet  are  more  or  less  swelled  towards  night,  particularly  in  the  sum- 
mer months.     (Page  8.) 

Both  adult  males  and  females  whose  work  obliges  them  to  stand  con- 
stantly are  more  subject  to  varicose  veins  of  the  lower  extremities,  and  to 
a  larger  and  more  dangerous  extent  than  ever  I  have  witnessed  even  in 
foot  soldiers.  The  females  are  more  subject  than  males  to  evening  swell- 
ings of  the  feet  and  ankles.     (Page  73.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  LV.  1873.  Report  to  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board  on  Proposed  Changes  in  Hours  and  Ages  of  Employment 
in  Textile  Factories.    J.  H.  Bridges,  M.D.,  and  T.  Holmes. 

Experience  afforded  by  residence  in  the  worsted  manufacturing  town 
of  Bradford  and  extensive  practice  among  its  population  during  periods  of 
from  one  to  thirty-five  years: 


INJURIES    TO    THE    FEET    AND    LEGS  I45 

Oedema  and  varicose  veins  of  the  legs  are  common  amongst  female  great 


mill-workers  of  middle  age. 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  Bradford  Medico-Chirurgical  Society,  at  a 
meeting  held  February  4,  1873. 

Sub-Committee, 

President,  J.  H.  Bell,  M.D. 

P.  E.  xNhALL,  M.R.C.S. 
Secretary,  David  Goyder,  M.D. 
(Pages  39-40.) 

British     Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XII.     1895.     Report  from    the    Select 
Committee  on  Shops  {Early  Closing)  Bill. 

Witness,  Dr.  Percy  Kidd,  M.D.,  of  University  of  Oxford,  Fellow  of 
College  of  Physicians  and  Member  of  the  College  of  Surgeons.  Attached 
to  London  Hospital  and  Brompton  Hospital: 

5284.  Would  prolonged  standing  have  an  injurious  effect  upon  the 
female  constitution? — I  have  no  doubt  it  has.  ...  I  have  no  doubt  it 
causes  varicose  veins.     (Page  215.) 


The  Hygiene,  Diseases,  a^nd  Mortality  of  Occupation.  J.  T.  Arlidge,  M.D., 
A.B.,  F.R.C.P.,  Late  Milroy  Lecturer  at  Royal  College.  London, 
Percival,  1892. 

When  insufficient  muscular  activity  is  associated  with  almost  constant 
standing,  the  increased  difficulty  to  the  return  of  the  blood  from  the 
lower  limbs  is  the  most  pronounced  feature,  and  productive  of  varicose 
veins,  and  ulcers  and  thickened  knee  and  ankle  joints.     (Page  19.) 

Workpeople  obliged  to  stand  long,  and  especially  when  this  happens  in 
early  youth,  lose  the  arch  of  the  foot  and  become  flat-footed,  with  de- 
formed ankles  and  often  "knock  knees."     (Page  558.) 


British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  1903.  Women's 
Labour:  Third  Report  of  the  Committee  .  .  .  appointed  to  Investigate 
the  Economic  Effect  of  Legislation  Regulating  Women  s  Labour. 

In  so  far  as  the  law  has  checked,  and  this  it  certainly  has  done  in  a 

considerable-  degree,  the  excessively  long  night  and  day  turns  of  work 

(in  laundries)  at  the  middle  and  end  of  the  week,  gain  must  have  accrued 

to  the  workers  in  lessening  the  number  of  cases  of  complete  exhaustion. 

10* 


BRITAIN 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


146 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


.  .  .  Greater  liability  of  laundresses,  as  compared  with  women  of  occupa- 
tions treated  in  those  infirmaries,  to  ulcerated  legs  and  to  phthisis.  .  .  . 
The  figures  supplied  by  the  records  of  the  cases  attended  by  the  Kensing- 
ton District  Nursing  Association  show  a  large  proportion  of  ulcerated  legs 
and  of  forms  of  internal  disease  aggravated  by  standing  for  long  hours. 
(Pages  359-360.) 


GERMANY  Die  Beschajtigiing  Verheiraieter  Franen  in  Fahriken.  Nach  den  Jahres- 
Berichten  der  Gewerhe-Aiifsichtsheamten  fiir  das  jahr  1899  bearbeitet 
im  Reichsamt  des  Innern.  Berlin,  1901.  {The  Employment  0}  Mar- 
ried IVomen  in  Factories.  From  Reports  of  the  (German)  Factory 
Inspectors  for  the  year  1899.  Compiled  in  the  Imperial  Home  Office] 
Berlin,  Decker,  1901. 

Other  inspectors  emphasized  the  injurious  effects  of  continuous  stand- 
ing. The  frequent  occurrence  of  flat  foot  was  ascribed  to  this,  and  the 
frequency  of  displaced  uterus  in  working  women  was  also  attributed  largely 
to  this  cause. 

The  inspector  from  Alsace,  who  personally  interviewed  the  women 
operatives,  found  that  "varicose  veins  were  frequent,  rubber  stockings 
were  often  necessary,  and  weariness  and  inability  to  do  the  household 
work  after  returning  from  the  factory  were  almost  universal  even  among 
the  younger  women.  This  weariness,  often  accompanied  by  backache 
.  .  .  often  developed  into  positive  incapacity  for  work  and  physical  dis- 
ability."    (Page  102.) 


Jahresbericht  der  Grossherioglich  Badischen  Fabrikinspektion  fiir  das  Jahr 
1902.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  of  Baden,  1902.]  Karlsruhe, 
Thiergarten,  1903. 

The  direct  injuries  to  health  from  industrial  work  are  unmistakably 
shown  in  certain  individual  kinds  of  work,  though  ordinarily  difficult  to 
prove. 

Thus  the  factory  physician  of  two  large  mills  states  that  the  employees 
suffer  much  more  from  flat  foot  and  other  troubles  of  the  feet  than  other 
classes  of  the  population,  and  he  ascribes  it  to  the  long-continued  standing 
and  walking  during  work,  which  is  too  much  for  young  people  in  the  period 
of  development,  and  which,  aside  from  specified  troubles,  undoubtedly 
causes  the  rapid  fading  of  the  women.     (Page  26.) 


INJURIES    TO    THE    FEET    AND    LEGS  I47 

Handhuch  der  Arheiterwohlfahrt.     Bd.  I .     [Handbook  of  the  General  Wei-  GERMANY 
fare  of  the  IVorking  Classes.     Vol.  I.]     Edited  by  Dr.  Otto  Dammer. 
Beschddigung  der  Arbeiter  bei  der  Arbeit.     [Injuries  of  Occupation.] 
Dr.  Ascher.     Stuttgart,  1902. 

Widely  prevalent  is  the  inflammation  of  the  instep  leading  to  flat-foot, 
the  result  of  continuous  standing  or  walking,  and  found  especially  among 
waiters,  shopboys,  bakers,  etc.  Continuous  standing,  especially  when 
united  to  severe  exertion,  as  by  smiths,  laundresses,  etc.,  produces  also 
varicose  veins.  Through  the  long-enforced  standing  only  certain  muscle 
groups  are  brought  into  action,  while  the  large  muscles  of  the  lower  ex- 
tremities are  inactive.  There  follows  an  enlargement  of  the  spaces  be- 
tween skin  and  muscles,  a  knotting  of  the  large  veins  of  the  legs;  resulting 
in  congestion  of  the  blood  and  tedious  inflammatory  process.  (Leg  ulcers.) 
Another  result  of  great  exertion  of  the  abdominal  muscles  is  rupture  (her- 
nia).    (Page  493.) 

Untersuchungen    iiber    die    Gesundheitsverhdltnisse    der    Fabrikbevolkerung  SWITZER- 
der  Schweii.     [An  Investigation  of  the  Health  of  Factory  Workers  in 
Switzerland.]     Dr.   F.  Schuler,   Factory  Inspector,  and   Dr.  A.   E. 
BuRCKHARDT,  Prof.  of  Hygiene,  Basle.     Aaraii,  Sauerldnder,  1889. 

Continuous  standing  must  always  be  regarded  as  injurious  to  health. 
(Page  131.) 

National  Child  Labor  Committee.     New   York.     Proceedings  of  the  Fifth  S?}xes 
Annual  Conference.     Chicago,  III.     1909.     Some  Effects  of  Improper 
Posture  in  Factory  Labor.     Albert  H.  Freiberg,  M.D.,  Cincinnati, 
Ohio. 

Muscular  exercise  is  beneficial.  Exercise  is  our  only  means  of  strength- 
ening the  muscles,  of  encouraging  their  development,  but  the  building  up 
of  a  muscle  which  is  actively  growing  and  developing  must  be  accomplished 
by  exercises  which  are  not  too  severe,  which  are  not  too  long  continued, 
and  which  are  of  constantly  varying  character. 

Furthermore,  the  muscle  which  carries  out  exercises  must  be  given 
frequent  periods  of  rest,  during  which  it  may  recover;  it  should  be  given 
an  opportunity  to  build  up  again  that  which  has  been  consumed  by 
use.   .   .   . 

.  .  .  That  which  is  unfortunate  in  factory  employment  as  far  as 
purely  physical  effects  upon  the  muscles  are  concerned,  is  the  fact  that  a 
muscle  must  perform  its  functions  for  a  long  period  of  time  without  the 


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FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


opportunity  of  relaxing,  without  the  opportunity  of  recovering.  When  a 
muscle  has  performed  its  function  up  to  a  certain  point,  we  experience  the 
sensation  which  we  speak  of  commonly  as  fatigue.  Fatigue  means  that 
there  is  an  accumulation  in  the  muscle  of  the  waste  products  of  its  use, 
which  have  not  yet  been  carried  away  and  replaced  by  new  material.  If 
we  continue  to  use  a  muscle  far  beyond  the  point  of  fatigue  repeatedly, 
there  results  in  that  muscle  in  the  course  of  time  instead  of  further  up- 
building, a  degeneration  and  the  result  of  such  excess  fatigue  is  the  final 
weakening  of  a  muscle  which,  if  treated  properly,  would  on  the  contrary 
grow  stronger  continuously.     (Page  106.) 


(4)  Injuries  to  Eyesight 

Serious  injury  to  the  eyes  results  also  from  excessive 
working  hours.  The  danger  of  eye-strain  from  overlong 
hours  and  close  appHcation  is  intensified  by  the  lack  of 
proper  and  adequate  lighting  of  workrooms.  Shorter  work- 
ing hours  not  only  relieve  the  strain  upon  the  eyes,  but 
diminish  the  necessary  time  for  working  with  artificial 
light. 


ITALY  Fatigue.     A.  Mosso,  Professor  of  Physiology,  University  of  Turin.     1896. 

Translated  hy  Margaret  Drummond,  M.A.,  and  W.  B.  Drummond, 
M.B.,  Extra  Physician,  Royal  Hospital  for  Sick  Children,  Edinburgh. 
New  York,  Putnam,  1904. 

Rest  has  such  an  effect  upon  vision  that  some  workmen,  such  as  printers, 
tailors,  and  shoemakers,  after  their  Sunday  rest,  see  very  well  for  several 
days;  but  in  the  middle  of  the  week  the  symptoms  of  asthenopia  recom- 
mence; and  so  troublesome  are  they  that  the  sufferers  have  to  cease  work 
and  go  to  the  doctor,  complaining  not  only  of  obscurity  of  vision,  but  of 
pain  extending  from  their  eyes  to  the  frontal  and  occipital  regions  of  the 
head.     (Page  139.) 

Fatigue  of  the  eyes  in  perception  of  the  colour  has  been  thoroughly 
studied  by  Goethe  (Zur  Farbenlehre,  1812). 

From  his  work  on  colours  I  shall  quote  some  paragraphs  which  deal 
specially  with  ocular  fatigue. 

We  have  all  tried  the  experiment  of  looking  at  the  sun,  or  gazing 
fixedly  on  the  flame  of  a  candle,  and  then  shutting  our  eyes.    We  are 


INJURIES   TO    EYESIGHT  I49 

all  aware  that  the  eye  retains  an  image  of  a  circle,  which  is  at  first  bright  italy 
with  a  pale-yellow  centre,  but  quickly  becomes  rose-coloured  around  the 
edges. 

After  a  time,  this  red  increasing  towards  the  centre  covers  the  whole 
circle  and  at  last  the  bright  central  point.  No  sooner,  however,  is  the 
whole  circle  red  than  the  edge  begins  to  be  blue  and  the  blue  gradually 
incroaches  inward  upon  the  red.  When  the  whole  is  blue  the  edge  be- 
comes dark  and  colorless.  The  image  then  becomes  gradually  fainter  and 
at  the  same  time  diminishes  in  size.     (Pages  229-230.) 

Goethe  has  likewise  pointed  out  the  effect  of  debility  upon  vision: 
"In  passing  from  bright  daylight  to  a  dusky  place  we  distinguish  nothing 
at  first;  by  degrees  the  eye  recovers  its  susceptibility:  strong  eyes  sooner 
than  weak  ones;  the  former  in  a  minute,  while  the  latter  may  require 
seven  or  eight  minutes." 

This  observation  of  Goethe's  as  to  longer  duration  of  fatigue  phe- 
nomena in  enfeebled  persons  is  of  great  importance  in  our  present  study. 
(Page  230.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXII.     1864.     Report  of  Commissioners  ^^i^jT 
on  Children's  Employment. 

.  .  .  Medical  testimony  to  be  found  in  the  evidence  in  the  Second 
Report  of  the  Children's  Employment  Commissions,  on  the  effects  of  late 
hours  amongst  all  sorts  of  female  employments,  on  the  eye,  where  vision 
has  to  be  concentrated  on  minute  objects  under  artificial  light: 

"After  long  work,"  says  Mr.  Lawson,  "the  eye  becomes  fatigued,  the 
strain  is  relaxed,  and  the  image,  being  thrown  slightly  out  of  focus,  appears 
indistinct.  A  continuance  of  work  without  resting  the  eyes,  causes  a  com-, 
plete  loss  of  the  object  on  which  the  eye  is  fixed."     (Page  186.) 

Etude  sur  V Influence  de  la  Duree  du  Travail  Quotidien  sur  la  Sante  Generale  FRANCE 
de  I'Adulte.     [Study  of  the  Effect  of  the  Length  of  Working  Hours  upon 
the  General  Health  of  Adults.]     Dr.  Ilia  Sachnine.     Lyon,  1900. 

Bocci  has  studied  the  influence  of  fatigue  on  human  vision.  He  holds 
that  in  fatigue  of  the  eye  and  its  attachments  there  are  two  distinct  factors, 
namely,  purely  muscular  fatigue  and  weariness  of  the  nerve  centres.  In 
a  series  of  experiments  with  normal  individuals  who  were  fatigued  he 
found  a  diminution  of  keenness  of  vision,  of  refraction,  of  accommodation, 
of  impressionability  of  the  retina,  of  equilibrium  and  of  muscular  co- 
ordination.    (Page  59.) 


150 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  Handbuch  der  Arheiterwohlfahrt.  Bd.  I .  [Handbook  of  the  General  Wel- 
fare of  the  Working  Classes.  Vol.  I.]  Edited  by  Dr.  Otto  Dammer. 
Beschadigimgen  der  Arbeiter  bei  der  Arbeit.  [Injuries  of  Occupation.] 
Dr.  AscHER.     Stuttgart,  1902. 

Over-exertion  of  different  organs: 

The  eye: 

Puddlers,  glassblowers,  and  others  whose  eyes  are  continually  exposed 
to  extreme  heat  and  light  not  only  suffer  greatl\-  from  inflammation  of  the 
connective  tissues  of  the  eyes,  but  also  frequently  from  cataract.  .  .  . 
Shortsightedness  was  found  in  a  great  number  of  cases  among  the  darners 
of  a  worsted  mill  the  result  of  the  spasmodic  accommodation  of  the  eyes, 
as  well  as  inflammation  of  the  conjunctiva;  that  is  the  result  of  over- 
strained eyes  in  many  occupations,  especially  those  carried  on  in  artificial 
or  in  poor  light — the  remedy  lies  in  improving  lighting  facilities  and  in 
shortening  the  working  hours.     (Page  492.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health.     1Q06.     Report  on  the 
Sanitary  Conditions  of  Factories,  Workshops,  and  other  Establishments. 

Poor  light  is  itself  a  factor  of  no  mean  consequence  in  reducing  the 
physiological  resistance  to  disease.  It  may  be  a  concomitant  of  a  number 
of  other  unsanitary  influences  which  affect  the  health  of  the  worker,  as, 
for  example,  in  the  weaving  and  spinning  rooms;  or  it  may  be  the  prin- 
cipal factor,  as  in  web  drawing.  Apparently  too  little  thought  has  been 
given,  in  mill  construction,  to  providing  for  light  in  accordance  with  the 
kind  of  work  to  be  done  in  a  gi\en  room.  Many  rooms  are  of  old  con- 
struction, with  comparatively  low  ceilings,  small  windows,  and  small 
panes  of  glass.  Some  of  these  rooms  are  narrow,  and  admit  fair  light  from 
the  sides;  but  some  are  wide,  and  some  are  basement  rooms,  which  lack 
both  an  ample  suppl>'  and  an  even  distribution  of  light. 

Aside  from  the  question  of  mill  construction,  two  important  factors 
contribute  to  poor  light  in  a  large  number  of  rooms,  viz.:  (1)  neglect 
to  keep  the  ceiling  and  walls  clean  and  white;  and  (2)  infrequent  washing 
of  windows,  allowing  them  to  go  unwashed  in  some  instances  for  several 
years.  It  is  frequently  the  case  that  prismatic  glass  of  different  kinds 
and  sizes  is  introduced  into  poorly  lighted  rooms;  but  unless  this  glass  is 
kept  reasonably  clean,  it  is  of  little  value.  In  poorly  constructed  and 
neglected  rooms,  with  or  without  prismatic  glass,  artificial  light  is  not 
uncommonly  used  even  on  bright,  sunny  days  in  the  late  morning  or  early 
afternoon  hours;  and  in  such  rooms  gas  jets  are  as  likely  to  be  found  as  in- 
candescent bulbs.     Even  if  artificial  light  is  not  used  until  the  late  after- 


INJURIES    TO    OTHER    ORGANS  I5I 

noon  hours,  there  is  then  much  variation  as  to  the  time  and  method  of  united 
lighting  and  the  kind  of  light  in  use.     In  some  mstances  the  light  should 
be  turned  on  half  an  hour,  or  longer,  before  the  engineer  sees  fit  to  do  so; 
yet  the  emplo>-ees  during  this  time  are  supposed  to  continue  their  work 
with  the  same  degree  of  accurac}'  and  rapidit}'  as  with  good  light. 

It  is  a  well-established  fact  that  either  the  overuse  of  the  e\-es,  or  the 
use  of  eyes  under  bad  conditions,  may  give  rise  to  e\-e  fatigue  or  to  eye 
strain;  and  many  eye  specialists  believe  that  at  least  80  to  90  per  cent  of 
headaches  are  dependent  upon  eye  strain. 

With  these  facts  in  mind,  it  is  impossible  to  ignore  the  probabilit_\-  that 
many  individuals  working  by  gas  light,  or  even  electric  light,  in  dirty, 
unpainted,  overheated  rooms,  with  impure  air  and  excessive  moisture, 
for  ten  hours  a  day  or  merely  for  the  last  two  hours  during  the  day,  use 
up  a  great  deal  of  nervous  energy,  and  suffer  from  e\e  fatigue,  or  e>e 
strain,  and  its  consequences.     (Pages  470-471.) 


(5)   Injuries  to  other  Organs 

Whenever  the  nature  of  a  worker's  employment  or  the 
position  required  by  the  work  makes  particular  demands 
upon  any  organ  of  the  body,  that  organ  or  part  of  the 
body  first  tends  to  become  overstrained. 

Excessive  length  of  hours  intensifies  such  overuse  of  par- 
ticular organs  or  parts  of  the  body  in  the  different  trades, 
and  only  the  establishment  of  shorter  hours  can  lessen  the 
danger  of  such  overstrain. 


Sixth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Vienna,  1887 . 
Part  XIV,  Vol.  I-XIV.  Sec.  on  Hygiene.  Fahrikhygiene  und 
Fdbrikgesetigehung.  [Factory  Hygiene  and  Legislation.}  Dr.  Frido- 
LIN  ScHULER,  Swiss  Factory  Inspector.     Vienna,  1887. 

Far  less  conspicuous  is  a  third  set  of  factors  which  exert  a  deleterious 
influence  on  health  and  so  threaten  the  well-being  of  workers,  namely,  the 
excessive  muscular  exertion  demanded  by  modern  forms  of  industry,  the 
strain  on  special  organs,  the  one-sided  muscular  activity  resulting  from 
continuous  performance  of  the  same  motions.  These  are  especially  no- 
ticeable in  their  effect  upon  women.     (Page  19.) 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  factory  work  for  women  is,  broadly  speak- 


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152 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


ing,  undesirable,  and  must  be  regarded  as  an  evil  resulting  from  the 
social  adjustment.     (Pages  29-30.) 


GERMANY  Handhuch  der  Arheiterwohlfahrt.  Bd.  I.  [Handbook  of  the  General  fVel- 
fare  of  the  Working  Classes.  Vol.  I.]  Edited  by  Dr.  Otto  Dammer. 
Beschddigungen  der  Arheiter  bei  der  Arbeit.  {Injuries  of  Occupation.] 
Dr.  AscHER.     Stuttgart,  1902. 

Overexertion  of  muscles,  sinews,  and  joints  leads  to  rupture  of  muscles 
and  ligaments,  or  to  acute  or  chronic  inflammations  such  as  the  "house- 
maid's knee,"  etc.  Continuous  overexertion  of  single  groups  of  muscles 
induces  permanent  deformities  of  the  skeleton  (wry-neck,  spinal  curva- 
ture).    (Page  493.) 

General  overexertion  of  the  body,  and  insufficient  nourishment,  rest, 
and  sleep,  repairing  only  imperfectly  the  expended  energy,  lead  to  anaemia, 
or  to  nervous  disorders  and  insanities.  Overexertion  of  individual  parts 
brings  atrophy  of  the  part  in  question,  with  or  without  preceding  affec- 
tions of  the  nervous  system.     (Pages  495-496.) 

Zeitschrift  fiir  Gewerbehygiene,  Unfallverhiitung,  und  Arbeiterwohlfahrts 
Einrichtungen.  Bd.  XIV.  1907.  Gewerbehygiene  und  Unfallver- 
hiitung. [Industrial  Hygiene  and  the  Prevention  of  Accidents.]  Dr. 
Werner  Heffter,  Medical  Officer.     Vienna,  Steiner,  1907. 

The  injuries  arising  from  physical  overstrain  are  of  quite  another  kind 
than  those  previously  described  (dust-poisons,  etc.),  as  they  may  lead  to 
general  physical  enfeeblement  and  also  to  definite  local  damage,  as  in  the 
case  of  individual  organs.  Dangers  of  the  kind  first  mentioned  arise  from 
excessive  length  of  working  hours,  and  are  especially  ruinous  to  youthful 
workers  and  to  women.  Hard  work,  such  as  lifting  and  carrying  heavy 
loads,  injures  the  body  by  promoting  herniae,  straining  muscles,  and  bring- 
ing on  cardiac  disorders  and  lung  diseases.  Continuous  pressure  on  some 
one  part  of  the  body  induces  swellings,  inflammations,  boils,  and  abscesses. 
A  bent,  or  tense,  or  unnatural  position  of  the  body  develops  spinal  de- 
formities and  alterations  of  internal  organs;  continuous  sitting  or  standing 
result  in  abdominal  disorders  among  women.     (Page  56.) 

Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography,  Berlin,  1907 . 
Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV.  Ermildung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  [Fatigue  result- 
ing from  Occupation.]     Dr.  Emil  Roth.    Berlin,  Hirschwald,  1908. 

During  the  activity  of  work  the  blood  current  is  so  distributed  that  the 
muscular  fibres  in  action,  also  the  brain  and  the  skin,  receive  a  larger  blood 


INJURIES    TO    OTHER    ORGANS  153 

supply  than  usual.  The  abdominal  viscera,  and  especially  the  intestines,  germait? 
on  the  contrary,  become  ansmic,  as  the  intestines  part  most  readil}-  with 
their  blood  supply,  and  the  increased  demands  of  the  active  muscles  are 
met  by  a  corresponding  diminution  of  the  intestinal  circulation.  It 
follows  that,  at  a  time  of  continuous  physical  exertion,  the  secretions  of 
the  intestinal  glands  and  the  processes  of  absorption  of  the  contents  of  the 
digestive  tract  into  the  blood  are  retarded,  and,  if  ph>-siological  limits  in 
this  process  are  overpassed,  permanent  injury  to  the  digestive  organs 
results,  and  anaemia,  chlorosis,  neurasthenia,  or  other  ills  are  permanently 
and  unavoidably  established.     (Page  595.) 

Fatigue,  which,  as  has  already  been  said,  is  the  natural  sequence  of 
all  exertion,  shows  itself  first  locally  and  then  generally.  The  local 
effects  are  not  confined  entirel}'  nor  even  chiefl_\-  to  the  muscular  structures 
that  are  directly  in  use,  but  occur  pre-eminently  in  those  accessor}-  muscles 
which  are  overstrained  by  work.  This  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  fact  that 
static  work  is  more  fatiguing  than  dynamic  activitw  The  baker  who  has 
kneaded  bread  all  night  in  a  bent  attitude,  complains  of  pains  in  the  legs; 
the  shoemaker,  of  pain  in  the  back;  the  violin  pla\'er,  of  cramps  in  the 
left  hand,  etc.,  etc.     (Page  598.) 

When  fatigue  becomes  more  intense  it  is  overfatigue.  This  is  also,  at 
first,  of  local  extent.  So  may  acute  inflammator>'  processes  result  from 
the  overuse  of  single  muscles,  tendons,  and  joints  .  .  .  such  are  the  rheu- 
matic disorders  of  miners.  .  .  . 

As  a  result  of  local  overstrain  may  be  found  many  abnormal  conditions 
.  .  .  here  must  be  included  dilatation  and  h\'pertroph\-  of  the  heart  .  .  . 
the  right  side  of  the  heart,  by  reason  of  its  thinner  walls,  is  especially 
affected.     (Page  600.) 

Fmally,  overfatigue  involves  the  whole  bod\-  s>'mpathetically,  m.ani- 
festing  itself  chiefly  in  disturbances  of  the  digestion,  anemia,  neuroses  of 
various  forms,  and  chronic  diseases,  especially  of  the  heart.  It  may  also 
be  accepted  as  positive  that  physical  overwork  encourages  the  premature 
development  of  arterio-sclerosis.     (Page  601.) 

As,  in  the  case  of  poisonous  trades  the  most  important  thing  is  to 
recognize  the  earliest  symptoms  of  poisoning,  so,  in  regard  to  ph\si- 
cal  and  mental  strain  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  detect  at  the 
outset  SN'mptoms  of  overstrain;  first  the  disturbances  of  nutrition 
and  of  individual  organs,  next  the  anemia,  neuroses,  etc.,  etc.  (Page 
611.) 


154 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


BELGIUM  Thirteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.     Brussels, 

J 903.  Vol.  V,  Section  IV.  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on,  par  des 
meihodes  physiologiques,  etiidier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres 
dans  les  diverses  professions?  Quels  sont  les  arguments  que  les  sciences 
physiologiques  et  medicates  peuvent  ou  pourraient  faire  valoir  en  faveur 
de  tel  on  tel  mode  d' organisation  da  travail?  [To  what  extent  may  fa- 
tigue, its  forms  and  degrees  in  different  occupations,  he  studied  hy  physio- 
logical methods?  IVhat  arguments  may  physiological  or  medical  sciences 
bring  to  hear  in  favor  of  various  modes  of  industrial  organisation?] 
Dr.  Jean  DeMoor,  University  of  Brussels.     Brussels,  1903. 

Labor  accelerates  greatly  the  respiratory  processes:  it  produces  breath- 
lessness  by  a  true  poisoning  process,  and  may,  with  more  or  less  complete 
persistence  of  this  condition,  bring  on  pulmonary  emph\sema. 

Muscular  or  neuro-muscular  fatigue  reacts  upon  the  digestive  tract; 
it  provokes  loss  of  appetite  and  various  functional  disorders;  it  influences 
thermogenesis  and  easily  induces  hyperthermia  (excessive  rise  of  body 
temperature).  Physical  overwork  favors  the  invasion  of  pathogenic 
bacteria,  as  human  experience  proves  and  as  Charrin  and  Roger's  experi- 
ments have  demonstrated.  It  also  lowers  human  resistance  to  sunstroke 
and  to  the  action  of  extreme  cold.     (Page  9.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Sixty-fifth  Annual  Meeting  of  the  American  Institute  of  Instruction.  Port- 
land, Me.,  1895.  The  Relation  of  Fatigue  to  Social  and  Educational 
Progress.  Henry  S.  Baker,  Ph.D.  Boston,  American  Institute  of  In- 
struction, 1895. 

In  cases  of  long-continued  and  extreme  fatigue  the  condition  of  the 
system  resembles  that  of  typhoid  fever  in  its  weakness,  without,  of  course, 
the  characteristic  lesions  of  that  disease.  But  fever  may  exist,  and  also 
what  is  known  as  irritable  heart.  Many  times  the  fever  of  fatigue  is 
erroneously  classed  as  abortive  typhoid,  bilious,  etc.     (Pages  34-35.) 


Nervous  and  Mental  Diseases.  Archibald  Church,  M.D.,  Professor  of 
Nervous  and  Mental  Diseases  and  Medical  jurisprudence  in  the  North- 
western University  Medical  School,  etc.,  and  Frederick  Peterson, 
M.D.,  President  of  the  State  Commission  in  Lunacy,  New  York,  etc. 
Philadelphia,  1901. 

Many  occupations  requiring  the  constant  repetition  of  certain  precise 
muscular  movements  may,  eventually,  through  overuse  and  fatigue,  give 


RELATION    BETWEEN    FATIGUE    AND    DISEASES  1 55 

rise  to  disturbances  of  muscular  control,  for  the  manoeuvre  in  question,  united 

STATES 

The  conditions  may  be  manifest  as  pain,  tremor,  weakness,  or  cramp,  but 
usually  these  are  variousl>"  combined  in  different  cases.  This  group  of 
motor  disturbances  is  also  called  occupation  spasms  or  occupation  neu- 
roses.    (Page  544.) 

Among  the  occupation  spasms  more  commonl\"  encountered  are  the 
cramps  of  violin  and  pianoforte  pla>'ers,  telegraphers'  cramp,  seamstress' 
cramp,  and  hammer  cramp  in  smiths  and  artisans  using  the  hammer. 
Artists,  flower-makers,  turners,  watchmakers,  knitters,  engravers,  masons 
in  using  the  trowel,  sailors  from  pulling  on  ropes,  treadlers,  compositors, 
enamellers,  cigarette-makers,  shoemakers,  milkers,  money-counters,  letter- 
sorters,  and  players  on  various  musical  instruments  including  drummers, 
comprise  the  list  given  by  Gowers. 

It  has  been  noted  in  a  shoe  salesman  from  the  stooping  position  needed 
in  putting  on  shoes,  .  .  .  and  in  various  factor\'  employees  who  inces- 
santly use  the  same  movement  in  feeding  or  attending  some  machines. 
(Page  551.) 


Bulletin  of  the   United  States  Bureau  of  Labor.     No.  75.     March,  1908. 
Industrial  Hygiene.     George  M.  Kober,  .M.D.,  LL.D. 

Occupations  Involving  Constrained  .Attitudes. 

The  effects  of  a  constrained  position,  combined  with  a  sedentarx'  life, 
are  very  injurious.  This  is  especially  seen  in  weavers,  shoemakers,  en- 
gravers, watchmakers,  tailors,  lithographers,  etc.,  all  of  whom  are  obliged 
to  assume  a  more  or  less  constrained  attitude,  which  interferes  with  a 
proper  distribution  of  the  blood  supply  and  is  liable  to  be  followed  by 
internal  congestions.  But  perhaps  the  greatest  harm  results  from  deficient 
movement  of  the  chest  and  consequent  interference  with  normal  respira- 
tion. As  a  matter  of  fact,  many  of  these  artisans  suffer  from  phthisis, 
constipation,  dyspepsia,  and  hemorrhoids,  and  all  have  a  low  average 
duration  of  life.     (Page  522.) 


(6)   Rel.\tion  between  Fatigue  and  Diseases 
(a)  General  Predisposition 

Exhaustion  from  excessive  working  hours  not  only  lowers 
the  general  health  and  vitality  of  overworked  persons, 
but  renders  them  peculiarly  susceptible  to  general  diseases. 


156  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Since  immunity  from  disease  is  due  chiefly  to  the  organ- 
ism's powers  of  resistance,  it  follows  that  overtaxed  indi- 
viduals must  succumb  more  readily  than  those  who  are 
not  handicapped  by  overstrain  and  unrepaired  fatigue. 

bSmn  British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XV.     1831-32.     Report  from  the  Select 

Committee  on  the  "Bill  to  regulate  the  Labour  of  Children  in  the  Mills 
and  Factories  of  the  United  Kingdom."  Charles  Turner  Thackrah, 
Esq.,  General  Practitioner  in  Medicine  and  Surgery  at  Leeds,  author  of 
"On  the  Effects  of  Arts  and  Trades  on  Health  and  Longevity." 

10485.  .  .  .  Mills  in  general  do  not  produce  immediate  and  direct  mor- 
tality; their  chief  effect  on  the  operatives,  in  my  opinion,  is  the  under- 
mining the  health,  the  destroying  the  constitution,  and  the  rendering 
people  liable  to  attacks  of  disease  to  which  they  would  not  have  been 
subject,  or  under  which  they  would  not  have  succumbed  if  they  had  been 
in  other  situations.  With  few  exceptions,  the  diseases  developed  in  mills 
are  chronic  rather  than  acute.     (Page  513.) 

10489.  Will  you  please  to  state  to  this  committee  what  you  conceive 
to  be  the  general  effects  of  labour  too  long  continued  in  the  atmosphere  of 
mills  and  factories,  generally  considered,  leaving  out  of  the  question  any 
particular  dusty  manufacture? — 1  should  say,  a  reduction  of  vital  power 
proportionate  to  the  length  of  that  confinement,  and  with  this  reduction 
of  vital  power  a  series  of  evils  to  the  constitution;  chronic  maladies,  and 
an  inability  to  resist  acute  ones,  and  a  shortening  of  life.     (Page  514.) 

10490.  And  in  the  case  of  attacks  of  acute  disease,  you  do  not  think 
the  constitution  under  such  circumstances  is  as  capable  of  resistance? — 
Decidedly  not.     (Page  514.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXI.  1833.  Second  Report  of  the  .  .  . 
Commissioners  for  inquiring  into  the  Employment  of  Children  in  Fac- 
tories .  .  .  and  Reports  by  the  Medical  Commissioners.  Medical 
Reports  by  Dr.  Loudon. 

Evidence  of  Francis  Sharp,  at  Leeds,  member  of  College  of  Surgeons  in 
London,  student  of  medical  profession  for  fourteen  years,  house  surgeon  of 
Leeds  Infirmary  for  nearly  four  years: 

"The  nervous  energy  of  the  body  I  consider  to  be  weakened  by  the 
very  long  hours,  and  a  foundation  laid  for  many  diseases.  .  .  .  Were  it 
not  for  the  individuals  who  join  the  mills  from  the  country,  the  factory 
people  would  soon  be  deteriorated."     (Pages  12,  13.) 


RELATION    BETWEEN    FATIGUE    AND    DISEASES  1 57 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  VI.     1901.     Report  from  the  Select  Com-  great 

.  BRITAIN 

mittee  of  the  House  of  Lords  on  Early  Closing  of  Shops. 

6.  .  .  Sir  W.  MacCormac  stated  that  "There  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind 
that  such  long  hours  (it  speaks  of  an  average  of  fourteen  hours  per  day) 
must  contribute  to  the  incidence  of  disease;  that  it  must  lower  the  general 
vitality  of  persons  so  engaged  and  render  them  more  liable  than  they 
otherwise  would  be  to  attacks  of  different  forms  of  disease.  These  hours, 
too,  for  the  most  part,  are  worked  in  an  atmosphere  very  prejudicial  to 
health,  and  we  know  how  largely  the  air  so  contaminated  contributed  to  the 
production  of  various  forms  of  disease  in  which  tubercle,  for  instance,  and 
manifold  forms  of  disease  in  which  tubercle  manifests  itself,  and  that  other 
disease  of  great  cities  (rickets)  has  some  part  of  its  origin  from  this  cause." 

7.  Furthermore,  he  urged  on  us  that  the  evil  is  one  which  increases 
as  time  runs  on;  "it  is  gradual  and  progressive  in  its  effects,  and  it  goes 
on,  I  am  afraid,  in  a  cumulative  degree." 

8.  Sir  W.  Selby  Church,  the  president  of  the  College  of  Physicians, 
gave  similar  evidence.     (Pages  v-vi.) 

,  .  .  Dr.  Shanks  writes:  "Of  the  diseases  met  with  in  practice  here 
amongst  shopkeepers  and  their  assistants,  chest  diseases  are  the  most 
common.  The  next  in  order  of  occurrence  is  that  of  sore  throats,  and  the 
third  flat  feet  and  weakening  of  the  ankles.  These  three  conditions  are 
certainly  aggravated  by  the  long  hours  spent  at  work.  The  chest  ail- 
ments are  invariably  tuberculosis  such  as  apical  phthisis.  This  condition 
is  most  obstinate  to  treat,  and  nothing  short  of  tota^ suspension  of  work  en- 
ables any  progress  in  combating  this  terrible  disease.  Of  the  cause  of  such 
a  disease  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  that  long  hours  spent  in  shops 
.  .  .  prone  or  not  to  such  complaints,  tend  to  bring  about  a  condition  of 
the  body  suitable  to  the  inroads  of  the  tubercle  bacilli."     (Pages  75-76.) 

IVitness,  Sir  W.  MacCormac,  President  of  the  Royal  College  of  Sur- 
geons: 

2466.  .  .  .  The  physical  fatigue,  as  well  as  other  causes,  induces  various 
forms  of  disease,  especially  in  younger  women,  which  I  should  think  such 
hours  as  you  mention  would  largely  contribute  to.  .  .  .  (Page  120.) 


Revue  Internationale  de  Sociologie.     Nov.  1895.     Le  Travail  Humain  et  ITALY 
ses  Lois.     [The  Laws  of  Human  Work.]     Francesco  S.  Nitti,  Uni- 
versity of  Naples.     Paris,  Giard  et  Briere. 

It  may  be  that  the  workman  can  continue  working  for  a  long  time 
without  feeling  the  harmful  effects  of  fatigue.     But,  after  he  has  lost  a 


158 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


ITALY  certain  amount  of  his  organic  substance  he  no  longer  possesses  the  neces- 

sary resistance  to  external  conditions  and  he  is  exposed  to  all  sorts  of  ills. 
Fatigue  constitutes  a  permanent  predisposition  to  all  diseases.  .  .  .  (Page 
1035.) 

Many  prevalent  maladies  arise  from  nothing  else  than  a  genuine  over- 
strain, the  result  of  exhausting  and  burdensome  toil,  which  predisposes 
the  worker  to  fall  a  victim  to  disease. 

Too  much  importance  has  at  times  been  attached  to  exterior  conditions 
of  work,  and  too  little  to  the  power  of  resistance  of  the  worker.  The 
reports  of  factory  inspectors  have,  however,  often  pointed  out  that,  where- 
ever  the  work  is  too  prolonged  and  degenerates  into  fatigue,  the  salubrity 
of  the  surroundings  does  not  suffice  to  guard  the  worker  against  the  re- 
sults of  overwork  and  exhaustion.     (Page  1035.) 

Crichton,  even  in  his  time,  showed  in  what  a  sinister  fashion  fatigue 
acted  upon  the  sensibility  and  upon  alertness,  and  proved  that  it  was  the 
predisposing  cause  of  disease.     (Page  1037.) 


FRANCE  Dg  la  Fatigue  et  de  son  Influence  Pathogenique.     [Fatigue  and  its  Patho- 

genic Influence.]     Dr.  M.  Carrieu,  University  of  Montpellier.     Paris, 
Bailliere  et  Fits,  1878. 

The  pathogenic  role  of  fatigue  is  so  imperfectly  known  and  so  differ- 
ently estimated  that  in  beginning  its  study  it  is  necessary  to  reach  a  clear 
idea  of  what  fatigue  is  before  going  on  to  examine  those  diseases  in  whose 
origin  it  is  concerned..  (Page  59.) 

Like  many  other  causes,  fatigue  does  not  always  act  in  an  identical 
way  in  the  production  of  disease,  nor  play  the  same  pathogenic  part. 
In  brief,  the  result  depends  also  on  the  illness  that  develops  and  upon  the 
organism  in  question;  it  is  therefore  evident  that  it  will  vary  according  to 
the  kind  of  illness  and  condition  of  the  patient. 

It  is  not,  indeed,  that  transitory  state,  to  which  the  cessation  of  activity 
puts  an  end,  that  induces  illness.  This  state  simply  indicates  the  need 
of  rest,  as  hunger  indicates  the  need  of  food.  But  if  these  appeals  are  not 
attended  to,  if  these  needs  are  not  satisfied  or  only  partly  so,  then  it 
comes  about  that  we  have  morbid  troubles,  provoked  on  one  hand  by  an 
exaggerated  functional  over  activity,  and  on  the  other  by  defective  repara- 
tion.    (Page  60.) 

A  special  pathogenic  cause  does  not  always  give  the  same  results,  nor 
always  act  in  the  same  way:  an  entire  regiment  is  subjected  to  cold;  it 
might  be  supposed  that  this  would  have  an  identical  effect  on  all  the  men, 
but  two  will  have  pneumonia,  ten  bronchitis,  fifteen  rheumatism,  and  the 


RELATION    BETWEEN    FATIGUE    AND    DISEASES  I  59 

greatest  number  will  not  be  affected.     This  comparison  serves  to  show  France 
how,  under  the  influence  of  fatigue,  we  may  expect  to  see  a  variety  of 
diseases  appear. 

In  some  cases  it  will  be  simpl_\'  a  predisposing  cause;  its  part  is  reduced 
to  a  minimum.  Nevertheless  it  is  there;  compare  for  instance  the  re- 
sistance of  the  vigorous  individual  to  malarial  poison  with  that  of  the  un- 
fortunate, exhausted  by  severe  toil;  whose  excessive  tissue  waste  cannot 
be  repaired  even  by  an  ample  food  supply.  There  we  have  a  general 
predisposition  to  disease.     (Page  61.) 

Fatigue  seems  sometimes  to  have  closer  connections  with  the  outbreak 
of  illness,  without  its  influence  being  precisely  definable.  Again,  there 
are  cases  where  the  pathogenic  role  of  fatigue  is  more  precise  and  impor- 
tant, so  that  one  may  even  say,  given  certain  personal  predispositions,  that 
fatigue  will  determine  the  development  of  definite  diseases.  .  .  . 

But  in  general,  a  thorough  study  of  pathogenesis  shows  that  fatigue 
is  not  one  of  those  etiological  agents  whose  powerful  action  imprints  upon 
the  organism  such  an  injury  that  a  definite  disease  is  sure  to  follow.  How 
far  removed,  for  instance,  is  the  insidious  effect  that  we  have  traced,  from 
the  active  and  almost  certain  effect  of  poisons?  .  .  .  That  the  germ  of 
smallpox  alone  is  capable  of  producing  smallpox  no  one  will  deny.  Yet 
how  different  are  the  variolas  that  occur  in  exhausted  overworked  in- 
dividuals and  those  which  are  not  complicated  by  fatigue  or  any  other 
depressing  secondary  cause.     (Page  63.) 

If  fatigue  is  not  a  powerful  cause  in  the  production  of  disease,  it  is  so 
in  engendering  superadded  elements  which  are  sometimes  of  capital  im- 
portance. 

Disease  is  not  an  entity  alwa\'s  identical  with  itself.  The  simplicity  of 
doctrinal  description  is  often  lost  in  the  presence  of  the  patient.  And  it 
is  upon  the  patient  and  not  on  the  illness,  that  fatigue  exerts  its  action. 
(Page  63.) 

Handbiich    der    Hygiene.     Bd.    8^.     [Handbook    of    Hygiene.     Vol.    S'^]   GERMANY 
Edited  by   Dr.   Theodore  Weyl.     Allgemeine  Gewerbehygiene  und 
Fabrikgesetigebung.     [General  Industrial  Hygiene  and  Factory  Legis- 
lation.]    Dr.  Emil  Roth.     Jena,  1894. 

It  is  an  uncontested  fact  that  all  detrimental  conditions  of  factory 
work — whether  they  arise  from  length  of  working  hours  or  burden  of 
work,  or  from  the  close  proximity  of  many  persons  in  one  room,  or  from 
the  special  so-called  occupation  diseases, — become  obvious  just  so  m.uch 
the  sooner  and  so  much  the  more  permanently  as  the  individuals  in  ques- 


i6o 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  tion  are  less  resistant.  Thus,  of  all  the  individuals  engaged  in  a  certain 
industry  (no  matter  whether  it  is  a  question  of  handling  poison  or  dust- 
creating  materials  or  of  working  with  irritants,  or  of  the  weather  and  bad 
air,  or  of  unnatural  positions  or  overexertion  of  special  groups  of  muscles) 
— of  all  these  persons  some  will  not  suffer  in  health,  while  others  will 
suffer  after  the  lapse  of  some  years.  Still  others  in  a  much  shorter  time 
display  all  the  well-known  mischievous  effects  in  typical  forms,  either  as 
poisoning  or  as  diseases  of  specially  taxed  or  specially  weak  organs,  or  as 
characteristic  crippling  and  deformity. 

The  explanation  of  this  is,  not  that  the  first  and  second  groups  were  less 
exposed  or  knew  better  how  to  avoid  the  dangers,  but  that  they  were 
better  protected  than  the  last  group.  This  protection  is  partly  inherited 
and  constitutional,  based  on  the  strength  of  individual  organs,  and  is 
partly  the  result  of  the  whole  standard  of  living.  .  .  .  The  more  favorable 
these  social  factors  and  the  more  obedient  to  hygienic  laws  the  whole  mode 
of  life,  the  greater  the  resisting  power  of  the  whole  organism  and  its  sep- 
arate organs  will  be.  The  more  unfavorable  those  conditions  are,  the 
less  resistant  is  the  organism.  .  .  .  (Pages  1-3.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Massachusetts  House  Documents.  1866.  No.  98.  Report  of  Special 
Commission  on  the  Hours  of  Labor  and  the  Condition  and  Prospects  of 
the  Industrial  Classes. 

(Specific)  cases  are  not  necessary  to  show  the  injurious  effect  of  constant 
labor  at  long  hours.  .  .  .  There  may  be  serious  evils  from  constant  and 
exhausting  labor,  that  do  not  show  themselves  in  any  positive,  clearly 
defined  disease;  while  nevertheless  the  vital  forces  of  the  whole  man, 
physical  and  mental,  are  very  greatly  impaired.     (Pages  35-36.) 


Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor.     No.  75.     March,  1908. 
Industrial  Hygiene.    Geo.  M.  Kober,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

Measures  for  the  Protection  of  Wage-earners: 

One  of  the  important  predisposing  causes  to  disease  is  overwork  or 
fatigue,  because  the  accumulation  of  waste  products  in  the  blood,  from 
muscular  wear  and  tear,  together  with  the  expended  nervous  energy, 
combine  to  render  the  system  more  susceptible  to  disease.  Excessive 
work  is  inimical  to  health,  and  long  hours  and  hard  work  are  calculated 
to  diminish  the  general  power  of  resistance,  and  thus  bring  about  physical 
deterioration.  Hence  the  necessity  of  laws  regulating  the  hours  of  labor 
and  the  enforcement  of  a  day  of  rest  as  contemplated  by  the  Sunday  laws. 
(Page  536.) 


FATIGUE    AND    INFECTIOUS    DISEASES  l6l 

(b)  Fatigue  and  Infectious  Diseases 

Since  overfatigue  predisposes  to  the  infectious  as  well 
as  to  general  diseases,  it  constitutes  a  danger  to  the  public 
health  through  the  spread  of  such  infections.  Excessive 
working  hours,  therefore,  which  induce  overfatigue,  are  a 

menace  not  only  to  the  individual  but  to  the  public. 


Eighth   International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.     Budapest,   GERMANY 
September,  1894.     Vol.  Ill,  Sec.  IV.     Cber  den  Einfliiss  der  Arbeits- 
leit  auf  die  Gesundheit  der  Arheiter  im  Allgemeinen.     [The  Influence 
of  Working  Hours  on  the  Health  of  Workers  in  General.]     Dr.  Emil 
Roth,  Potsdam.     Budapest,  1895. 

All  overwork — no  matter  whether  it  is  such  b\-  reason  of  its  severity  or 
excessive  degree  of  exertion  or  of  its  continuance  beyond  the  normal 
length  of  time — may  either  cause  illness:  (1)  Directl}';  as  shown  b_\'  bad 
effects  on  the  digestion  or  the  circulation.  This  results  in  a  general  dis- 
turbance of  nutrition  with  consequent  impairment  of  function  or  disease 
of  individual  organs.  Or  (2)  indirectly,  in  depressing  the  normal  power 
of  resistance  of  the  tissues,  and  thus  favoring  the  invasion  of  infectious 
bacteria.  The  lowered  resisting  power  increases  predisposition  to  disease. 
(Page  94.) 


Handhuch    der    Arheiterwohlfahrt.     Bd.    II.  [Handbook    of   the    General 

Welfare   of  the    Working   Classes.     Vol.  II.]     Edited   by    Dr.    Otto 

Da.m.mer.     Arbeiterschut^.     [Injuries   of  Occupation.]     Dr.    Ascher. 
Stuttgart,  Enke,  1903. 

Such  overworked  individuals  are  not  onl>'  completely'  incapable  of 
obeying  the  laws  of  h>'giene,  they  are  also,  on  account  of  their  lowered 
resistance  to  every  form  of  disease,  especially  the  infectious  forms,  a 
standing  menace  to  society,  a  menace  which  is  also  serious  in  regard  to 
sexual  diseases  (venereal  diseases)  both  as  to  their  immediate  and  remote 
environment.  .  .  . 

The  diminution  of  working  time  is  a  micasure  of  self-protection   de- 
manded by  the  state.     The  fear  of  lessened  production  under  shorter 
hours  has,  moreover,  never  been  realized,  hence  this  argument  is  without 
force.     (Page  79.) 
II* 


l62  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ITALY  Thirteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.     Brussels, 

1903.  Vol.  V,  Sec.  IV.  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on,  par  des 
methodes  physiologiques,  etudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres 
dans  les  diverses  professions?  Quels  sont  les  arguments  que  les  sciences 
physiologiques  et  medicates  peuvent  ou  pourraient  faire  valoir  en  faveur 
de  tel  on  tel  mode  d' organisation  du  travail?  [To  what  extent  may  fatigue 
resulting  from  occupation  be  estimated  by  physiological  methods,  and 
what  arguments  can  medical  and  physiological  science  present  in  favor 
of  special  methods  of  industrial  organisation?]  Dr.  Zaccaria  Treves, 
University  of  Turin.     Brussels,  1903. 

One  of  Lagrange's  chief  services  has  been  in  being  one  of  the  first  to 
point  out  that  the  wastes  due  to  excessive  consumption  or  the  poisonous 
materials  due  to  insufficiently  repaired  muscular  work,  accumulate  in  the 
body,  and  that  this  causes  a  greater  predisposition  and  a  lowered  resist- 
ance to  disease,  especially  infectious  maladies,  in  especially  grave  cases 
this  accumulation  may  manifest  its  presence  by  a  characteristic  sympto- 
matology.    (Page  31.) 

//  Ramaiiini.  Giornale  Italiano  di  Medicina  Sociale.  Anno  I.  Fasc.  1. 
[Italian  Journal  of  Social  Medicine.  I,  1.  January,  1907.]  An- 
tagonismi  igiemico-economici.  [The  Conflict  between  Hygiene  and 
Industry.]  Prof.  Angelo  Celli,  Director  of  the  Institute  of  Experi- 
mental Hygiene  at  Rome. 

Fatigue  also  predisposes  to  infectious  diseases.  Typhoid  for  instance 
is  much  more  easily  taken  after  excessive  and  exhausting  labor.  It  has 
even  been  proved  that  the  poison  of  fatigue  predisposes  to  disease  individ- 
uals who  might  be  able  to  resist  infection  under  other  circumstances. 
(Pages  36-37.) 

II  Ramaiiini.  Giornale  Italiano  di  Medicina  Sociale.  Anno  I .  Fasc. 
12.  [Italian  Journal  of  Social  Medicine.  I.  12.  December,  1907.] 
Nuove  ricerche  e  nuove  conquiste  nel  campo  delta  Patologia  e  dell'  Igiene. 
[New  Researches  and  Acquisitions  in  the  Pathology  and  Hygiene  of 
Labor.]     Dr.  G.  Y.  Giglioli. 

The  influence  of  overfatigue  in  inducing  predisposition  to  disease  even 
in  organisms  capable  of  resisting  infection  under  more  favorable  circum- 
stances has  been  again  demonstrated  by  Ronzani  in  some  experiments 
showing  the  diminution  of  bactericidal  power  exhibited  by  the  lungs  of 
overfatigued  animals  or  of  those  exposed  to  other  deteriorating  conditions. 


WORKING    PEOPLE    AND    NERVOUS    DISEASES  I  b3 

On  the  other  hand  the  part  which  fatigue  pla>s  in  bringing  about  ITALY 
morbid  local  conditions  and  in  rendering  the  organism  more  susceptible 
to  the  influence  of  the  poisons  used  in  manufacture  has  not  received  as 
much  attention  as  the  importance  of  the  subject  demands.  The  fact  of 
such  increased  susceptibilit}'  is  confirmed  by  man>'  clinical  observations 
especially  as  regards  toxic  neuroses.     (Page  704.) 

Bulletin  de  V Inspection  du  Travail.  Fasc.  1-2.  Ministere  du  Commerce,  FRANCE 
de  rindustrie,  des  Pastes,  et  des  Telegraphes.  Travaiix  originanx  des 
Inspecteurs.  [Bulletin  of  the  Labor  Department.  Leaflets,  1-2. 
Original  Contrihutions  of  the  Inspectors.]  Le  Repos  Hehdoviadaire. 
[The  Weekly  Rest  Day.]  M.  de  Las  Casas.  Paris,  Imprimerie 
Nationale,  1907. 

Ph}'sicians  and  hygienists  declare  that  the  man  who  does  not  rest 
sins  against  his  own  health;  that  he  is  guilty  of  slow  suicide  and  shortens 
appreciably  the  years  of  life  that  nature  meant  him  to  have.  Doctors 
say,  too,  that  the  man  who  works  but  does  not  rest,  is  more  susceptible 
than  others  to  the  epidemic  diseases  which  are  prevalent  in  industrial 
centres,  and  they  add,  finally,  that  such  a  man,  if  he  is  actually  attacked 
by  such  maladies,  offers  less  resistance  to  them  and  is  more  like!}'  to  suc- 
cumb.    (Page  146.) 


Travail  et  Plaisir.     [Work  and  Enjoyment.]     Charles   Fere,   Doctor  of 
Medicine.     Paris,  Alcan,  1904, 

Fatigue,  no  matter  how  produced,  plays  an  important  role  in  the  de- 
velopment of  numerous  diseases  by  dimmishing  resistance  to  infectious 
or  toxic  agents.     (Page  442.) 


(c)  Liability  of  Working  People  to  Nervous  Diseases 

Overfatigue  from  excessive  working  hours  not  only 
renders  overtaxed  workers  susceptible  to  general  and  infec- 
tious diseases,  it  predisposes  them  eflfectually  to  more  subtle 
nervous  disorders,  especially  neurasthenia  in  its  various 
forms.  Nervous  exhaustion,  considered  until  recently  an 
ailment   of  brain  workers   and   the  well-to-do   solelv,   has 


FRANCE 


164 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


been  found  by  physicians  and  physiologists  to  be  alarm- 
ingly prevalent  among  industrial  workers,  subject  to  the 
strain  of  overlong  hours.  Overexertion  from  excessive 
work,  combined  with  the  strain  of  continuing  at  work 
after  fatigue  has  set  in,  brings  on  such  nervous  derange- 
ments, which  exhibit  among  working  people  exactly  the 
same  clinical  appearance  as  among  other  classes  of  society. 


ITALY  Thirteenth  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.     Brussels,  1903.     Vol.  V, 

Sec.  IV.  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on,  par  des  methodes  physiolo- 
giques,  etudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres  dans  les  diverses  pro- 
fessions? Quels  sont  les  arguments  que  les  sciences  physiologiques  et 
medicales  peuvent  ou  pourraient  faire  valoir  en  faveur  de  tel  on  tel  mode 
d' organisation  du  travail?  [To  what  extent  may  fatigue  resulting  from 
occupation  be  estimated  by  physiological  methods,  and  what  arguments 
can  medical  and  physiological  science  present  in  favor  of  special  methods 
of  industrial  organisation?]  Dr.  Zaccaria  Treves,  University  of 
Turin, 

^  Physicians  have  long  insisted  that  neurasthenia,  once  supposed  to  be 
exclusively  characteristic  of  intellectual  overexertion  is  extending  widely 
among  workers  whose  labor  is  mechanical  and  material.     (Page  36.) 


Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and   Demography.  Berlin, 

1907.     Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV.      Ermiidung   durch   Berufsarbeit.  [Fatigue 

as  a  Result  of  Occupation.]     Dr.  Zaccaria  Treves,  Turin.  Berlin, 
Hirschwald,  1908. 

Does  what  physicians  call  "exhaustion"  (surmenage)  really  exist  in 
the  working  population?  This  question,  which  was  not  thought  of  in  the 
earliest  studies  of  neurasthenia,  since  neurasthenic  conditions  were  sup- 
posed to  be  ailments  of  the  liberal  professions  and  those  engaged  in  intense 
intellectual  application  exclusively,  has  to-day  been  answered  by  the 
medical  profession  in  the  affirmative;  the  daily  observation  of  workers  in 
hospital  and  dispensary  has  led  to  this  conclusion.  Above  all  what  has 
led  us  to  it  is  that  the  observation  of  well-established  morbid  conditions, 
the  study  of  their  etiology  and  course,  has  disclosed  among  workers  who 
might  easily  pass  for  normal  a  variety  of  circumstances  favorable  to  the 
invasion  of  these  maladies  and  to  general  morbidity;  circumstances,  all 
of  which  are  ultimately  linked  with  the  problem  of  fatigue. 


WORKING    PEOPLE    AND    NERVOUS    DISEASES  165 

From  this  knowledge  have  proceeded  all  the  efforts  made  by  hygienists 
to  ameliorate  the  general  conditions  of  existence  in  and  out  of  the  factory, 
to  plan  for  insurance,  etc.  .  .  .  to  shorten  hours  of  labor,  to  limit  the  work 
of  women  and,  above  all,  of  children. 

Thence  have  resulted  all  those  ameliorations  which,  as  proved  by 
statistics,  have  had  substantial  results  for  good.  To-day,  in  fact,  we 
possess,  in  the  practical  field  of  industrial  enterprise,  extensive  proofs 
that  it  is  possible  to  introduce  along  with  technical  improvements  a  more 
logical  organization  of  hours  and  wages,  which  allows  a  certain  improve- 
ment of  the  physical,  moral,  economic,  and  mental  conditions  of  the 
worker,  or,  in  other  words,  an  increase  of  his  productive  capacity,  and  the 
output  of  industry. 

The  reports  which  we  have  heard  (Roth  and  others)  here  prove  con- 
clusively that  overstrain  resulting  from  occupation  does  exist;  that  it  is 
also  entirely  possible  to  combat  it :  there  is,  in  short,  a  problem  of  over- 
work. (Pages  626-627.)  This  overstrain  which  physiologists,  psycholo- 
gists, clinicians,  and  above  all  nerve  specialists  and  alienists,  encounter 
so  often  as  to  be  no  longer  deceived  by  it,  does  not  present  a  well-defined 
morbid  picture;  but  it  is  a  slow  deviation,  often  obscured  by  its  very  slow- 
ness, and  predisposing  to  illness  of  any  nature;  it  is  the  borderland  of 
illness. 

There  are  physical  manifestations  of  general  or  localized  muscular 
weakness;  signs  of  incertitude  or  of  awkwardness  in  rapid  and  rhythmical 
movements;  insomnia  or  troubled  restless  sleep;  atony  of  digestive  or- 
gans, irregularity  of  pulse,  vertigo,  nausea,  pain,  troubles  of  motor  and 
vaso-motor  reflexes;  there  are  the  most  capricious  manifestations  in  the 
psychic  realm.  ... 

The  differences  in  objective  symptoms  will  depend  on  the  organ  that 
may  be  especially  overtaxed  in  the  overworked  individual  under  considera- 
tion, but  such  differences  must  not  deceive  us  as  to  the  essence  of  over- 
strain, which  is  always  the  result  of  insufficient  nutrition — in  the  earliest 
phases  insufficient  only,  in  the  advanced  stages  abnormal.  We  must 
keep  this  general  proposition  before  our  eyes  always,  in  order  to  under- 
stand the  phenomenon  of  overstrain,  especially  in  order  to  comprehend  it 
in  the  working  class,  more  particularly  in  those  attached  to  highly  special- 
ized industries.  For  in  these  persons  one  does  not  observe  such  extreme 
evidences  of  fatigue  in  the  physiological  meaning  of  the  word  as  cam  be 
experimentally  exhibited  in  the  laboratory,  and  consequently  we  shall 
fail  to  explain  the  chronic  symptoms  of  fatigue  in  them  if  we  do  not  recall 
their  whole  mode  of  life,  as  determined  by  their  occupational  environment, 
as  well  in  the  mill  or  factory  as  out  of  it.     (Pages  627-628.) 


ITALY 


l66  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ITALY  We  will  endeavor  to  decide  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  voluntary 

work,  what  are  the  physiological  sources  of  overstrain.  Acute  as  well  as 
chronic  fatigue  cannot  be  gauged  solely  by  the  output  of  workers.  1  agree 
(with  a  previous  speaker)  that  one  is  not  struck  by  signs  of  overfatigue 
or  exhaustion  among  workers  in  shops  and  factories,  and  that  such  workers 
do  not  reach  such  a  point  that  they  absolutely  cannot  control  their  motions 
or  concentrate  their  attention — excepting  those  in  certain  lines  of  work 
which  demand  very  rapid  motions.  .  .  .  But  it  must  be  recalled,  from  the 
physiological  standpoint,  that  the  production  of  voluntary  work,  whether 
mental  or  manual,  follows  a  curve  essentially  different  from  the  curve  of 
organic  fatigue.  .  .  .  The  oscillations  of  the  will  (urging  on  a  fatigued 
workman)  varying  with  the  interest  which  work  inspires,  have  the  effect 
of  intensifying  application  and  minimizing  the  sensation  of  effort,  thus 
concealing  fatigue.  I  believe  that  these  volitional  curves — oscillations 
of  the  will — which  have  to-day  a  more  definite  significance  than  formerly 
in  experimerital  psychology,  constitute  in  their  entirety  the  complete 
psychic  personality  of  the  individual  and  the  reason  for  different  capacities 
of  production  and  of  resistance.  In  the  exaltation  or  the  depression  of  this 
personality,  with  resultant  changes  in  the  organs,  and  the  subjective  ills 
which  warn  the  individual  of  these  organic  changes,  is  found  the  complete 
picture  of  overstrain;  that  is  to  say,  of  work  done  in  a  state  of  exertion 
where  there  is  a  more  or  less  marked  and  persistent  disproportion  between 
the  usefulness  of  the  work  in  itself  and  in  the  worker's  estimate,  on  the  one 
hand;  and  the  amount  of  energy  and  will  power  expended  on  it,  on  the 
other  hand.  When,  however,  in  the  industrial  field,  such  a  degree  of 
fatigue  is  reached  that  the  workers  can  appreciate  it  by  a  difference  in 
output,  it  cannot  be  concluded  that  they  have  the  power  of  instinctive 
self-protection  to  guard  against  the  premonitory  onset  of  fatigue;  that 
depends,  obviously,  on  the  conditions  of  the  contract  of  labor.  As  a 
physiologist,  I  believe  that  even  if  these  fatigued  workers  produce  less, 
this  production,  diminished  as  it  is,  costs  the  workers  more  dear  than  their 
previous  labor;  the  more  so  because  a  moderate  degree  of  fatigue  has  the 
effect,  with  many  persons,  of  a  general  stimulus  of  the  nervous  factors 
involved  in  work.  Here  we  have  indeed  the  crux  of  the  whole  question. 
If  the  physical  cost  of  the  long  hours  and  overstrain  which  characterize 
unintelligent  industrial  organizations  were  directly  and  proportionately 
evident,  both  in  the  sensation  of  fatigue  and  in  the  output  of  the  industry 
individual  and  collective,  the  problem  of  fatigue,  as  a  result  of  industrial 
labor,  would  in  my  opinion  have  been  solved  long  ago,  instead  of  being 
obscured  by  the  illusory  profits  of  long  hours  and  insufficient  wages. 
(Pages  629-630.) 


WORKING    PEOPLE    AND    NERVOUS    DISEASES  167 

Zeitschrift  fiir  pddagogische   Psychologic,    Pathologie   und  Hygiene.     IV.   GERMANY 
Der  Einfluss  des  Grosssiddttschen  Lehens  und  des   Verkehrs  auf  das 
Nervensystem.     [The  Infliieiice  of  the  Life  and  Rush  of  Great  Cities  on 
the  Nervous  System.]     Albert  .Moll.     Berlin,  1902. 

Nervous  diseases  are  not  unknown  among  laborers  and  all  those  whose 
work  is  with  their  muscles;  indeed,  they  occur  here  more  frequentl}-  than 
is  often  supposed.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  nervous  system  shares 
in  every  act  of  muscular  exertion — muscles  cannot  act  without  nerves. 
As,  however,  the  ordinary  day  laborer  does  not  make  as  intensive  or  as 
strenuous  a  demand  upon  his  nervous  s\'stem  as  does  the  brain  worker, 
the  more  frequent  occurrence  of  nervous  diseases  among  the  latter  is 
readily  explainable.  Ordinary  working  men  are  rendered  more  liable  to 
nervous  disorders  by  being  exposed  to  definite  conditions  which  are  harm- 
ful to  the  nervous  system,  and  long  hours  of  work  must  be  placed  in  this 
category  because,  as  weariness  becomes  more  pronounced,  the  nervous 
effort  induced  by  the  will  power  must  be  constantlx'  greater  in  order  to 
overcome  or  resist  fatigue. 

Numerous  cases  of  neurasthenia  may  be  observed  among  the  workers 
in  home  industries,  either  in  town  or  country. 

Whenever  an  unremitting  home  industry  is  carried  on  where  men, 
women,  and  children  toil  not  only  all  day,  but  part  of  the  night  in  close, 
narrow  quarters,  .  .  .  there  we  shall  find  miserable,  anemic  bodies  with 
every  symptom  of  nervous  enfeeblement,  in  the  greatest  numbers. 

In  general,  many  cases  come  under  observation  where  sleep  has  been 
insufficient,  or,  by  nature  of  the  occupation,  irregular,  as  with  waiters 
and  railroad  men.  And  also,  as  Mobius  has  correctl\'  pointed  out  and 
emphasized,  those  workers  are  especially  liable  to  nervous  disease  whose 
tasks  require  an  excessive  precision,  excessive  attention  to  fine  details, 
this  making  exhausting  demands  upon  the  nervous  centres.     (Page  127.) 


Uher  die  Ursachen  der  N eurasthenie  und  Hysteric  hei  Arheitern.  [The 
Causes  of  Neurasthenia  and  Hysteria  among  Working  People.]  Paul 
ScHONHALS.  A  Study  of  200  Cases  in  the  IVorhingman' s  Sanitarium 
at  Schonow  Zchlendorf.     Berlin,  1906. 

The  opinion  that  nervous  affections  resulting  from  mental  overstrain 
are  confined  to  the  well-to-do  classes  has  long  been  disproved  b_\'  practical 
experience.  It  was  however,  for  a  long  time,  not  easy  to  bring  ample 
proofs  that  the  lower  working  classes  shared  to  a  considerable  extent  in 
the  distribution  of  nervous  diseases,  because  such  data  lav  soleh'  in  the 


i68 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY        hands  of  private  practitioners  or  hospitals.     The  State  compulsory  in- 
surance has  now  given  the  needed  opportunity.     (Pages  5-6.) 

Amtliche  Mitiheilungen  atis  den  Jahres-Bericlten  der  Geu-erbe-Aufsichts- 
heamien.  XXII .  1897.  [Official  Information  from  Reports  of  the 
{German)  Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,  Bruer,  1898. 

Hours  of  work  in  the  industrial  establishments  of  Reuss  i.  L.  are,  on 
an  average,  WjA.  Nervous  diseases  and  lung  diseases  are  stated  to  be 
the  results  of  occupation.  The  same  diseases  have  been  observed  by  the 
officers  of  the  sickness  insurance  department  in  Chemnitz  to  be  the  conse- 
quences of  the  long  hours  (amounting  to  13)  of  the  mill  hands;  in  this 
connection  a  workman  said  that  the  prolonged  hours  of  work  were  sense- 
less, when  one  considered  the  inevitable  destruction  of  strength.  The 
establishment  of  a  maximum  day  was  a  mandate  of  hygiene.     (Page  242.) 

ITALY  //  Rama^'ini.     Giornale  Italiano  di  Medicina  Sociale.  Anno  I-Fasc.  1. 

[Italian  Journal  of  Social  Medicine,  I.  1.  January,  1907.]  An- 
tagonismi  igienico-economici.  [The  Conflict  between  Hygiene  and 
Industry.]  Prof.  Angelo  Celli,  Member  of  Parliament,  Director  of 
the  Institute  of  Experimental  Hygiene  at  Rome. 

In  normal  work,  an  equal  balance  between  assimilation  and  elimination 
is  maintained  in  the  muscular  system.  When  this  limit  is  passed  fatigue 
results.  Fatigue  develops  an  actual  and  active  poison,  and  its  influence 
is  manifest  not  only  in  the  muscular  system,  but  in  the  respiratory,  cir- 
culatory and  nervous  system.  Excessive  labor  may  lead  to  neurasthenia. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  result  may  follow  excessive  muscular  labor,  as 
well  as  intellectual  effort.  The  nervous  s\stem  is  more  slowly  influenced 
by  fatigue,  which  increases  the  danger  of  neurasthenia.  In  many  cases 
indeed  the  effects  harmful  to  the  muscular  system  are  combined  with 
those  affecting  the  nervous  system  when  the  gravest  results  follow. 
Many  trades  lead  to  muscular  and  nervous  exhaustion,  which  is  in  fact 
one  of  the  most  serious  evils  of  our  civilization.     (Page  36.) 

//  Ramai^ini.  Giornale  Italiano  di  Medicina  Sociale.  Anno  I-Fasc.  12. 
[Italian  Journal  of  Social  Medicine,  1-12,  December,  1907.]  Nuovo 
ricerche  e  nuove  conquiste  nel  campo  della  Paiologia  e  dell'  Igiene. 
[Nev:  Researches  and  Acquisitions  in  the  Pathology  and  Hygiene  of 
Labor.]     Dr.  G.  Y.  Giglioli. 

In  a  critical  study  of  the  first  International  Congress  on  the  Diseases 
of  Labor,  I  have  described  the  evolution  of  the  medical  study  of  health 


WORKING    PEOPLE    AND   NERVOUS    DISEASES  169 

conditions  as  they  concern  the  wage-earning  classes.  I  attempted  to  Italy 
show  how  the  first  vague  Ramazzinian  conception  of  trade  diseases  has 
developed  into  the  wider  and  more  definite  theory  of  the  pathology  of 
labor.  This  most  important  division  of  social  medicine  has  developed  in 
a  very  short  time  into  a  well  organized  and  distinct  study.  It  is  not,  nor 
does  it  tend  to  become,  what  is  popularly  called  a  "specialt}',"  but  it  has 
the  dignity  of  being  considered  the  most  modern  branch  of  medical  study, 
and  has  its  ardent  expounders,  clinics,  laboratories,  and  students. 

It  is  a  very  modern  development,  stimulated  by  the  most  recent  scien- 
tific researches  and  acquisitions  in  hygiene,  economics  and  politics. 
Through  it,  new  methods  of  study  have  developed,  by  which  not  only  the 
typical  "diseases  of  labor,"  but  all  the  factors  which  bear  upon  the  health 
conditions  of  wage  earners  are  estimated  and  studied  clinically  and  experi- 
mentally. 

.  .  .  Modern  pathology  thus  unites  studies  of  fatigue  and  nutrition 
with  the  most  recent  theories  of  predisposition  to  infection  induced  in 
formerly  healthy  organisms.  It  reconciles  the  very  latest  theories  of 
neuro-pathology  with  the  latest  ideas  about  the  neurasthenics  of  labor. 
While  it  does  not  attempt  to  invade  the  other  branches  of  medicine,  it 
does  draw  from  them  facts  and  data  with  which  to  reinforce  its  own  postu- 
lates on  social  economic  matters.  This  most  modern  development  may 
appear  to  some  too  vague  and  general,  to  others  too  restricted,  but  it  is 
certainly  gaining  ground  and  growing  continually  more  complete  and 
definite. 

There  have  been  many  valuable  contributions  to  the  pathology  and 
hygiene  of  labor  of  an  experimental,  clinical,  and  legislative  nature  in  the 
last  few  months.     (Pages  699-700.) 


id)  Nervous  Diseases  and  Statistics  of  Foreign  Sickness  Insurance 

Societies 

The  close  causal  relation  between  overfatigue  and  ner- 
vous diseases  is  illustrated  by  the  statistics  of  foreign  sick- 
ness insurance  societies.  Close  medical  observation  of 
working  people  receiving  state  treatment  or  sick  pay  in 
Germany  has  shown  that  nervous  diseases  have  increased 
alarmingly  among  them  during  the  last  decade.  Medical 
study  of  individuals  shows  further  that  among  the  causes 
of  nervous  breakdown  the  most  effective  is  precisely  the 


lyO  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ITALY  Strain  of  industrial  occupations,  characterized,  as  they  are, 
by  speed  and  monotony  of  repetition.  The  prevalence 
of  neurasthenia  and  nervous  disorders  is  so  widespread 
that  they  are  designated  by  physicians  abroad  as  modern 
occupation  diseases.  Curtailment  of  excessive  working 
hours  is  declared  a  physiological  necessity. 

Since  speed  and  specialization  are  admittedly  greater 
in  American  industry  than  in  any  other,  it  is  certain  that 
medical  observation  of  working  people  in  this  country  must 
disclose  an  even  greater  prevalence  of  nervous  exhaustion. 

GERMANY  Cher  die  Wachsende  Nervositdt  Unserer  Zeit.  [The  Increase  of  Nervousness 
in  our  Times.]  Dr.  Wilhelm  Erb,  Heidelberg  University.  Heidel- 
berg, Koester,  1894. 

In  all  grades  of  society  .  .  .  among  the  poor  and  wretched,  also,  neuras- 
thenia is  clearly  a  more  widespread  evil  than  formerly.  It  is  to  be  found 
in  shocking  frequency  not  only  among  educated  men,  officials  .  .  .  rail- 
road and  telegraph  employers  .  .  .  but  also  among  factory  workers, 
sewing  women,  etc.     (Page  15.) 

It  only  needs  a  superficial  survey  to  teach  us  that  everything  which 
overstrains,  fatigues,  and  exhausts  the  nervous  system  is  capable  of  in- 
ducing that  condition  which  I  have  characterized  as  a  pathological  fixa- 
tion of  fatigue, — as  irritable  weakness  and  exhaustibility.     (Page  15.) 

Deutsche  Medi^inische  IVochenschrift,  Nr.  21,  25.  Mai,  1905.  Die  Neuras- 
ihenie  in  Arbeiterkreisen.  [Neurasthenia  in  the  IVorking  Classes.] 
Dr.  P.  Leubuscher  and  Dr.  W.  Bibrowicz,  formerly  of  the  Beeliti 
Sanitarium  of  the  State  Old  Age  and  Invalidity  Department  of  Berlin. 
Berlin,  1905. 

The  increase  of  diseases  of  the  nervous  system  among  working  people 
in  the  last  decade  is  a  fact  that  is  now  firmly  established  by  extensive 
and  carefully  conducted  statistical  inquiry.  This  is  most  clearly  evident 
in  respect  to  the  psychoses;  but  there  is  also  no  doubt,  in  the  minds  of 
the  most  informed  authors,  that  neurasthenia — which,  though  less  men- 
acing than  insanity  to  the  efficiency  and  labor  capacity  of  the  worker  is 
still  sufficiently  serious  in  this  respect — is  also  steadily  increasing  in  fre- 
quency and  in  severity.     (Page  820.) 

Whatever  different  causes  of  neurasthenia  may  be  brought  forward  by 


WORKING    PEOPLE    AND    NERVOUS    DISEASES  I7I 

different  authors  since  Beard  depicted  its  general  features,  there  is  one  Germany 
point  on  which  all  are  agreed;  namely,  that  the  modern  organization  of 
industry  with  all  its  factors  and  sequels  is  a  most  prolific  source  of  neuras- 
thenia. Though,  for  some  years,  not  only  the  laity,  but  also  the  chief 
medical  experts  on  neurasthenia,  as  Lowenfeld  and  Binswanger,  over- 
looked the  working  classes  in  relation  to  this  disease,  this  attitude  is  now 
radically  changed.  On  all  sides,  in  the  clinics  and  physicians'  offices, 
and  by  the  managers  of  the  large  insurance  funds,  proofs  of  the  enormous 
increase  of  neurasthenia  as  a  cause  of  inability  to  work  are  being  pre- 
sented. There  are  two  reasons  for  this  change:  1.  The  observation  of 
chronic  diseases  of  working  people  has  become  vastly  more  far-reaching 
and  exact.  2.  Altered  conditions  in  the  labor  world  have  created  an 
unusual  liability  to  acquired  nervous  troubles.  We  are  inclined  to  think 
that  both  of  these  factors  contribute,  though  not  in  the  same  proportion, 
to  the  explanation  of  the  fact. 

It  is  certain  that  the  question  of  diseases  of  working  people  has  come 
more  prominently  to  the  front  than  was  the  case  in  the  past.  And  em- 
ployers are  learning  that  the  health  and  strength  of  the  people  is  an  ad- 
vantage to  them  as  well.     (Page  821.) 

.  .  .  How  frequently  delay  in  seeking  medical  advice  may  have 
formerly  happened  is  of  course  not  possible  to  estimate.  Frequently 
enough,  without  doubt,  and  yet  we  regard  our  second  explanation  of 
increased  neurasthenia,  the  altered  conditions  of  life  and  labor,  as  of 
much  greater  weight.  Work  has  become  very  different.  Piece  work 
has  indeed  obtained  larger  wages,  but  has  developed  an  impetus  and 
speed  and  intensity  of  effort  that  used  to  be  unknown,  and  this  invariably 
crushes  the  weaker  workers,  those  for  whom  all  work  is  a  heavier  burden 
than  for  the  strong.  Continuous  anxiety  is  felt  by  these  lest  they  fall 
behind.  Then  sometimes  voluntarily,  sometimes  compulsorily,  overtime 
is  undertaken,  and  so  it  turns  out  that  the  working  hours,  instead  of  being 
comparatively  shorter  than  the  usual  day,  are  really  much  longer,  and  by 
reason  of  the  irregularity  far  more  exhausting.     (Page  821.) 

Thorough  and  ample  observation  bearing  on  the  forms  and  etiology  of 
neurasthenia  among  working  people  has  been  made  possible  only  by  the 
creation  of  the  great  Sanitaria  of  the  State  Insurance  Department.  When 
the  first  one,  that  at  Giitergotz,  was  built  in  1894  for  about  100  chronic 
male  cases,  the  applications  were  so  numerous  that  the  large  sanitorium 
for  220  men  and  110  women  at  Beelitz  was  next  erected. 

Of  the  patients  treated  in  these  establishments  on  an  average,  26% 
have  been  neurasthenics,  and  the  percentage  for  individual  years  has 
risen  from  18%  in  1897  to  about  40%  in  the  past  few  years.     (Page  821.) 


GERMANY 


172  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Classifications  According  to  Occupation.     Among  1564  Cases 

Typesetters  246  =  15.75%  of  the  cases 
Carpenters   148=  9.45%  "    " 
Locksmiths    77=  5.00%  "    " 
Mechanics      30=   1.09%  "    " 

(Page  821.) 

The  whole  number  of  typesetters  insured  is  about  1%  of  all  insured 
persons;  the  whole  number  of  carpenters,  about  5%.  When  this  propor- 
tion is  considered,  the  percentage  of  neurasthenic  cases  among  typesetters 
— 15.75%  of  all  neurasthenic  cases— is  most  striking,  while  that  of  the 
carpenters, — 9.45%, — though  high,  is  not  quite  so  disproportionate. 
Oppenheim  also  points  out  the  frequency  of  neurasthenia  among  news- 
paper typesetters.     (Page  822.) 

We  wish  to  suggest  that  a  key  to  explain  the  great  increase  of  neu- 
rasthenia among  workers  generally  in  our  great  cities  may  be  found  in  the 
unusually  large  number  of  cases  in  the  above-mentioned  trades.  We 
have  here  to  do  with  classes  of  workmen  who  stand  perhaps  highest  among 
their  associates. 

.  .  .  The  typesetter  must  follow  with  strained  attentiveness  an  occupa- 
tion of  indescribable  monotony,  for  the  speed  to  which  he  is  forced  de- 
stroys all  meaning  of  what  he  sets. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  work  of  many  mechanics,  who  never  see  a  com- 
pleted piece  of  work  go  out  of  their  hands,  who  only  make  a  part  of  some 
whole.  But  here  we  have  to  do  with  the  best  of  our  modern  city  work- 
ingmen  and  their  growing  claims,  not  only  for  material  but  also  for 
spiritual  things.  What  to  the  common  workman  is  only  work,  should  be 
a  calling  to  every  true  craftsman,  and  this  can  no  longer  be  the  case. 
(Page  822.) 

He  who  is  not  strong  and  enjoying  the  vigor  of  health  must  under 
these  conditions  become  neurasthenic.  When  workingmen  have  an 
occupation  which  brings  with  it  a  certain  pleasure  there  is,  according  to 
our  observations,  little  trace  of  neurasthenia  to  be  found.  Such  is,  for 
instance,  the  case  with  painters,  who  in  spite  of  the  distinctly  unfavorable 
circumstance  of  liability  to  lead  poisoning  are  seldom  neurotic. 

The  influence  of  uncongenial  work  is  naturally  intensified  by  cares, 
illness — troubles  to  which  the  worker  and  his  family  are  constantly  ex- 
posed— and  yet,  contrary  to  what  one  might  expect,  the  latter  causes 
alone  have  been,  in  our  experience,  insignificant  in  accounting  for  neuras- 
thenia. But  almost  always  in  answer  to  the  question,  "What  caused 
your  illness?"  comes  the  reply,  "The  hard  work."     (Page  822.) 

We  must  here  state  plainly  that  as  to  clinical  appearances  we  have 
found  nothing  to  differentiate  the  neurasthenic  workingman   from   the 


WORKING    PEOPLE    AND    NERVOUS    DISEASES  173 

neurasthenic  patient  of  any  other  social  class.     The  symptoms  and  con-  GERMANY 
ditions  are  the  same  for  both.     (Page  824.) 

The  most  important  curative  factors  for  our  city  wage-earners,  as 
well  as  for  the  patients  of  the  middle  and  higher  classes,  are,  removal 
from  the  monotony  of  their  work,  often  also  from  painful  family  condi- 
tions, the  opportunity  to  enjoy  from  time  to  time  the  pleasures  of  a  fairly 
comfortable  existence,  freedom,  air,  and  light.     (Page  824.) 

The  dangers  threatening  the  health  and  well-being  of  the  nation  from 
the  increase  in  nervous  diseases,  though  not  recognized  by  all,  have  yet 
been  emphasized  by  many  experts,  in  recent  years. 

Pelman,  Mobius,  Grohmann,  Laehr,  Determann,  Cramer,  and  Wind- 
scheid  have  energetically  promoted  the  combating  of  neurasthenia  among 
workingmen,  and  the  influence  of  the  State  Insurance  Department  and 
the  large  private  benefit  societies  tends  to  agitate  the  question  more  and 
more  generally.     (Page  825.) 

VerwaltungshericU  der  Landes-Versicherungsanstalt  Berlin,  fiir  das  Jahr 
1906.  [Report  of  the  State  Invalidity  and  Old  Age  Insurance  Depart- 
ment for  Berlin,  for  1906.]  Report  of  the  Physician-in-Chief  of  the 
Beeliti  Sanatorium.     {Tuberculosis  not  included.) 

In  the  course  of  the  year,  1655  men  and  824  women  were  treated.  .  .  . 

By  far  the  largest  number  of  the  patients  were  nervous  cases,  and  those 
suffering  from  gouty  diathesis  and  articular  rheumatism,  cardiac  and 
stomach  diseases  also  took  an  important  place.  Of  the  cardiac  cases, 
aside  from  valvular  troubles,  most  suffered  from  myocarditis,  hyper- 
trophy of  the  heart,  weakness  of  heart,  dilatation  or  a  complication  of  the 
last  two  disorders,  that  naturally  presented  a  markedly  severe  type  of 
illness.  .  .  , 

Forty  per  cent  showed  simple,  idiopathic  hypertrophies,  35  per  cent 
were  neuroses  of  the  heart,  10  per  cent  dilatations,  and  10  per  cent  pri- 
mary weakness  of  the  heart. 

Along  with  the  major  cardiac  neuroses  there  is  also  seen,  among  the 
working  people  of  Berlin,  as  a  result  of  overwork,  an  extremely  prevalent 
neurasthenia,  which  is  more  or  less  a  concomitant  of  heart  disease;  the 
features  of  this  latter  reveal  the  frequency  of  maladies  to  which  special 
trades,  such  as  typesetters  (compositors)  are  specially  predisposed.  .  .  . 
(Page  61.) 

Of  the  1450  (1410)  men  patients  who  were  discharged,  748  (684)  or 
52  (49)  per  cent — over  one-half — were  nervous  cases,  whose  breakdown 
was  in  the  majority  of  cases  directly  due  to  their  overworking  in  their 


174 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  various  occupations;  ...  Of  the  women  discharged  one-fourth  were 
anaemic  or  chlorotic,  or,  in  exact  figures,  176  (194)  in  734  (682)  patients. 
Nervous  exhaustion  and  nervous  diseases  were  even  more  prominent, 
namely,  299  (261),  or  over  one-third  of  all  the  female  patients  belonged 
in  this  class.     (Page  67.) 

Ibid.     For  the  year  1909. 

During  the  past  year  the  patients  discharged  from  the  Beelitz  Sani- 
tarium numbered,  men  1815,  women  803.  Of  this  whole  number  1707 
men  (94  per  cent)  and  762  women  (95  per  cent)  were  restored  to  earning 
capacity. 

As  was  the  case  last  year,  nervous  ailments  predominated  among  the 
men,  the  most  frequent  form  of  nervous  illness  being  neurasthenia. 

Of  the  1815  male  patients  1206,  in  round  numbers  almost  70  per  cent, 
were  nervous  cases,  and,  while  in  some  the  exciting  cause  of  breakdown 
might  be  variously  explained,  in  by  far  the  largest  proportion  it  arose 
from  the  overstrain  of  their  daily  labor. 

Of  the  female  cases  more  than  one-seventh,  or  128  of  803  were  anaemic 
and  chlorotic,  and  one-half  of  all  the  women  suffered  from  nerve  strain, 
whatever  other  complications  were  present.     (Page  112.) 

The  seriousness  of  nervous  disorders  to  wage-earners  may  be  seen  in  the 
following  figures  showing  the  entire  number  of  days  lost  from  work  by  sick- 
ness. The  total  number,  which  is  here  reproduced,  includes  all  the  time 
from  when  the  patients  first  stopped  work,  and  the  time  spent  in  sani- 
tarium. To  emphasize  the  figures,  a  few  only  of  the  other  most  serious  dis- 
ease groups  are  shown  in  comparison.* 


Disease  Groups 


Infections 

Poisonings 

Malnutrition 

Skin,  muscles,  joints,  etc. 

Digestive  troubles 

Nervous  disorders 


Whole  Number  of  Working  Days 

Lost  from  Time  of  Cessation  of 

Work  to  Time  of  Discharge 

FROM  Sanitarium 


Men 

IVomen 

60 

373 

1,259 

• 

2,773 

7,861 

5,177 

935 

3,425 

2,057 

44,965 

25,075 

"The  whole  table  is  not  reproduced. 


(Page  112.) 


WORKING    PEOPLE    AND    NERVOUS    DISEASES  1 75 

Zeitschrift  fiir  Klinische  Medi-in.  Bd.  60.  1906.  Aus  dem  Sanatorium 
der  Landes-Versicherungsanstalt  Berlin  in  Beelii-.  Cher  Her-er- 
krankungen  in  der  Berliner  Arheiterhevolkerung.  [Heart  Disease 
among  the  Working  People  of  Berlin.]  Dr.  Lubenau,  Assistant 
Physician  in  the  Beelii^  Sanatorium  of  the  Old  Age  and  Invalidity 
Insurance  Department  of  Berlin.     Berlin,  1906. 

...  Of  the  cardiac  cases  here  treated,  the  number  of  neuroses  of  the 
heart  and  of  simple,  idiopathic  hypertrophies  preponderated  greatly, 
being  35  per  cent  for  the  former,  and  40  per  cent  for  the  latter.  Dilata- 
tions of  the  heart  followed,  some  of  them  primary,  a  few  resulting  from 
cardiac  hypertrophy,  other  cases  of  primary  weakness  of  the  heart  (De- 
bilitas  cordis)  with  10  per  cent. 

The  essential  purpose  of  this  work  is  to  show  how  cardiac  diseases 
develop  in  working  people  as  a  result  of  injurious  conditions  of  labor,  and 
therefore,  beside  hypertrophies  and  dilatations,  only  those  diseases  are 
considered  in  whose  origin  occupational  and  industrial  dangers  play  a 
more  or  less  leading  part,  and  which,  therefore,  according  to  this  origin, 
may  be  properly  designated  as  genuine  working-class  diseases. 

Dilatations  resulting  from  the  drink  habit  are  excluded.  (Pages  134- 
135.) 

In  coming  to  the  class  of  cardiac  neuroses  it  is  to  be  remarked  that 
nervous  affections  of  the  heart  among  Berlin  workmen  are  very  common, 
as  may  be  inferred  from  the  extraordinary  prevalence  of  neurasthenia. 
(Page  136.) 

It  has  been  found  that  when  these  workers  are  removed  from  the 
enormous  competition  and  rush  of  the  city,  overstrained  working  energy 
soon  fails.  This  continuous  over.vork  is  the  cause  of  the  general  and 
often  grave  neurasthenia,  as  has  been  recently  shown  in  an  instructive 
article.  (Leubuscher  und  Bibrowicz,  "Die  Neurasthenie  in  Arbeiter- 
kreisen.")     (Page  137.) 

In  most  of  these  cases  of  simple  neurasthenia,  nervous  affections  of  the 
heart  are  the  rule.  There  is  the  sensation  of  palpitations,  pain  in  the 
region  of  the  heart,  a  feeling  of  great  anxiety,  and  shortness  of  breath  after 
exertion.  Such  diseases  have  serious  importance  for  workers  on  account 
of  cardiac  complication.     (Page  137.) 

The  cases  described  above  are  limited  to  those  in  which  the  heart 
symptoms  of  nervous  origin  present  the  dominating  features  and  which, 
therefore,  may  be  regarded  purely  as  cases  of  cardiac  neuroses. 

The  causative  factors  of  such  maladies,  as  in  general  neurasthenia, 
may  be  admittedly  of  manifold  kinds;  yet  it  is  worthy  of  especial  mention, 


GERMAinr 


176  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  in  Considering  cases  here  reported,  that  the  cause  of  sickness  was  re- 
peatedly ascribed  to  the  definitely  injurious  influences  of  the  patients' 
work,  to  physical  or  mental  overstrain  or  anxiety  of  one  kind  or  another 
in  connection  with  occupation.     (Page  137.) 

The  tendency  of  cases  of  cardiac  neuroses  to  relapse  must  be  pointed 
out:  Certain  of  our  cases  show  this  tendency  very  interestingly.  With 
some,  after  treatment  m  the  sanatorium,  light  employment  was  per- 
mitted, and  by  the  strict  avoidance  of  physical  overstrain  the  disease  then 
followed  a  favorable  course.  In  other  cases  invalidism  was  declared,  and 
the  invalidity  pension  secured.  These,  also,  showed  a  gratifying  improve- 
ment as  the  result  of  relief  from  exertion  and  the  saving  of  strength. 

Mental  as  well  as  physical  overstrain  frequently  results  in  cardiac 
neuroses.  The  patients  of  this  class  are  recruited  from  salesclerks, 
bookkeepers,  secretaries,  machinists,  and  telephone  clerks. 

Printers  (typesetters)  especially  are  numerously  represented  in  this 
category,  for  the  acuter  forms  of  neurasthenia  in  general  are  extraordi- 
narily widespread  among  them.  The  night  work  necessary  in  this  occu- 
pation, and  the  ever  more  exacting  piecework,  exhibit  a  steady  tendency 
to  strain  the  nerve-energy  of  the  individual  to  its  very  uttermost  limit. 
(Page  139.) 

uber  die  Ursachen  der  Neitrasthenie  und  Hysteric  bei  Arheitern.  [The 
Causes  of  Neurasthenia  and  Hysteria  among  iVorking  People.]  Paul 
ScHONHALS.  Berlin,  1906.  A  Study  of  200  Cases  in  the  Working- 
man's  Sanitarium  at  Schonow  Zehlendorf. 

.  .  .  Another  group  of  injurious  factors  is  to  be  found  in  the  work 
itself.  In  all,  45  cases,  or  almost  22.5  per  cent,  gave  physical  overstrain 
from  work  as  the  prime  cause  of  illness,  and  here  the  piecework  system 
seemed  to  play  an  especially  injurious  part.  In  15  cases  I  concluded  that 
piecework  was  the  original  cause  of  the  breakdown,  and  in  10  of  these 
cases  I  could  discover  no  other  contributory  factor.  Four  of  the  others 
had  some  slight  hereditary  predisposition,  and  the  overstrain  here  acted 
as  the  excitant  of  disease.  The  fifth  had  returned  to  piecework  after 
several  brief  illnesses,  until  he  finally  became  permanently  overstrained. 

Thus,  to  repeat,  5  per  cent  of  all  the  cases  of  neurasthenia  were  trace- 
able entirely  to  the  overstrain  of  piecework,  with  no  other  discoverable 
cause  for  illness. 

This  is  a  high  figure,  but  whoever  has  been  inside  of  a  factory  and  has 
observed  the  prodigious  rapidity  of  the  pace  of  work  there,  and  the  fore- 
sight and  attention  which  each  worker  must  exercise,  will  be  able  to  esti- 


WORKING    PEOPLE    AND    NERVOUS    DISEASES  1 77 

mate  correctl>"  the  wearing  nature  of  piecework.  It  is  not  alone  the  ph\-si- 
cal  strain,  but  in  a  high  degree  the  psychic  factor  that  must  be  taken  into 
consideration.  It  is  the  nervous  tension  and  strain  that  is  felt  b}'  the 
workers  themselves  to  be  the  hardest  feature  of  their  work.  Few  can 
long  endure  such  work.  One  patient  had  done  piecework  from  his  eigh- 
teenth to  the  forty-sixth  year.  He  was  an  exception.  .Most  workers  can 
only  keep  it  up  for  four  to  five  years,  then  seek  something  easier. 

Even  night  work  is  not  quite  as  harmful.  In  eight  cases  I  found  it 
(night  work)  as  one  cause,  but  onl\'  three  cases  where  night  work  was  the 
exclusive  cause  of  disease.  In  the  other  five,  it  was,  it  is  true,  the  chief 
cause,  yet  other  slightl>-  predisposing  conditions  were  also  present.  (Pages 
14-15.) 

Among  twenty-two  cases  caused  by  unfavorable  conditions  of  work, 
fourteen  showed  that  overstrain  in  work,  especially  where  overtime  was 
required,  was  chiefly  responsible  for  the  breakdown,  while  other  less 
prominent  factors  had  also  had  some  injurious  influence,  and  had  helped 
in  the  result.     (Page  16.) 

We  find  then  three  specially  dangerous  factors  in  the  life  of  the  worker: 
Trauma  (accident),  Alcohol,  and  Overstrain.  Other  dangers,  such  as 
ordinary  illness,  etc.,  threaten  all  classes  alike. 

What  is  to  be  done?  The  State  is  making  provision  for  accident: 
a  campaign  is  being  waged  against  alcohol:  there  remains  the  question  of 
overstrain  to  be  dealt  with.     (Pages  22-23.) 

It  is  now  generally  recognized  that  the  combination  of  ph>-sical  and 
mental  overstrain  is  especially  dangerous  for  the  nervous  system:  Artisans 
will  therefore  show  a  higher  percentage  of  nervous  disease  than  laborers, 
and  the  skilled  artisan  will  suffer  more  than  the  casual  worker  or  man  of 
all  trades  w^hose  work  is  largely  mechanical.  In  fact,  my  inquiries  showed 
that  57  per  cent  of  the  cases  were  skilled  artisans,  to  43  per  cent  of  the 
others.     (Accident  cases  are  not  included.) 

The  difi"erence  is  even  sharper  when  we  compare  the  liability  to  nervous 
diseases  among  artisans,  and  the  more  skilled  workers  with  such  liabilitv 
among  common  laborers.  The  relation  is  then  74.0  :  26.0,  as  seen  by  the 
following  table: 

1.  Artisans,  highly  skilled  57.0% 

r  skilled         17.0%     74.0% 

2.  General  Workers  43%  -;  

(.unskilled    26.0% 

(Page  24.) 

In  the  endeavor  to  find  out  what  emplo_\'ment  was  most  injurious  I 
distinguished  between  factor\-  work  and  ordinarv  business  emplo\-ment; 
12* 


GERMANY 


178  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  further,  between  public  transportation,  and  ordinary  day  labor.  I  then 
found  that  of  the  artisans,  21.0  per  cent  of  the  cases  of  illness  were  in  small 
businesses,  to  36  per  cent  in  factories.     (Page  25.) 

Of  the  general  workers,  again,  18  per  cent  were  factory  workers,  while 
transportation  showed  7.0  per  cent,  and  day  laboring  work  6.0  per  cent. 

These  last  figures  are  by  many  writers  found  to  be  higher,  but  the 
differences  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  localities  where  their  observations 
are  made.     (Page  25.) 

It  seems  indubitable  that  factory  work  considerably  outweighs  other 
occupations  in  the  sense  that  it  provides  the  greatest  number  of  factors 
tending  to  produce  the  neuroses  of  work  in  the  industrial  populations,  and 
1  am  compelled  to  conclude  that  modern  industry,  continually  developing 
as  it  is  on  more  and  more  colossal  lines,  constitutes  a  dangerous  and  potent 
cause  for  a  continuous  increase  of  neurasthenia  and  hysteria.     (Page  26.) 

Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Berlin, 
September,  1907.  Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV.  Ermiidung  dutch  Berufsarbeit. 
[Fatigue  resulting  from  Occupation.]  Dr.  Emil  Roth.  Berlin,  Hirsch- 
wald,  1908. 

Beside  the  intensity  of  work  and  other  factors,  .  .  .  there  is  still 
another  factor  to  be  considered,  whose  importance  is  universally  under- 
estimated; that  is  the  psychic  factor.  Mosso,  in  his  investigations  of  the 
law  of  fatigue  has  shown  ergographically  the  influence  of  psychic  weariness 
on  muscular  strength,  by  demonstrating  that  whenever  there  is  fatigue  of 
the  psychic  centres  there  is  always  a  resultant  corresponding  condition  of 
the  motor  centres.  In  proportion  as  physical  work  is,  at  the  same  time, 
mentally  fatiguing,  the  greater  the  attentiveness  that  it  requires,  so  much 
sooner  does  fatigue  appear. 

This  is  the  case  in  all  occupations  which  are  linked  with  special  dangers, 
and  where  especial  demands  are  made  upon  the  responsibility  of  the 
worker,  or  where  an  extreme  and  unremitting  attentiveness  is  required. 
In  this  latter  respect  shop  girls  must  again  be  cited,  for  as  a  result  of  the 
unfailing  attention  and  readiness  demanded  of  them,  they  often  fall  a 
prey  to  chronic  fatigue,  and  this  the  more  readily  accordingly  as  they 
were,  to  begin  with,  unsuited  for  their  duties. 

The  psychic  factor  is  furthermore  of  decisive  importance  for  the  work- 
ing capacity  as  such.  Even  the  skilled  workman  does  not  work  as  evenly 
as  the  machine,  but  his  capacity  displays  certain  regular,  recurrent  varia- 
tions due  to  the  psychic  factor.     (Page  611.) 

The  researches  of  Pieraccini  into  the  curve  of  work  showed  that,  with 


WORKING    PEOPLE    AND    NERVOUS    DISEASES  1 79 

the  calling  of  a  muscle  or  nerve  into  activity,  the  extent  and  certainty  of   GERMANY 
its  functioning  first  gradually  increased,  and  in  the  second  period  of  work 
was  lowered.     The  second  and  third  hours  displayed,  with  manual  workers 
('handworkers),  the  highest  point  of  achievement,  which  was  not  exceeded 
through  the  rest  of  the  whole  day. 

With  this  the  results  of  a  large  steel  and  rolling  mill  agree,  as  it  was 
there  shown  that  of  the  average  output  of  40  t,  23  /  belonged  to  the  morn- 
ing, and  17  to  the  rest  of  the  day. 

The  ps}'chic  factor  is  also  important  in  another  respect.  With  the 
progressive  division  of  labor,  work  has  become  more  and  more  mechanical. 
...  A  definite  share  of  overfatigue  and  its  sequels,  especially  neuras- 
thenia, must  be  ascribed  to  this  monotony;  to  the  absence  of  spontaneity 
or  joy  in  work.  How  alarming  the  increase  of  anaemia  and  neurasthenia 
among  working  people  has  been  in  the  past  ten  years  is  shown  by  the 
records  of  the  sick  benefit  funds,  the  polyclinics,  and  the  hospitals.  Many 
medical  and  scientific  authorities  have  emphasized  the  increase  of  neuras- 
thenia in  the  working  classes.  The  ample  materials  of  the  Berlin  State 
Insurance  Sanitarium  at  Beelitz  have  more  particularly  served  to  prove 
the  steady  increase  of  neurasthenia, — actually  from  18  per  cent  in  1897, 
to  40  per  cent  in  1904.  Similar  figures  are  shown  by  the  sanitarium  at 
Zehlendorf,  where  the  highest  percentage  of  neurotic  patients  were  hand- 
workers and  skilled  workers,  with  whom  the  combination  of  ph}-sical  and 
mental  strain  reacted  destructively  on  the  nervous  system.  .  .  .  (Pages 
613-614.) 

But  that  monotony  is  also  of  importance  in  so  far  as  it  nullifies  pleasure 
in  work,  thereby  favoring  the  onset  of  fatigue,  must  also  be  admitted  from 
a  part  of  the  statistics.  So,  according  to  a  factory  inspector,  the  effect 
of  certain  light  work  with  corset  steels,  admitting  of  no  break  for  several 
hours,  was  distinctly  fatiguing;  the  remedy  was  a  periodical  change  of 
work  for  the  employees  in  question.     (Page  615.) 

Of  greater  importance  is  the  excessive  overstrain  of  piecework,  which 
indeed  pays  better,  but  at  the  cost  of  a  speed  and  intensity  of  work  which 
was  formerly  unknown.  That  these  injurious  effects  first  assail  the  weaker 
part  of  the  working  population  is  self-evident.  My  own  observations, 
especially  in  textile  mills,  confirmed  the  frequency  of  anaemia  and  neuras- 
thenia, especially  among  young  women.     (Page  615.) 

To  estimate  more  correctly  the  influence  of  kinds  of  work,  we  may 
observe  the  results  noted  as  to  pulse  and  respiration  in  a  large  electric 
works.  Here,  in  no  case  was  heightened  pulse  or  respiration  observed  at 
the  end  of  work.  The  difference  between  this  and  textile  factory  work  is 
that  in  the  latter  the  worker  is  to  a  great  extent  dependent  on  the  machine. 


i8o 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  and  must  keep  up  with  its  speed,  while  in  the  electric  establishment  the 
workers  are,  as  a  rule,  dependent  on  the  machinery  only  to  an  extent 
which  they  determine  for  themselves.     (Page  617.) 

As  the  textile  workers  are  dependent,  at  the  mercy  of  the  machine,  so 
the  clerks  in  the  big  stores  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  public,  and  it  is  this  un- 
remitting attention,  coming  and  going,  and  nerve  strain  that  explain  the 
high  percentage  of  anaemia  that  is  continually  found  among  shop  girls  in 
these  places.     (Page  617.) 

In  a  sanitarium  where  the  members  of  the  sick  insurance  included 
shop  girls,  machine  sewing  and  dressmaking  women  and  maids  in  hotels 
and  public  houses,  among  145  who  were  chiefly  suffering  from  anaemia, 
chlorosis,  or  neurasthenia,  110  were  to  be  regarded  as  overworked. 

Of  the  145  cases  58,  not  including  home  workers,  had  a  sedentary  oc- 
cupation; 44  of  these  were  overworked;  87  had  work  involving  a  standing 
position;   66  of  these  were  overworked.     (Page  618.) 


AUSTRIA  Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.     Berlin, 

1907.  Vol.  Ill,  Sec.  VIII.  Berufs  Morhiditdt  mid  Mortalitdt. 
[The  Morbidity  and  Mortality  of  Occupations.]  Alfred  R.  von  Lind- 
HEi.M,  Vienna.     Berlin,  1908. 

Sources  of  information:  1897-01  inclusive.  The  Vienna  District 
Sickness  Insurance  Societies;  General  Workingmen's  Insurance  and  Re- 
lief Society;  Electric  Street  Railways  Insurance  Society;  eleven  Steam 
Railways  Insurance  Funds. 

1  have  endeavored  to  elucidate  the  question  of  how  far  the  increasing 
nervousness  of  modern  life  is  connected  with  occupation.  The  question 
is,  indeed,  not  a  new  one.     (Page  1293.) 

I  selected  two  occupations,  railroading  and  electric  works.  .  .  .  The 
number  investigated  reached  about  98,480  members  of  the  sick  benefit 
funds.  .  .  .  (Summary.  The  number  of  these  investigated,  98,480  in  the 
two  modern  industries,  railroading  and  electricity — including  in  the  latter 
only  those  whose  work  was  in  some  way  related  to  the  electric  current — 
was  compared  with  about  388,000  members  of  other  occupations.  Rela- 
tion of  former  to  latter,  98,480;  388,000— about  1  :  5.)  ...  It  was  evi- 
dent that  the  respiratory  organs  of  those  engaged  in  the  railroad  service 
were  much  less  endangered  than  those  of  the  industrial  workers  in  more 
sedentary  occupations  in  Vienna. 

From  various  tables  relating  to  the  two  occupations  under  examination 
it  may  be  asserted  that  these  two  modern  callings  show  a  persistently 
greater  contingent  of  nervous  diseases  than  do  other  occupations.     To 


AGES    OF    INCIDENCE  lOI 

this  is  to  be  added  that  nervous  diseases  must  be  recognized  as  occupation  AUSTRIA 
diseases  in  all  great  modern  industries.     (Page  1297.) 

These  disorders  may  with  perfect  right  be  truly  designated  as  modern 
occupation  diseases.     (Page  1299.) 

.  .  .  Nervous  diseases  are  to  be  recognized   as   most   characteristic 
phenomena  of  our  modern  industries.     (Page  1299.) 


(e)  Ages  of  Incidence 

The  need  of  protecting  health  by  restricting  working 
hours  is  often  supposed  to  be  Hmited  to  children  and  young 
girls.  The  greater  liability  of  adults  to  neurasthenia  and 
nervous  diseases  (being  highest  between  the  ages  of  twenty 
and  forty-five  years)  shows  that,  as  regards  these  diseases, 
adults  are  even  more  susceptible  than  young  girls.  Exces- 
sive working  hours,  therefore,  which  engender  overfatigue 
and  nervous  exhaustion  should  be  as  carefully  limited  for 
mature  women  as  for  the  young. 


Die  Pathologic  und  Therapie  der  Neiir asthenic .     [Pathology  and  Therapeutics   GERMANY 
of  Neurasthenia.]     Dr.  Otto  Binswanger,   Professor  of  Psychiatry, 
and  Director  of  the  Psychiatric  Hospital,  Jena.     Jena,  Fischer,  1896. 

Finally,  in  considering  the  importance  of  age,  it  is  to  be  said  that  certain 
stages  of  the  physical  and  mental  development  are  uncommonly  perilous 
to  the  nervous  system  in  individuals  with  a  hereditary  handicap  and  con- 
stitutional predisposition  to  nervous  disorders.  Even  healthy  persons 
are  more  liable  to  neurasthenic  ills  in  certain  periods  of  life  than  in  others. 
Still  more  important  than  the  time  of  puberty,  when  the  physical  growth 
has  increased  claims  made  upon  it,  is  the  age  between  20  and  30,  for  then 
the  physical  and  mental  strength  is  put  forth  most  strenuously  and  in- 
cessantly in  the  struggle  for  a  livelihood.  Yet  even  in  the  period  of  mature 
manhood,  30  to  40,  neurasthenia  frequently  occurs.  .  .  . 

Hosslin's  statistics  showed  that  among  828  neurasthenias  83  per  cent 
occurred  between  the  ages  of  20  to  50  years. 

My  own  experience  is,  that  of  131  cases,  in  whom  I  was  able  to  locate 
exactly  the  starting  point  of  the  disease  as  to  the  time  it  began,  the  relation 
to  age  was  as  follows : 


1«2 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY 


Began  in  the  first  decade  of  life —  4  cases 


second   " 

'    "  —46 

third      " 

'    •'  -A3 

fourth    " 

'   "  —32 

fifth        " 

'   "  —  3 

sixth 

'   "  —  2 

seventh  " 

'   "  —  1 

(Page  46.) 


Deutsche  Mediiinische  IVochenschrift.  Nr.  21;  25.  Mai,  1905.  Die  Neu- 
rasthenie  in  Arheiterkreisen.  [Neurasthenia  in  the  IVorking  Classes.] 
Dr.  P.  Leubuscher  and  W.  Bibrowicz.  Formerly  of  the  Beelit' 
Sanitarium  of  the  State  Old  Age  and  Invalidity  Department  of  Berlin. 
Berlin,  1905. 

Our  reasons  for  the  age  groupings  in  our  tables  are  as  follows:  Age 
up  to  20  years  is,  for  various  reasons,  unimportant  in  the  consideration  of 
neurasthenia,  .  .  .  We  therefore  end  one  period  here.  The  next  five 
years  we  regard  as  the  period  of  completed  growth.  The  time  between 
26  and  ?)S  years  seems  to  be  the  most  serious  epoch, — that  of  founding 
and  supporting  the  family,  of  care  and  responsibility,  of  intensive  work. 
Almost  equally  important  is  the  period  from  36th  to  45th  \ear.  We  chose 
the  latter  as  a  limit  because  after  this  the  organic  changes  of  age,  arterio- 
sclerosis, emph\sema,  etc.,  begin  to  make  themselves  evident.  Following 
this  grouping  we  find  the  following  figures: 

I.  (16-2D  years)    3.8%  of  the  Neurasthenics 

11.  (21-25      "    )  11.0%  "    " 

III.  (26-35      "    )40.0%  "    " 

IV.  (36-45      "    )  31.0%  "    " 


V.  (over  45  "    )  14.0' 


(Page  822.) 


In  these  statistics  we  have  not  shown  the  period  of  the  onset  of  neuras- 
thenia, but  that  stage  where  the  gradually  developing  s>mptoms  had 
reached  a  degree  that  seriously  threatened  the  working  capacit)',  a  cri- 
terion that  is  justified  by  practical  considerations. 

Our  results  correspond  closely  v/ith  those  of  Lowenfeld,  who  found 
most  cases  fell  between  the  years  of  20  and  45.  Krafft  Ebbing's  figures 
at  Aethaus  were  also  similar.     (Page  822.) 

V erwaltiingshericht  der  Landes-Versicheningsanstalt  Berlin,  fiir  das  Jahr 
1906.  [Report  of  the  State  Invalidity  and  Old  Age  Insurance  Department 
for  Berlin,  for  1906.]  Report  of  the  Physician  in  Chief  of  the  Beelit^ 
Sanatorium.     {Tuberculosis  not  included.)     Berlin,  Loewenthal,  1907. 

As  regards  age  most  of  the  male  patients,  59  per  cent,  were  in  the  prime 
of  manhood — between  30  to  50  years,  whilst  patients  under  20  or  over  60 
were  only  two  per  cent  each.     (Page  72.) 


NERVOUS    DISEASE    AND    HEREDITY  183 

The  women,  on  the  other  hand,  showed  that  the  largest  numbers  of  GERMAifY 
patients  came  from  the  age-group  between  16  and  19  }"ears,  and  between 
20  and  29,  .  .  .  parti}'  explainable  by  the  withdrawal  of  women  after 
marriaee  from  industrial  occupations.     'Page  72.) 


(J)   Nervous  Disease  and  Heredity 

The  limitation  of  excessive  working  hours  for  women  is 
required  for  the  preservation  of  the  race  because  nervous 
debihty  generated  b\'  overfatigue  is  transmissible,  and 
causes  nervous  weakness  and  predisposition  to  ner\"ous  dis- 
ease to  a  marked  degree  in  the  second  generation. 

Die  Patbologie  u.  Therapie  der  Neurastbenie.  [Pathology  and  Therapeutics 
of  Neurasihenia.]  Dr.  Otto  Binsv/anx-er,  Prof,  of  Psychiatry  and 
Director  of  the  Psycliatric  Hospital,  Jena.      Jina,  Fischer,  1896. 

(Having  studied  the  subject  of  heredity)  what  does  this  inherited  pre- 
disposition signify?  What  intluence  will  it  have  upon  the  future  develop- 
ment of  the  individual?  As  we  have  seen  that  the  reurc?;:'.';  rredis- 
position  IS  exhibited  b;-."  a  general  diminution  of  theeffic;cr,:y  <y.  tnc  rcrxous 
system  as  the  result  of,  apparenth',  insignificant  hindrances  to  develop)- 
ment,  its  importance  from  the  clinical  standpoint  is  not  hard  to  state. 

Such  detrimental  factors  as  those  to  which  human  society  as  a  whole 
or  individual  members  of  individual  occupations  or  of  social  classes  are 
all  equally'  exposed,  will  have  the  effect  of  producmg  insanity  and  nervous 
diseases  with  distinctly  greater  frequenc}'  in  individuals  of  neuropathic 
predisposition.     TPage  37.) 

Grenifragen  des  Nercen  jind  Seelenlehens.  Bd.  II'.  [Borderland  Prohlenis 
of  Nervous  and  Psychic  Life.]  Edited  by  Loewenfeld  and  Kurella. 
BerufszL-ahl  iind  Nerzer.hhen.  [The  Choice  of  Occupation  and  Nerve 
Life.]     Dr.  Acglst  Hoff.'.;av.     Wiesbaden,  Bergmann,  1904. 

It  is  universally  agreed  b\-  physicians  that  diseases  of  the  nerv'ous 
system  have  become  inordinately  more  frequent  in  the  last  few  decades 
than  in  an  earlier  period.  Even  granting  a  more  faulty  diagnosis  of  nerv- 
ous disorders  in  former  years,  and  admitting  that  the  attention  of  physi- 
cians was  less  drawn  to  such  disorders  then  than  now,  it  is  nevertheless 


184  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY        certain  that  insanity  and  nervous  diseases  did  not  formerly  take  the 
frightfully  prominent  place  that  they  take  to-day.  .  .  . 

The  causes  are  varied.  In  the  foreground  stands  the  rush  of  modern 
civilization,  and,  when  one  generation  has  become  permeated  with  nervous 
affections,  the  next  one  suffers  these  ills,  through  inheritance,  in  doubly 
distilled  strength.     (Page  5.) 

Deutsche  Medi^inische  fVochenschrift.  Nr.21.  25.  Mai,  1905.  Die  Neu- 
rasthenie  in  Arheiterkreisen.  [N eur asthenia  in  the  Working  Classes.\ 
Dr.  P.  Leubuscher  and  W.  Bibrowicz, /orm^rZ-v  of  the  Beeliti  Sani- 
tarium of  State  Old  Age  and  Invalidity  Department,  Berlin. 

Neurotic  diseases,  if  not  counteracted,  are  often  the  first  step  in  the 
direction  of  organic  disease  or  severe  mental  disorders. 

But  our  generation  is  not  alone  in  being  menaced  with  the  grave  dangers 
of  these  diseases.  A  terrible  question  is  involved,  that  concerns  the  future 
— the  question  of  heredity.  We  shall  not  attempt  here  to  answer  the 
query  as  to  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characteristics.  .  .  .  But  one  thing 
is  undeniable;  the  influence  exerted  upon  the  sensitive  and  impression- 
able natures  of  children  by  neurotic  parents  is  inexpressibly  unfavorable. 
(Page  825.) 

Verwaltungshericht  der  Landes-Versichernngsanstalt  Berlin,  fur  das  Jahr 
1906.  [Report  of  the  State  Invalidity  and  Old  Age  Insurance  Depart- 
ment for  Berlin,  for  the  year  1906.]  Report  of  the  Physician  in  Chief 
of  the  Beeliti  Sanitarium.  {Tuberculosis  not  included.)  Berlin, 
Loewenihal,  1907 . 

A  considerable  proportion  of  the  cases,  of  both  sexes,  and  especially 
those  belonging  in  the  category  of  nervous  patients,  were  handicapped 
by  inherited  disease  on  one  or  on  both  sides  of  their  parentage.  Such 
cases  usually  exhibited  the  gravest  symptoms,  ran  the  most  unsatisfactory 
course,  and  showed  a  uniform  tendency  to  relapse.  The  inherited  taint 
was  evidenced  by  epilepsy,  insanity,  love  of  drink,  general  nervousness  or 
migraine.     (Page  70.) 

According  to  our  tables  as  shown,  out  of  5538  (4665)  men,  there  were 
1859  (1596)  or  over  one-third  (34  per  cent)  who  had  inherited  taints,  and 
of  1128  (816)  women  there  were  729  (565).  or  65  (69)  per  cent  with  in- 
herited taints. 

Of  those  suffering  from  diseases  of  the  lungs,  14-15  per  cent  had  in- 
herited the  diathesis;   of  the  nervous  patients,  20-29  per  cent;   of  those 


NERVOUS    DISEASES    AND    OVERSTIMULATION  185 

suffering  from  cancer,  ulcers,  and  abscesses,  5-7  per  cent,  and  of  gouty-  Germany 
rheumatic  cases,  6-11  per  cent.     (Page  71.) 


Uber  die  Ursachen  der  N eiirasthenie  und  Hysteric  bei  Arheitern.  [The 
Causes  of  Neurasthenia  and  Hysteria  among  Working  People.]  Paul 
ScHONHALS.  A  Study  of  200  Cases  in  the  Workingman' s  Sanitarium 
at  Schbnow  Zehlendorf.     Berlin,  1906. 

Predisposition  plays  an  important  part  in  all  internal  diseases,  but  is 
specially  menacing  in  the  case  of  nervous  diseases.  Those  persons  in 
whose  families  nervous  diseases  have  occurred  are  more  inclined  to  similar 
disorders  than  those  who  are  not  hereditarily  so  burdened. 

Such  predisposition  may  be  variously  described — Binswanger  defines 
it  as  "a  molecular  inferiority  of  the  nervous  system."  Inherited  weak- 
ness being  present,  some  external  exciting  factor  is  usually  required  to 
precipitate  actual  disease.     (Page  7.) 

It  is  clear  that  the  more  pronounced  the  heredity,  the  more  easily  will 
an  insignificant  cause  be  capable  of  bringing  on  illness;  and  vice  versa, 
in  a  person  of  better  heredity,  external  influences  must  be  more  intense 
and  harmful  to  cause  illness.     (Page  8.) 

Such  hereditary  handicap  I  found  beyond  question  in  9.5  per  cent  of 
200  cases  in  the  Workingman's  Sanatorium  at  Schonow  Zehlendorf.  This 
figure  is  without  a  doubt  too  low,  but  the  difficulty  of  getting  family  his- 
tories from  these  patients  is  great.  Binswanger  gives  49  per  cent  of  men 
and  35.5  of  women  as  hereditarily  predisposed.  Binswanger's  figures  are 
not  confined  to  working  people.  Leubuscher  and  Bibrowicz  state  it  at 
21.5  per  cent.     (Page  8.) 


{g)  Nervous  Diseases  and  Overstimulation 

The  onset  of  nervous  exhaustion  is  often  unperceived. 
A  special  danger  to  health  arises  when,  after  excessive  work, 
this  form  of  overfatigue  shows  itself  in  unnatural  stimulation, 
which  conceals  fatigue  and  creates  a  false  exhilaration. 
Only  after  health  is  seriously  threatened,  does  the  over- 
strain become  apparent,  overstimulation  being  succeeded 
by  reaction  and  exhaustion. 


l86  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ITALY  Thirteenth  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.     Brussels,   Sept.  1903. 

Vol.  V,  Sec.  IV.  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on,  par  des  methodes  physio- 
logiques,  etudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres  dans  les  diverses 
professions?  Quels  sont  les  arguments  que  les  sciences  physiologiques 
et  medicates  peuvent  ou  pourraient  faire  valoir  en  faveur  de  tel  on  tel 
mode  d' organisation  du  travail?  [To  what  extent  may  fatigue  resulting 
from  occupation  he  estimated  by  physiological  methods,  and  what  argu- 
ments can  medical  and  physiological  science  present  in  favor  of  special 
methods  of  industrial  organisation?]  Dr.  Zaccaria  Treves.  Uni- 
versity of  Turin. 

Lagrange  observes  that  the  intensity  and  rapidity  of  modern  industry 
are  attained  rather  by  making  excessive  drains  on  nervous  force  than  by 
the  use  of  muscular  power.  "There  results  a  special  form  of  fatigue" 
(says  Lagrange),  "not  that  kind  which  inclines  us  frankly  to  rest, — which 
gives  a  sensation  of  well-being  or  content  after  work  well  and  thoroughly 
done,  with  sufficient  time  to  do  it  in,  but  a  species  of  exhaustion  accom- 
panied by  an  abnormal  nervous  irritability, — an  enervation — perhaps 
appearing  in  the  form  of  depression,  perhaps  as  excitation  and  impression- 
ability." 


GERMANY  Die  Pathologic  und  Therapie  der  Neurasthenic.  [Pathology  and  Thera- 
peutics of  Neurasthenia.]  Dr.  Otto  Binswanger,  Prof,  of  Psychiatry 
and  Director  of  the  Psychiatric  Hospital  at  Jena.     Jena,  Fischer,  1896. 

Simple  fatigue  is  the  natural  consequence  of  every  considerable  ex- 
penditure of  energy.  ...  If  this  simple  weariness  is  intensified  beyond  a 
certain  limit  ...  as  in  climbing  mountains,  a  condition  of  overstimula- 
tion occurs. 

One  is  temporarily  capable,  apparently,  of  a  still  more  considerable 
exertion,  the  sensation  of  fatigue  disappears,  the  general  flagging  gives 
way  to  an  unnatural  elasticity  of  movement,  so  that  one  pursues  his  aim. 
with  accelerated  speed.  As  soon,  however,  as  the  wished-for  goal  is 
reached,  the  artificial  tension  vanishes,  the  unstrung  condition  asserts 
itself.  In  this  state,  it  is  often  impossible  to  sleep,  for  the  overfatigue  is 
combined  with  a  peculiar  unnatural  overstimulation  of  the  senses.  .  .  . 
But  with  healthy  individuals,  such  symptoms  also  disappear  after  a  short 
time  (1  to  2  hours)  and  deep  sleep  finally  banishes  all  trace  of  fatigue. 
(Page  20.) 


NERVOUS    DISEASES    AND    OVERSTIMULATION  187 

Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.     Berlin,   AUSTRIA 
1907.     Vol.  Ill,  Sec.  VIII.     Berufs  Morbidiidt  mid  Mortalitdt.     [The 
Morbidity  and  Mortality  of  Occupations.]     Alfred  R.  von  Lindheim, 
Vienna.     Berlin,  Hirschwald,  1908. 

Of  these  victims  of  modern  speed  and  rush,  the  neurasthenics,  Professor 
Erb  has  rightly  said,  "They  appear  to  be  capable  of  doing  everything  that 
the  robust  can  do;  but  as  soon  as  they  are  tired,  exhaustion  comes  on,  and 
their  incessantly  increasing  irritability  intensifies  their  fatigue."  (Page 
1300.) 

The  Mental  Symptoms  of  Fatigue.     (Reprinted  from  the  Transactions  of  the  united 
New    York   State   Medical  Association.)     Edward   Cowles,    M.D., 
Medical  Superintendent  of  the  McLean  Hospital,  Somerville,  Mass. 
New  York,  Fless  and  Ridge,  1893. 

The  sensory  function  by  which  the  complex  normal  feelings  of  fatigue 
are  appreciated,  may  itself  be  over-exercised  to  exhaustion.  There  is 
tire  of  the  power  to  feel  the  tire.  This  condition  may  be  called  fatigue 
ancesthesia,  and,  beginning  with  the  early  stages  of  pathological  fatigue, 
there  is  usually  some  degree  of  it.  Every  physician  has  experienced  this 
when,  after  a  night  of  anxious  professional  work,  with  loss  of  sleep,  he  has 
had  a  day  of  excitable  alertness  of  mind  and  body,  and  there  is  a  sense  of 
nervous  strain,  with,  perhaps,  undue  mental  facility  and  physical  irri- 
tability. Many  hours'  sleep  may  be  gained  in  the  following  night,  but 
instead  of  feeling  refreshed  he  has  a  sense  of  malaise,  languor,  and  fatigue. 
The  real  fatigue  was  greater  the  day  before,  but  he  could  not  feel  it  as 
such.  It  is  not  until  the  second  day  after  the  excessive  effort  that  he 
has  recovered  his  exhausted  power  to  feel  the  fatigue.  In  a  lesser  degree 
this  fatigue  anaesthesia  becomes  a  constant  accompaniment  of  the  neu- 
rasthenic condition.  Overworked  women,  professional  and  business 
men  "work  on  their  nerves"  and  say  they  don't  feel  tired,  and  "nothing  is 
the  matter."  They  "feel  better"  when  actively  exercised  in  their  custo- 
mary labors.  This  condition  comes  on  insidiously  and  is  a  most  dangerous 
one.  The  patient  is  neurasthenic  before  any  one  suspects  it.  (Pages 
22-23.) 

The  Harvey  Lectures,   1905-1906.     Fatigue.     Frederic  S.   Lee,   Ph.D. 
Philadelphia,  Lippincott,  1906. 

.  .  .  The  chief  sign  of  fatigue  is,  in  a  word,  depression — depression  of 
irritability,  wherein  a  given  stimulus  calls  forth  a  response  of  less  intensity 


UNITED 
STATES 


Ibb  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

than  before;  and  depression  for  the  total  capacity  for  work,  whatever  the 
intensity  of  the  stimulus;  its  early  stages  may  show,  however,  a  temporary 
heightened  irritability  and  an  apparent,  not  real,  heightened  capacity  for 
work.     (Page  169.) 


(b)  F.\TiGUE  AND  Nervous  Diseases 

Neurasthenia  and  other  nervous  diseases  are  due  to  over- 
strain of  the  nervous  system.  Since  the  central  nervous 
system  regulates  all  the  vital  functions,  nervous  exhaus- 
tion or  neurasthenia  may  affect  all  organs  and  functions  of 
the  body. 

Intense  and  long  lasting  fatigue  is  a  characteristic  of  the 
disease.  Disorders  of  the  heart,  circulation,  the  special 
senses  and  the  digestive  apparatus  are  common  symptoms. 
When  nervously  overtaxed  persons  continue  to  work  for 
excessive  hours  the  functional  mechanisms  may  become 
totally  impaired. 


GERMANY  Uber  die  Wachsende  Nenvsitdt  Unserer  Zeit.  [The  Increase  of  Nervousness 
in  our  Times.]  Dr.  Wilhelm  Erb,  Professor  of  A4edicine,  Heidelberg 
University.     Heidelberg,  Koester,  1894. 

The  neurasthenic  may  appear  at  first  to  be  as  capable  as  a  healthy 
person,  but  he  wearies  quickly,  is  easily  exhausted,  and  cannot  shake  off 
his  fatigue;  moreover,  he  is  unduly  susceptible  to  all  stimuli,  and  this  in 
turn  reacts  unfavorably  upon  his  fatigue  and  capacity  for  exhaustion. 

Thus  it  is  quite  relevant  ...  to  compare  neurasthenia  with  fatigue 
and  to  define  it  as  a  pathological  excess  and  fixity  of  fatigue.     (Page  11.) 

Heightened  irritability,  then,  on  the  one  hand,  and  great  weakness, 
fatigue,  and  tendency  to  exhaustion,  with  the  resultant  loss  of  efficiency, 
on  the  other,  make  up  the  picture  of  neurasthenia. 

These  conditions  may  affect  every  part  of  the  nervous  system — brain, 
mind  and  spirit,  organs  of  sense,  spinal  cord  and  sympathetic  nerves, 
circulatory,  digestive,  and  generative  organs — in  short,  the  entire  body; 
but  as  they  are  by  no  means  of  identical  extent  in  all  organs,  there  results 
the  inexhaustible  variety  of  s_\'mptoms  of  neurasthenia.     (Page  11.) 

Without  a  doubt,  one  of  the  most  important  fundamental  requirements 


FATIGUE    AND    NERVOUS    DISEASES  189 

of  health  is  found  in  the  correct  alternations  of  work  and  rest.     (Pages  Germany 
28-29.) 


Die  Pathologic  und  Therapie  der  Neurasthenie.  [Pathology  and  Thera- 
peutics of  Neurasthenia.]  Dr.  Otto  Binswanger,  Professor  of 
Psychiatry  and  Director  of  the  Psychiatric  Hospital  at  Jena.  Jena, 
Fischer,  1896. 

(To  the  comprehension  of  neurasthenia)  we  must  first  clearly  define  a 
process  which  absolutely  controls  the  pathogenesis  of  neurasthenia.  This 
is  fatigue,  which,  under  pathological  conditions,  may  be  characterized  by 
the  terms  "chronic  fatigue"  (Dauerermiidung)  and  exhaustion.  .  ,  . 

There  will  be  complete  reparation  of  the  state  of  overfatigue  which  has 
not  gone  beyond  physiological  limits,  while  complete  reparation  or  com- 
pensation for  chronic  fatigue  can  only  be  attained  with  difficulty  after 
long  periods  of  recuperation  or,  in  many  cases,  it  can  never  be  full}'  at- 
tained.    (Page  20.) 

If  exertions  are  demanded  of  the  chronically  fatigued  persons  which 
bear  no  relation  to  his  remaining  supply  of  energy,  a  condition  finall}' 
comes  on  in  which  the  functional  mechanism  involved  absolutely  refuses 
to  work.  This  condition  we  call  exhaustion.  It  ma>"  be  only  transitory, 
or  may  remain  fixed  for  a  long  time.     (Page  21.) 

Pathological  conditions  of  activity  of  the  nervous  s}'stem  rest  upon 
disturbances  of  the  molecular  mechanism  which  are  capable  of  injuring, 
either  temporarily  or  permanently,  the  legitimate  play  of  forces — the 
physiological  equilibrium  between  synthetic  processes  and  those  of  oxida- 
tion.    (Page  23.) 


Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System.  H.  Oppenheim,  M.D.,  University  of 
Berlin.  Authoriied  translation  by  Edward  E.  Mayer,  A.M.,  M.D. 
Philadelphia  and  London,  J .  B.  Lippincott  Company,  1900. 

Neurasthenia,  or  Nervous  Exhaustion,  is  a  very  common  disease  to-day, 
especially  in  the  large  cities.  Even  though  it  may  have  occurred  at  all 
times  (and  had  been  known  for  a  long  time  as  nervousness),  it  has  without 
doubt  increased  in  extent  in  the  last  years  by  the  e.xtra  demands  that  have 
been  made  on  man  in  his  struggle  for  existence  and  in  his  social  life.  (Page 
703.) 

Those  who  work  at  night,  even  though  the_\"  have  plenty  of  time  during 
the  day  for  sleep,  very  often  become  neurasthenic.     This  refers  to  tele- 


190  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  graph  operators,  night  watchmen,  compositors,  etc.  Working  in  over- 
heated rooms  is  also  a  cause.     (Page  704.) 

Symptomatology. — The  chief  svmptom  of  neurasthenia  is  the  irritable 
weakness, — i.  e.,  the  abnormal  excitability  accompanied  by  exhaustion, 
the  latter  being  predominant.  The  patient  is  irritable  and  easily  excited; 
but  the  excitement,  whether  pleasurable  or  otherwise,  soon  leads  to  ex- 
haustion, producing  and  leaving  a  feeling  of  weakness  and  apathy.  (Page 
704.) 

Fatigue,  however,  easily  results,  his  ability  for  work  is  markedly 
abridged,  and  the  least  exertion  exhausts  him.  The  intensity  and  dura- 
tion of  this  fatigue  are  characteristic.  It  may  be  so  marked  that  all 
mental  work  is  rendered  impossible.  Occasionally  the  ability  to  conduct 
visual  memory  pictures  to  the  brain,  to  remember  the  appearance  of  a 
certain  person,  place,  or  object,  is  greatly  impaired.     (Page  705.) 

Disorders  of  the  special  senses  are  also  found  and  likewise  bear  the 
marks  of  increased  sensitiveness  and  exhaustion.  The  eye  and  ear  are 
particularly  often  affected.  Seeing  stars  or  spots  (mouches  volantes),  a 
mist  before  the  eyes,  fatigue  in  reading  ("the  letters  seem  to  swim  or  run 
together  or  dance  before  the  eyes"),  increased  sensitiveness  to  noises, 
buzzing  in  the  ears,  ringing,  whistling,  or  murmuring  in  front  of  the  ears, 
etc.,  are  frequent  and  painful  and  stubborn  disorders.     (Page  706.) 

iVlany  of  the  "asthenopic  disorders" — especially  the  onset  of  fatigue 
of  the  sight — are  probably  to  a  great  extent  due  to  an  increased  exhaustion 
of  the  muscles  of  accommodation  and  of  the  recti  interni.  Sight  and 
hearing  are  not  weakened,  and  an  ophthalmoscopic  examination  never 
reveals  any  disease  of  the  optic  nerves.  A  moderate  contraction  of  the 
visual  field  is  also  occasionally  observed  in  cases  of  pure  neurasthenia. 
A  neurotic  impairment  of  hearing  may  likewise  be  combined  with  it. 
(Page  707.) 

Of  the  motor  disorders,  the  common  symptoms  are  weakness  (not 
paralysis),  tremor,  and  slight  fatigue.     (Page  707.) 

The  vasomotor  disorders  deserve  special  attention,  being  found  in 
many  patients.  .  .  .  The  disturbances  of  the  heart  are  closely  allied  to 
these  vasomotor  disorders.  They  may  be  subjective  or  objective. 
Palpitation  of  the  heart  is  an  important  subjective  symptom.  .  .  . 
Acceleration  of  the  heart  may  also  be  recognized  objectively.  (Page 
709.) 

Digestive  Disorders. — These  are  prominent  symptoms.  Nervous 
dyspepsia  is  not  an  independent  disease,  but  one  of  the  most  frequent  forms 
in  which  neurasthenia  expresses  itself.     (Page  712.) 


FATIGUE    AND   NERVOUS    DISEASES  IQl 

Proceedings  of  the  First  International  Convention  on  Industrial  Diseases.  ITALY 
Milan,  1906.     Frenastenia  e  delinquenia  in  rapporto  a  taluni  ordina- 
menti  del  lavoro.     [Imbecility  and  Criminality  in  Relation  to  Certain 
Forms  of  Labor.]     Prof.  Crisafulli. 

Mental  fatigue  with  its  two  fundamental  factors  (excess  of  work  and  of 
excitation;  insufficienc}'  of  rest  and  of  recuperation)  contributes  largely 
to  the  pathogenesis  of  nervous  industrial  diseases. 

Excess  of  work  (overwork)  surrounds  the  nervous  cellular  tissue  with 
the  products  of  disintegration  accentuating  the  auto-poisoning  phenom- 
ena and,  with  them,  the  functional  exhaustion  and  insufficient  reintegra- 
tion of  the  nerve  cells:  in  such  a  condition  the  whole  metabolism  changes, 
with  evil  consequences  to  the  entire  nervous  organization  especially  be- 
cause the  gray  matter  of  the  nerve  centres  "in  the  physiological  state  has 
a  most  active  material  metabolism."     (Luciani.)     (Page  151.) 


The  Mental  Symptoms  of  Fatigue.     {Reprinted  from  the  Transactions  of  the  E^J-IP 
New    York   State   Medical  Association.)     Edward   Cowles,    M.D., 
Medical  Superintendent  of  the  McLean  Hospital,  Somerville,   Mass. 
New  York,  Fless  and  Ridge,  1893. 

Normal  fatigue  from  the  discharge  of  tissue  energy  is  shown  to  be  in- 
separably accompanied  by  toxic  products  that  contribute  to  the  effects  of 
fatigue.  Pathological  fatigue  represents  a  further  development  and  per- 
sistence of  this  condition  in  the  organism.  Stimulation  too  soon  repeated, 
without  giving  time  for  rest  and  repair,  finds  nerve  cells  in  fatigued  areas 
having  less  power  to  act  because  of  inanition  from  deficient  rest  and 
nourishment;  they  are  also  hindered  in  action  by  the  incomplete  removal 
of  the  toxic  products  of  previous  action.  Then  assimilation  is  further 
hindered,  first,  by  the  lessened  nutritive  quality  of  the  blood  from  the 
presence  of  non-eliminated  toxic  materials;  and  second,  by  the  probable 
toxic  weakening  of  the  cells'  power  to  assimilate  the  nutrition  that  is 
furnished  to  them.  The  developm.ent  of  a  manifestly  morbid  condition 
may  be  very  slow  and  insidious,  or  more  rapid,  according  as  the  balance 
of  the  processes  of  constructive  and  regressive  metabolism  are  more  or  less 
on  the  side  of  impoverishment,  exhaustion,  and  weakness.  From  the 
gradually  failing  elimination,  the  local  inanition  may  become  more  general, 
and  the  first  results  are  an  increased  excitability  from  weakened  resistance 
and  inhibition,  with  a  quick  exhaustion  of  the  nervous  system  under 
exercise.  These  are  the  constant  characteristics  of  neurasthenia.  Thus, 
as  Knowalewsky  says,  "a  locally  limited  over-strain  of  a  certain  part  of 


UNITED 
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192 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


the  nervous  system  may  lead  to  general  exhaustion  and  neurasthenia." 
Hence  neurasthenia  has  been  defined  by  Ziemssen  as  a  functional  weakness 
of  the  nervous  system,  varying  from  the  slightest  degrees  in  simple  locali- 
ties to  entire  loss  of  strength  in  the  whole  nervous  system."  Arndt  states 
the  characteristics  of  neurasthenia  to  be  "increased  excitability  with  a 
tendency  to  rapid  fatigue,  especially  of  the  muscular  system."     (Page  7.) 


D.  Bad  Effect  of  Long  Hours  on  Safety 
(1)   Incidence  of  Accidents 

Emphasis  is  laid  upon  the  need  of  Hmiting  excessive 
working  hours  for  women  by  the  increased  danger  from 
accidents  during  certain  hours  of  work. 

The  statistics  of  all  countries  which  have  recorded  the 
hours  in  which  industrial  accidents  occur,  show  that  the 
number  of  accidents  tends  to  rise  after  a  certain  number 
of  hours  of  work,  and  that  the  fatigue  of  the  workers  subtly 
influences  the  accident  rate. 


FRANCE  Revue  Scientifique.     4'  Juin,  1904.     Les  Accidents  du  Travail  et  les  Com- 

pagnies  d' Assurances.     [Industrial  Accidents  and  Insurance.]     Prof. 
A.  Imbert,  University  of  Montpellier.     Paris,  1904. 

The  law  of  1898  upon  the  accidents  of  industry  is  now  six  years  old 
...  it  is  one  of  the  most  beneficent  of  the  Republic  .  .  .  and  should  aid 
in  solving  social  questions.     (Page  711.) 

The  number  of  accidents,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  does  not  depend  only  on 
the  number  of  workmen  or  the  kind  of  work,  but,  it  must  be  reiterated, 
depends  also  in  large  measure  on  the  organization  of  labor  and  the  qualities 
of  the  human  machine.  More  explicitly,  many  accidents  result  from  the 
physical  or  mental  fatigue  of  the  workman  at  the  moment,  and  this  as- 
sertion can  easily  be  proved  by  innumerable  instances.     (Page  715.) 

The  imminence  of  an  accident  is  usually  made  manifest  to  workmen 
by  some  occurrence,  which,  by  the  peripheral  excitation  of  sight,  sound, 
or  sensation,  is  made  known  to  the  brain.  There  is  often  only  an  in- 
appreciable time  in  which  this  message  may  be  conveyed  to  the  brain 
and  the  necessary  stimulus  sent  forth  to  the  muscles  to  execute  by  rapid 


BAD    EFFECT   OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    SAFETY 


193 


and  energetic  contractions  the  movements  necessary  for  defence  or  re- 
treat. 

The  exact  time  necessary  for  each  of  these  successive  acts  has  never 
been  precisely  estimated,  but  enough  is  known  to  demonstrate  that  a 
workman  who  is  in  a  condition  of  mental  or  physical  fatigue  does  not 
respond  as  quickly  to  such  stimuli,  but  that  each  such  act  takes  a  longer 
time  than  would  otherwise  be  true.  Certain  elements  of  the  whole  phe- 
nomenon may  be  studied  separately.  Thus  one  knows  that  that  rapidity 
of  muscular  contractility  and  consequently  the  quickness  of  the  motion 
made  by  a  muscle  diminishes  with  the  time  during  which  the  muscle  is 
made  to  contract,  while  the  intensity  of  the  contraction  also  diminishes 
proportionately. 

One  result  of  this  fact  is  that  fatigue  renders  the  workman  less  apt  to 
avoid  accident,  since  he  cannot  make  as  intense  an  effort  as  usual  nor 
execute  movements  of  his  normal  rapidity.     (Page  715.) 

In  order  to  find  corroboration  of  the  theory  that  the  number  of  acci- 
dents would  increase  with  fatigue  I  asked  M.  Mestre,  inspector  of  labor 
in  the  department  of  Herault,  to  record  the  accidents  in  his  district  during 
1903  by  the  hours  of  the  day  in  which  they  occurred. 

These  statistics  are  to  be  published  soon,  and  it  is  enough  to  say  here 
that  they  all,  without  exception,  verify  what  has  been  said,  as  shown  by 
this  table: 


FRANCE 


Transportation 


Total  number  employed,  6695  workmen.     Whole  number  of  accidents  in 

1903,  660. 


Accidents  in  the  Morning 

Accidents  in  the  Afternoon 

Hours 

Numbers 

Hours 

Numbers 

7  A.  M. 

8  " 

9  " 

10  " 

11  " 

25 
30 
20 
57 
63 

1  p.  M. 

2  " 

3  " 

5     " 
5     " 

18 

40 

45 

105 

118 

Two  facts  are  shown  very  clearly  by  this  table  of  figures,  namely,  the 
considerable  share  played  by  fatigue  in  producing  accidents  and  the 
equally  important  influence,  in  the  inverse  sense,  of  the  midday  hour  of 
rest.     (Page  716.) 
13* 


194 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


FRANCE  Revue  Scientifique.     Paris,  24^  Septemhre,  1904.     Statistiques  d'Accideuis 

du  Travail.  [Statistics  of  Industrial  Accidents.]  Prof.  A.  Imbert, 
University  of  Montpellier,  and  M.  Mestre,  Factory  Inspector,  Heraiilt. 
Paris,  1904. 

The  law  requires  notice  to  be  given  of  every  accident  that  necessitates 
more  than  four  days'  loss  of  work.  These  records  are  kept  in  the  official 
headquarters  for  each  department,  and  we  have  utilized  these  official 
figures  for  our  chart. 

Herault,  1903 


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Fig.  63. 


The  heavy  line  represents  660  accidents  and  6,695  workmen  in  transportation. 

These  men  are  licensed. 
The  broken  line  shows  326  accidents  and  1,453  workmen  in  chemical  works. 
The  dotted  line  shows  189  accidents  and  4,528  men  in  woodworking  industries. 

(Page  386.) 


BAD    EFFECT   OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    SAFETY 


195 


Figure  63  shows  in  the  heavy  line,  the  660  accidents  that  happened  France 
only  in  the  occupations  of  Transportation,  comprising  6,695  workmen. 
General  indications  of  this  curve  are: 

1.  The  number  of  accidents  increases  progressively  from  hour  to  hour 
during  the  first  half-day. 

2.  The  number  of  accidents  in  the  first  part  of  the  second  half-day,  after 
the  noon  rest,  is  noticeably  less  than  that  of  the  final  hour  of  the  first  half- 
day. 

3.  In  the  course  of  the  second  half-day  accidents  become  progressively 
more  numerous  with  every  hour. 

4.  The  maximum  number  of  accidents  per  hour  is  notably  greater  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  second  half-day  than  in  the  latter  part  of  the  first 
half-day. 

Herault,  1903 


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Fig.  64. 

Here  the  heavy  line  shows  building  trades  and  stone  work:   280  accidents,  4,686 

workmen. 
The  broken  line  shows  the  ordinary  metal  trades:   149  accidents,  3,237  workmen. 
The  dotted  line  shows  commerce  and  banking:  237  accidents  and  15,567  men. 

(Page  387.) 

In  order  to  verify  the  conclusions  suggested  by  this  chart  we  inquired 
into  the  proportion  of  accidents  in  other  industries. 


196 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


FRANCE  M.  Leroy,  the  division  inspector  of  labor  at  Toulouse,  then  voluntarily 

sent  us  the  result  of  similar  statistics  which  he  had  had  made  by  the 
departmental  inspectors  under  his  orders,  viz.,  in  Ande,  Ariege,  etc.,  etc. 
Without  reproducing  here  all  the  curves  which  show  these  various  statistics 
it  is  sufficient  to  state  that  all,  without  exception,  presented  the  general 
characteristics  which  are  displayed  by  the  charts  here  shown.     (Page  387.) 

Since  fatigue  is  the  inevitable  accompaniment  of  all  expended  energy, 
and  as  it  cannot  be  suppressed  without  at  the  same  time  suppressing  all 
labor,  it  is  at  least  important  to  limit  it  and  not  allow  it  to  attain  that  de- 
gree at  which  its  influence  in  producing  accidents  is  eminently  evil.  (Page 
388.) 

Figure  65  shows  in  heavy  line  2,065  accidents  among  56,458  workmen 
of  Herault,  and  the  dotted  line  shows  5,534  accidents  among  140,407 


Fig.  65. — Chart  Showing  the  Occurrence  of  Accidents  according  to  Hours 

OF  Day. 


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The  heavy  line  shows  one  Department  of  France  with  56,458  workers  and  2,065 

accidents. 
The  dotted  line  shows  nine  (9)  Departments  of  France  with  140,407  workmen  and 

5,534  accidents. 

(Page  388.) 


BAD    EFFECT    OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    SAFETY  I97 

v/orkmen  of  9  departments  in  the  region  of  Toulouse,  drawn  according  to  France 
hours.     (Page  388.) 

Revue  Scientifique,  21^  Odobre,  1905.  Hygiene  Piihlique.  Nouvelles 
Statistiques  d' Accidents  du  Travail.  [Public  Hygiene.  New  Statistics 
of  Industrial  Accidents.]  M.  A.  Imbert,  University  of  Montpellier, 
and  M.  Mestre,  Factory  Inspector  in  Herault. 

Fatigue  being  the  inevitable  consequence  of  work,  accidents  must 
inexorably  increase  from  hour  to  hour.  It  remains  only  to  investigate 
the  rapidity  of  this  increase,  in  order  to  find  out  whether  or  no  it  is  clearly 
to  the  general  interest  to  modify  in  any  way  the  division  of  working  hours. 
If  our  figures  have  come  as  the  revelation  of  an  unexpected  fact  to  those 
who  are  little  informed  as  to  the  functioning  of  the  human  motor  machine, 
they  nevertheless  gave  only  one  indication  that  was  really  new,  and  that 
is,  that  in  most  trades  the  conditions  of  work  cause  a  rapid  rise  in  the 
number  of  accidents  to  the  hour,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  each 
half  day.  ...  Of  the  objections  made  to  our  charts  only  one  has  some 
truth,  viz.,  that  it  is  too  simple  to  consider  fatigue  only  as  the  cause  of 
accidents  in  industry.  To  this  we  answer  that  we  have  never  said  that 
fatigue  alone  intervened  to  bring  on  accidents.  It  is  quite  possible  that, 
aside  from  pure  chance,  other  causes  would  act  on  parallel  lines.  How- 
ever, either  such  other  existing  causes  would  have  a  gradual  influence,  and 
we  cannot  then  see  how  they  would  exercise  their  activity  except  by  en- 
gendering a  more  precocious  and  intense  fatigue;  or,  they  would  make 
themselves  felt  in  a  relatively  short  time,  and  could  then  only  bring  about 
some  irregularity  in  some  limited  sections  of  our  charts.  (Page  520.) 
...  As  to  the  causes  of  the  second  order,  it  was  to  eliminate  their  irregu- 
larities that  we  drew  the  line  representing  all  of  the  5,534  accidents  be- 
falling the  140,407  workmen  who,  in  1903,  were  affected  by  the  accident 
compensation  law  of  1898.  Irregularities  found  upon  the  charts  showing 
single  trades  would  then  disappear,  as  (they  disappear)  on  chart  No.  74, 
which  represents  the  division  according  to  hours  of  the  3,352  accidents 
that  occurred  in  1904  in  the  department  of  Herault,  Aveyron,  Lozere, 
Cantal  and  Tarn,  and  we  simply  stated  that  the  general  features  of  the 
chart  were  strictly  explainable  by  the  action  of  fatigue.  ...  As  to  the 
proposal  to  bring  a  half  hour  of  rest  into  each  of  the  two  halves  of  the 
working  day,  it  seems  to  us  that,  in  all  trades  where  the  workman  is  not 
in  charge  of  a  steadily  running  machine,  this  should  not  be  difficult.  As 
to  trades  where  it  would  present  serious  difficulties,  there  is  another  remedy 
that  might  be  proposed,  and  which  should  not  be  rejected  until  its  probable 


198 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


effects  had  been  well  considered;  that  is,  cutting  off  the  last  hour  of  the 
working  day,  or  even  the  establishment  of  the  eight-hour  day.  (Page 
521.) 

Fig.  7-i. — Number  of  Accidents  by  Hours  of  the  Day 
Year  1904.     All  industries.     Total  Accidents,  3,352 


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Scale  of  Accidents. 
From  1  to  5  A.  m.,  118  .-Xccidencs.  After  6  to  Midnight,  151  Accidents. 

(Page  521.) 


We  are  led  to  this  view  by  the  physiological  study  of  occupation  fatigue, 
and  do  not  intend  to  discuss  thoroughly  this  urgent  social  problem  of 
reducing  hours  of  labor  which  must  be  approached  from  many  points  of 
view,  but  we  will  simply  show  one  side  of  it.  .  .  .  Observe  in  the  first 
place  that  the  plan  of  dropping  off  the  last  hour  of  the  day's  work,  crude 
and  simple  though  it  may  be,  would  have  as  its  minimum  effect  the  pre- 
vention of  all  those  accidents  that  would  otherwise  occur  in  the  final  hour 
of  work.  Now,  according  to  one  general  chart  for  September,  1904,  these 
accidents  form  i  (one-seventh)  or  \  (one-eighth)  of  all  (750  in  5,534), 
and  the  proportion  is  substantially  the  same  for  the  year  1904.  This 
immediate  effect,  then,  would  be  considerable.  It  would  mean  an 
important  reduction  in  the  loss  of  social  energy, — a  loss  which  is  partly 
temporar\-  and  partly  permanent.     (Page  521.) 


BAD    EFFECT   OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    SAFETY  I99 

Ministere  du  Travail  et  de  la  Prevoyance  Sociale,  Bulletin  de  V Inspection  ^^^nce 
du  Travail  et  de  VHygiene  Industrielle.  1906.  Numero  3-4.  Paris, 
1906.  Travaux  originaux  des  Inspedeurs.  [Bulletin  of  the  Labor 
Department.  Leaflets,  3-4.  Original  Contributions  of  the  Inspectors.] 
Etude  sur  les  Accidents  du  Travail.  [A  Study  of  Industrial  Accidents.] 
M.  Le  Roy,  Division  Factory  Inspector,  Toulouse.     Paris,  1906. 

In  a  report  made  in  1903  by  M.  Mestre,  he  said:  .  .  .  "Accidents 
were  divided  into  two  categories,  viz.: 

1.  Those  that  might  have  been  foreseen;  preventable.  2.  Those 
which  could  not  be  foreseen;  not  preventable. 

It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  it  is  proper  to  take  another  factor  into 
account,  a  factor  which  is  so  much  more  serious  in  that  it  dominates  in  all 
accidents  augmenting  their  frequency,  or  sometimes  aggravating  their 
effects.     This  factor  is  fatigue. 

It  is  indisputable  in  fact,  that  the  more  fatigued  a  worker  is  the  more 
liable  he  is  to  accident.  The  accident  is  then  the  consequence  of  the 
combined  results  of  physical  depression,  relaxed  attention  and  less  rapid 
movements."     (Page  219.) 

Struck  by  the  statements  and  charts  of  Dr.  Imbert  ...  I  secured 
data  from  the  various  inspectors  of  my  district  during  two  years.  .  .  . 
My  conclusions  were  identical  with  those  arrived  at  by  M.  Mestre.  I 
prepared  charts  for  1903  and  1904,  first  for  each  separate  industry  and 
then  for  all  together,  and  the  results  to  my  mind  leave  no  doubt  of  the 
merits  of  the  conclusions  drawn  by  Imbert  and  Mestre  from  their  inquiries. 
I  am  familiar  with  the  objection  that,  as  fewer  men  are  at  work  at  certain 
hours  than  others  it  is  not  surprising  there  should  be  more  accidents  at 
one  time  than  another.  .  .  .  However,  between  7  and  11  a.  m.  and  2  and 
5  p.  M.  all  workmen  who  work  by  day,  either  summer  or  winter,  are  at 
work,  so  that  the  record  of  those  hours  must  be  of  real  importance. 

In  the  charts,  the  hours  form  the  abscisses  and  the  accidents  represent 
the  ordinates.  .  .  .  We  then  find  that  the  number  of  accidents  increased 
progressively  from  hour  to  hour  in  each  of  the  two  working  periods,  fore- 
noon and  afternoon,  reaching  their  maxima  at  10  a.  m.  and  4  p.  m.  We  find 
also  that  accidents  are  more  frequent  in  the  second  half  than  in  the  first 
half  of  the  day,  and  that  they  are  much  less  numerous  in  the  morning  and 
after  the  rest  pause  than  at  the  end  of  the  preceding  periods.     (Page  221.) 

Leaving  out  of  consideration  those  groups  of  but  few  workmen  .  .  . 
and  those  where  the  possibilities  of  accidents  are  slight  .  .  .  and  those 
textiles  where,  thanks  to  legal  requirements  of  safety  devices,  accidents 
formerly  so  frequent  have  been  reduced  from  1.4  per  cent  in  1903  to  1.1 
per  cent  in  1904  ...  we  have  left   those   groups  whose   members   are 


200  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

FRANCE  obliged  to  exert  physical  force.  ...  In  1904,  when  the  statistics  were 
absolutely  complete,  we  find,  in  transportation,  from  7  to  11  a.  m.,  an 
increasing  progression  up  to  10  o'clock,  that  is  71,  75,  117,  and  140  acci- 
dents; and  in  the  afternoon  from  1  to  5  o'clock,  the  same  thing  up  to  4 
o'clock,  viz.,  50,  79,  143,  196.     At  5,  the  number  fell  to  162  accidents. 

In  building  and  masonry,  etc.,  we  find,  in  short,  a  maximum  of  187 
accidents  in  1903  and  160  in  1904  attained  progressively  by  10  a.  m.,  and, 
on  resumption  of  work,  227  (maximum)  in  1903  at  5  p.  m.  and  194  (maxi- 
mum) in  1904  at  4  p.  M.  .  .  .  All  these  data  bring  us  necessarily  to  a  con- 
sideration of  fatigue  as  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  accidents  .  .  .  and  the 
data  of  the  metal  trades,  showing  higher  figures  in  the  morning  only  confirm 
this  view  because  by  the  division  of  labor  here  into  three  shifts  the  hours 
at  which  the  men  change  bring  the  same  proofs  as  to  the  effects  of  fatigue 
(one  shift  works  by  day  and  the  others  change  at  midnight  and  noon). 

But  physical  fatigue  is  not  the  only  thing  to  consider.  We  must 
remember  also  the  cerebral  fatigue  of  the  workman  who  is  constrained  to 
long  daily  hours  of  work  at  monotonous  tasks.  This  fatigue  induces  a 
nervous  depression  which  is  betrayed  by  inattention,  very  often  resulting 
in  accident.  It  is  precisely  this  form  of  fatigue  that  explains  the  increas- 
ing progression  of  accidents  with  the  progress  of  working  hours  in  industries 
where  work  is  most  often  limited  to  watching  the  machinery.     (Page  222.) 

The  anomaly  of  the  last  hour  being  less  heavily  charged  with  accidents 
is  explainable  in  two  ways: 

1.  In  many  industries,  as  is  well  known,  there  is  a  certain  slackening 
of  activity  and  the  last  hour  is  the  least  productive. 

2.  In  others,  the  workman  has  a  spurt  of  energy  as  the  closing  time 
approaches. 

.  .  .  The  plan  adopted  in  Austria,  where  each  working  period  is  divided 
by  a  half-hour's  rest,  has,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  statistics  that  are  pub- 
lished, resulted  in  a  sensible  diminution  of  the  number  of  accidents  in  the 
hour  following  the  resting  time. 

France  also  should  try  some  organization  of  industry  which  would  tend 
to  eliminate  that  vast  number  of  accidents  due  to  the  physical  and  cerebral 
fatigue  of  the  worker.     (Page  223.) 

BELGIUM  Royaume  de  Belgique.  Ministere  de  V Industrie  et  du  Travail.  Rapports 
Annuels  de  V Inspection  du  Travail,  1907.  [Annual  Reports  of  the 
Belgian  Factory  Inspection,  1907.]     Brussels,  Lebegue,  1908. 

The  accompanying  charts  show  the  proportion  of  accidents  according 
to  the  days  of  the  week  and  the  hours  of  the  day.  (Page  204.)  (4th 
District:  Ghent.) 


BAD  EFFECT  OF  LONG  HOURS  ON  SAFETY 


201 


Textile  industries  cause  39.6  per  cent  of  all  the  accidents  in  industrial  BELGIUM 
establishments  .  .  .  and    the  whole  number  of  accidents  in  industrial 
establishments  forms  72  per  cent  of  all  accidents.     (Page  206.) 

Accidents  for  the  Year,  1907 
Showing  the  Hourly  Average  by  Days  of  Week 


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I  23456789  10 II 12  I  2345S789I0III2 

Noon  Midnight 

Average  for  the  week 
(Pages  204-205.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XV.  1831-32.  Report  from  the  Select 
Committee  on  the  "Bill  to  regulate  the  Labour  oj  Children  in  the  Mills 
and  Factories  of  the  United  Kingdom." 

James  Blundell,  Esq.,  M.D.  .  .  .  Lecturer  on  Physiology  and  Mid- 
wifery in  the  School  of  Guy's  Hospital: 

10881.  May  not  the  numerous  and  afflicting  accidents  which  occur 
more  particularly  at  the  end  of  the  day,  and  are  observed  to  increase 
toward  the  termination  of  the  week,  be  fairly  attributed  to  this  over- 
fatigue and  lassitude?     1  think  they  may.     (Page  125.) 

[See  also  2590,  p.  99.  6944,  p.  293.  6875,  p.  294.  7488,  p.  325. 
4328,  p.  165.  5010,  p.  270.  10881,  p.  545.  10945,  p.  550.  11494,  p.  596. 
11579,  p.  604.] 


Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  LXXIII.     1844. 

Lord  Ashley: 

"Those  honourable  gentlemen  who  have  been  m  the  habit  of  perusing 
the  melancholy  details  of  mill  accidents  should  know  that  a  large  propor- 
tion of  those  accidents — particularly  those  which  may  be  denominated 
the  minor  class,  such  as  loss  of  fingers  and  the  like — occur  in  the  last  hours 
of  the  evening,  when  the  people  become  so  tired  that  they  absolutely  get 
reckless  of  the  danger.  I  state  this  on  the  authority  of  several  practical 
spinners.  Hence  arise  many  serious  evils  to  the  working  classes,  none 
greater  than  the  early  prostration  of  their  strength."     (Page  1082.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.     1901.     Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

One  can  only  feel  surprise  that  accidents  are  not  more  numerous  (in 
laundries),  when  one  realizes  that  the  slightest  carelessness  or  inattention 


BRITAIN 


BAD    EFFECT    OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    SAFETY  2O3 

may  result  in  the  fingers  or  hand  being  drawn  between  the  hot  cylinders,  great 
and  when  one  considers  how  easily  such  inattention  may  arise  in  the  case 
of  the  over-tired  young  workers.     (Page  383.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.     1904.     Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  IVorkshops. 

The  comparative  immunity  from  accidents  in  the  laundries  in  the  West 
Riding  of  Yorkshire  may  be  possibly  due  in  some  measure  to  the  moderate 
hours  of  employment. 

The  incidence  of  accidents  according  to  time  of  day  is  somewhat  sur- 
prising, the  most  dangerous  hours  apparently  being  11  a.  m.  to  12  noon 
and  4  to  6  p.  M.  .  .  .  Probably  11  a.  m.  to  12  noon  is  more  generally  than 
any  other  time  the  last  tiring  hour  of  a  day  five  hours'  spell;  4-6  p.  m. 
covers  the  time  when  most  generally  the  transition  is  from  daylight  to 
artificial  light.     (Pages  210-211.) 

Reference  was  also  made  (in  the  Thirteenth  International  Congress 
of  Hygiene  and  Demography),  although  figures  were  not  adduced,  to  the 
alleged  increase  in  the  number  of  accidents  which  occur  late  in  the  work- 
ing day  when  the  effects  of  intellectual  and  physical  fatigue  have  made 
themselves  apparent.     (Page  298.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.  1905.  Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector  of 
Factories  and  IVorkshops. 

Again  1  think  the  effect  of  fatigue  is  shown  in  the  last  hour  before 
midday  and  during  12  to  1  o'clock.  Fatigue  again  appears  to  be  a  cause 
of  accidents  in  the  later  period  of  the  afternoon  spell.     (Page  250.) 


Infant  Mortality:  A  Social  Problem.  George  Newman,  M.D.,  D.P.H., 
F.R.S.E.,  Lecturer  on  Public  Health  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital, 
London.  Medical  Officer  of  Health,  Metropolitan  Borough,  Finsbury. 
London,  Methuen,  1906. 

The  results  of  fatigue  become  manifest  in  various  ways,  not  the  least 
being  the  occurrence  of  accidents  or  of  physical  breakdown.  The  former, 
as  is  now  well  recognized,  occur  most  frequently  in  fatigued  workers. 
For  example,  since  1900  there  has  been  a  steady,  though  not  marked, 
increase  in  the  number  of  accidents  to  women  over  eighteen  years  of  age 
in  laundries.     In  1900  such  accidents  numbered  131;  in  1904,  157.     Now 


204 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


it  has  been  shown  that  whilst  the  first  half  of  the  day  yields  about  the 
same  number  of  accidents  as  the  second  half,  more  accidents,  amounting 
to  nearly  double  the  number,  occur  between  the  hours  of  11  a.  m.  and  1 
p.  M.  and  between  4  p.  m.  and  7  p.  m.  than  at  any  other  time  of  the  day. 
(Pages  112-113.) 


AUSTRIA  Eighth    International  Congress   of  Hygiene  and   Demography.     Budapest, 

1894.  Vol.  VII ,  Sec.  V .  Uber  das  Verhdltniss  der  Dauer  des  Ar- 
beitstages  ^ur  Gesiindheit  des  Arheiters  und  dessen  Einfluss  auf  die 
offentliche  Gesundheit.  [The  Length  of  the  Working  Day  in  its  Rela- 
tion to  the  IVorkmati' s  Health  and  its  Influence  upon  Public  Health.] 
Dr.  E.  R.  J.  Krejcsi,  Vice-Secretary  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  in 
Budapest.     Budapest,  1896. 

The  most  valuable  special  statistics  bearing  upon  the  subject  of  fatigue 
are  those  of  the  trade-accidents  kept  by  the  accident  insurance  offices. 
The  ones  that  chiefly  merit  notice  are  those  of  the  German  Imperial  In- 
surance Department  published  in  1890,  of  the  accidents  for  1887  dis- 
tributed over  the  hours  of  the  day  when  they  occurred. 

From  these  data  it  may  be  seen  how  greatly  accidents  increase  as  the 
fatigue  of  the  worker  increases.     (Page  327.) 

{Amtliche   Nachrichten    des   Reichs-Versicherungsamtfis,    VI.  Jahrg.,  Ber- 
lin, 1890.     P.  280  et  seq.) 

Daywork 


Morning 

IVhole  No. 
of  Accidents 

Percentage 

Afternoon 

IVhole  No. 
of  Accidents 

Percentage 

6-  7  A.  M. 

435 

2.83 

12-1  p.  M. 

587 

3.74 

7-  8     " 

794 

5.16 

1-2     " 

745 

4.84 

8-  9     " 

815 

5.29 

2-3     " 

1037 

6.73 

9-10     " 

1069 

6.94 

3-4     " 

1243 

8.07 

10-11     " 

1598 

10.38 

4-5     " 

1178 

7.65 

11-12  noon 

1590 

10.32 

5-6     " 

1306 

8.48 

Similar  figures  are  shown  by  the  General  Workman's  Sickness  and  Re- 
lief Insurance  in  Vienna,  and  some  recent  tables  have  been  communicated 
to  me  by  Dr.  Leo  Verkauf  before  their  publication. 

They  are  as  follows: 


BAD  EFFECT  OF  LONG  HOURS  ON  SAFETY 
Daywork 


205 


AUSTRIA 


Morning 

fVhole  No. 
of  Accidents 

Percentage 

Afternoon 

Whole  No. 
of  Accidents 

Percentage 

6-  7  A.  M. 

187 

3.01 

12-1  p.  M. 

82 

1.32 

7-  8     " 

437 

7.03 

1-2     " 

331 

5.32 

8-  9     " 

517 

8.31 

2-3     " 

538 

8.65 

9-10     " 

716 

11.51 

3-4     " 

700 

11.25 

10-11  pause 

505 

8.12 

4—5  pause 

508 

8.17 

11-12  noon 

338 

5.43 

5-6     " 

418 

6.72 

(Page  328.) 

Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.     Berlin,   Germany 
Sept.  1907.     Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV.     Die  ErmUdung  durch  Berufsarbeit. 
[Fatigue  resulting  from  Occupation.]     Dr.  Roth.     Berlin,  Hirs chw aid, 
1908. 

That  the  fluctuations  of  the  mental  tone  in  course  of  working  hours 
influence  not  only  the  worker's  capacity  but  render  him  more  liable  to 
accident  by  producing  a  mental  apathy  or  indifference  as  a  result  of  weari- 
ness is  also  a  fact  too  seldom  understood  or  acknowledged. 

It  is  readily  explained,  for  the  fatigued  workman  cannot  give  that  close 
attention  to  safety  appliances  and  machine  guards  that  a  normally  re- 
sistant worker  can  give.  In  regard  to  the  frequency  of  accidents,  proof  of 
the  statement  made  above  is  furnished  by  the  statistics  of  the  Imperial 
Insurance  Department  for  1887  and  1897.  Here  the  relation  between  the 
length  of  working  time  and  progressive  uncertainty  of  control  over  muscles, 
as  well  as  the  relaxation  of  mental  tone,  is  made  clear  in  the  statistics  of 
1897,  which  noted  the  hours  when  accidents  occurred.  The  three  final 
morning  hours  show  twice  as  many  accidents  as  the  first  ones,  and  the 
final  afternoon  hours,  from  3  to  6,  were  also  more  disastrous  than  the  first 
part  of  the  afternoon.  Taking  the  authentic  statement  that,  on  an  aver- 
age, an  accident  occurs  in  every  three  hours  throughout  the  year,  the 
following  tables  show  the  variations: 


A.  M.  hours  from 
P.  M.      " 


6  to    9 — 1.10  accidents 
9  "  12—2.36 
12  "    3—1.02 
3  "    6—2.11 


(Page  618.) 


Professor  Imbert  has  also  stated  that  his  observations  show  that  acci- 
dents occur  in  parallel  lines  with  the  extent  of  working  time  and  reach  the 
highest  proportion  at  the  end  of  overtime.     (Page  619.) 


206  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY        Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.      Berlin, 
1907 .     Vol.  IV.     Discussions  on  Section  IV. 

Dr.  Roth  (Potsdam): 

We  know  by  the  imperial  statistics  that  most  accidents  happen  in  the 
final  hours  of  work,  and  I  have  no  doubt  at  all  that,  if  it  were  possible  to 
make  similar  computations  in  the  matter  of  illness,  we  should  find  that 
most  cases  of  sickness,  especially  those  of  poisonous  origin,  have  their 
starting  point  in  the  final  working  hours.  That  which  is  often  ascribed 
to  the  carelessness  of  the  worker  is  in  reality  in  numberless  cases  the  result 
of  oncoming  fatigue.     (Page  290.) 


H andwdrterhuch  der  Staatswissenschaften.  Bd.  I .  [Compendium  of  Politi- 
cal Science,  Vol.  I .]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of  Political 
Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin;  W.  Lexis, 
Professor  of  Political  Science  in  Gottingen,  and  Edg.  Loening,  Pro- 
fessor of  Law  in  Halle.  Arbeits^eit.  [Hours  of  Work.]  Dr.  H. 
Herkner,  Berlin.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

The  exhausted  workman  no  longer  has  full  control  over  his  muscles. 
His  results  are  less  exact.  Danger  by  accident  increases.  If  it  is  reckoned 
that,  on  an  average,  one  accident  takes  place  every  3  hours  throughout 
the  year,  then,  according  to  the  German  Accident  Statistics  of  1887  and 
1897,  the  numbers  of  accidents  between  the  hours  6  to  9  a.  m.  form  1.10%; 
from  9  to  noon,  2.36%;  from  noon  to  3  p.  m.,  1.02%;  and  from  3  to  6 
p.  M.,  2.11%. 

Professor  Imbert  has  also  shown  that  in  the  occupations  noted  by  him 
the  numbers  of  accidents  reached  their  highest  point  near  the  end  of  work- 
ing hours.     (Page  1214.) 


Amtliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichts- 
beamten.  1895.  [Official  Information  from  Reports  of  the  {German) 
Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,  1896. 

The  ten-hour  day,  with  the  exceptions  necessary  for  certain  trades,  is 
a  measure  which  can  be  introduced  without  great  difficulty,  and  which 
would  prevent  many  dangers  threatening  the  health  of  workers.  Many 
accidents  are  no  doubt  due  to  the  relaxed  vigilance  and  lessening  of  bodily 
strength  following  excessive  hours  of  work.     (Page  369.) 


BAD    EFFECT   OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    SAFETY  207 

Amtliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichts-  GERMANY 
heamten.     XXIII .     1898.     [Official  Information  from  Reports  of  the 
(German)  Factory  Inspectors,  1898.]     Berlin,  1899. 

The  inspector  for  Wiirttemberg  remarks  that  some  accidents  are  doubt- 
less incurred  by  the  extreme  demands  made  upon  the  endurance  of  the 
men:  it  is  readily  conceivable  that  overtired  workers  easily  commit  mis- 
takes resulting  in  accidents.     (Page  182.) 

The  inspector  for  Wiirttemberg  11,  amongst  a  number  of  explanations  of 
accidents,  mentions  overstrain  of  the  workman  as  one  cause.     (Page  182.) 


Jahresbericht  der  Grossherioglich  Badischen  Fabrikinspektion  fiir  das  Jahr 
1900.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  of  Baden,  1900.]  Carlsruhe, 
Thiergarten,  1901. 

It  would  seem  superfluous  to  speak  of  the  increase  in  the  numbers  of 
accidents  due  to  overfatigue  which  is  brought  on  by  excessive  working 
hours,  for  the  thing  is  self-evident.     (Page  30.) 

Jahresbericht  der  Grossherioglich  Badischen  Fabrikinspektion  fiir  das  Jahr 
1903.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  of  Baden,  1903.]  Carlsruhe, 
Thiergarten,  1904. 

Positive  deductions  as  to  accidents  can  only  be  made  if  the  statistics 
for  a  number  of  years  show  a  certain  uniformity.  At  present  it  looks  as  if 
Monday  (because  Sunday  is  not  always  used  for  real  rest),  and  Saturday, 
on  account  of  the  physical  overtension  caused  by  the  week's  work,  were 
especially  liable  to  accidents. 

The  accidents  that  occur  between  6  and  8  p.  m.  are,  as  a  rule,  not  in  the 
beginning  of  night  shifts  but  at  the  end  of  day  shifts.  The  unfavorable 
influence  of  the  final  hours  of  work  is,  therefore,  greater  than  is  shown  in 
the  tables  which  make  the  day's  work  appear  to  close  at  6  p.  M.     (Page  66.) 

Jahresberichte  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichtsbeamten  und  Bergbehorden  fiir  das 
Jahr  1904.  Bd.  I.  Preussen.  [Reports  of  the  {German)  Factory  and 
Mine  Inspectors  for  1904.     Vol.  I.,  Prussia.]     Berlin,  Decker,  1905. 

A  workman's  arm  was  crushed  in  an  accident.  ...  It  was  the  belief 
of  the  inspector  that  this  accident  was  directly  traceable  to  overfatigue, 
brought  on  by  the  excessive  length  of  the  hours  during  which  this  man  had 
been  kept  at  his  post.  .  .  .  (Page  I^^^.) 


208 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  Jahresbericht  der  Grossher~oglich  Badischen  Fabrikinspektion  fiir  das 
Jahr  1905.  {Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  of  Baden,  1905.]  Carls- 
ruhe,  Thiergarten,  1906. 

The  readily  explainable  preponderance  of  accidents  on  Mondays  and 
Saturdays  is  evident  in  this,  as  in  former  reports.  .  .  .  The  evening  hours 
seem  to  be  especially  favorable  for  the  occurrence  of  accidents.  (Page 
90.) 

Amtliche  Nachrichten  des  Reichs-Versichenmgsamts,  1910.  I .  Beiheft.  I . 
Teil.  Gewerhe-Unfallstatistik  fiir  das  Jahr  1907.  [Reports  of  the 
Imperial  Insurance  Department.  1910.  Appendix  I.  Part  I. 
Statistics  of  Industrial  Accidents  for  the  year  1907.] 

Number  and  Per  Cent  of  Injured  Persons  who  had   been  at  Work   Each 
Specified  Number  of  Hours  on  the  Day  of  the  Accident,  for  Metal- 
working  Industries  and  for  all  Industries  in  Germany,  1907 


Number  of  Hours  Injured 

Persons  Had  Been 

at  IVork 

Metal-working 
Industries 

All  Industries 

Number 
Reported 

Per  cent 

Number 
Reported 

Per  cent 

Less  than  1 

88 
125 
133 
209 
199 
135 
116 
161 
141 
109 
103 

5.79 

8.23 

8.76 

13.76 

3,939 
6,885 
7,351 
9.004 

4.94 

1  and  under  2 

8  63 

2  and  under  3 

9.21 

3  and  under  4 

11.28 

4  and  under  5 

5  and  under  6 

6  and  under  7 

13.10               9,739 
8.89               8,106 
7.64               6,462 

10.60              6,908 
9.28               6,817 
7.18               6,041 
6.77               8-5.^9 

12.20 

10.16 

8.10 

7  and  under  8 

8  and  under  9 

8.66 

8.54 

9  and  under  10 

10  and  over 

7.57 
10.71 

Total 

1,519 

100.00 

79,791 

100.00 

(Page  329.) 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


Sixth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Vienna,  1887. 
Part  XIV.  Fahrikhygiene  und  Geset^gebung.  [Factory  Hygiene  and 
Legislation.]  Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Swiss  Factory  Inspector. 
Vienna,  1887. 

.  .  .  Excessive  work  and  fatigue  leads  to  dulness,   nerve  tension   re- 
laxes.    Observation  grows  dull  and  accidents  result.  .  .  .  (Page  36.) 


BAD  EFFECT  OF  LONG  HOURS  ON  SAFETY         209 

//  Ramaiiini,  Giornali  Italiano,  di  Medicma  Sociale.  Anno  I,  Fasc.  ITALY 
10-11.  [Italian  Journal  of  Social  Medicine,  October  to  November, 
1907. \  Le  stagioni,  i  giorni,  le  ore  degli  inforiuni  del  lavoro.  [Seasons, 
Days,  and  Hours  when  Industrial  Accidents  Occur.]  Professor  G. 
PiERACCiNi  and  Dr.  R.  Maffei,  Head  Physicians  in  the  Royal  Main 
Hospital  of  S.  M.  Nuova  in  Florence. 

We  made  an  investigation  of  the  workmen  employed  in  the  machine 
shops  of  the  railways  of  Italy  and  the  accidefits  incident  to  their  work  in  the 
five  years,  from  1901  to  1905. 

Florence,  accidents  2509;   Verona,  1671;    Bologna,  214;    Foggia,  229 
Naples,   173;    Rimini,   170;    Lucca,   100;    Pontassieve,   71;    Rome,  62 
Ancona,  40;  Milan,  38;  Venice,  43;  Pistoja,  32;  Lecco,  30;  Sulmona,  25 
Castellamare,  22;   Brescia,  15;   Forte,  14;   Bari,  12;  other  cities,  such  as 
Foligno,  Ferni,  Cremona,  Udine,  Vicenza,  Padova,  etc.,  a  number  less 
than  10. 

We  divided  the  accidents  into  two  groups,  one  of  which  comprises  only 
the  accidents  in  the  machine  shops  of  Florence,  while  the  other  includes 
all  the  scattered  shops  in  the  above-mentioned  cities. 

In  our  deductions  we  fmd  the  greatest  number  of  accidents  in  the 
Florentine  group,  because  it  has  fewer  heterogeneous  elements.  But 
since  this  group  is  numerically  too  small  (2509)  to  allow  of  accurate  de- 
ductions, we  add  to  this  first  group  the  other  larger  one  (3058),  of  accidents 
in  the  other  machine  shops  of  the  Italian  railways. 

The  combined  numbers  of  the  two  groups  are  sufficiently  homogeneous: 
first,  because  they  include  the  same  dangerous  work  or  groups  of  related 
work;  secondly,  because  the  workers  are  all  of  the  same  sex  (male); 
thirdly,  because  no  worker  is  under  16  years,  only  a  few  from  16  to  20, 
while  very  few  are  more  than  60;  fourthly,  because  they  live  and  work 
under  conditions  similar,  or  nearly  so,  to  their  usual  life  and  customs  as 
regards  education  and  culture,  temperature,  and  social  surroundings. 
(Pages  548-549.) 

Industrial  accidents  are  more  numerous  in  the  morning  hours  than  in 
the  afternoon,  and  have  a  marked  tendency  to  increase  in  direct  propor- 
tion to  the  lengthening  of  the  working  day.  Omitting  the  first  and  last 
hours  of  work  for  reasons  already  mentioned  {i.  e.  because  fewer  workmen 
are  present),  so  as  to  be  exact  in  our  conclusions,  it  is  evident  that  there  is 
an  increase  as  follows: 

206>^  accidents  in  the  2nd  hour 
258  "         "    "   3rd     " 

324K         "         "    "   4th     " 

323  "         "    "   5th    "  (Page  580.) 

14* 


210 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIEN'CY 


ITALY  The  protraction  of  the  hours  of  labor  raises  the  number  of  accidents  with 

each  successive  hour,  in  both  the  first  and  in  the  second  half  of  the  day.  It 
remains  now  to  trace  the  causal  element,  or  elements,  of  the  phenomenon. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  in  brain  or  muscle  work,  as  in  any  energetic 
action  of  our  organism,  there  is  a  consumption  of  dynamogenic  material, 
while  the  products  of  normal  organic  metabolism,  which  increase  during 
work,  act  on  the  animal  economy  as  poisons. 

This  condition  of  things,  which  only  food  and  rest  can  correct  and  re- 
move, and  which  occurs  regularly  in  the  daily  work  of  the  toiler,  will, 
as  time  progresses,  after  a  few  hours  of  work,  show  its  effect  on  the  worker. 

These  facts  are  scientifically  demonstrated  by  a  complete  series  of 
experiments  with  the  ergograph,  among  which  are  those  of  Kronecker, 
Mosso,  Maggiore,  Treves,  Joteiko,  Casarini,  etc. 

.  .  .  We  must  admit  a  destruction  of  oxydizable  material  in  our  or- 
ganism, a  corresponding  condition  of  auto-intoxication,  or  a  febrile,  painful 
condition  proportioned  to  the  duration  and  intensity  of  a  mental  or 
physical  task.  .  .  .  And  since  the  work  of  a  machinist  is  both  brain  and 
muscle  work,  as  it  requires  muscular  strength,  close  attention,  and  dili- 
gent application,  and  also  sometimes  mental  effort,  we  may  reasonably 
admit  that  a  protraction  of  the  hours  of  labor  raises  the  figure  of  accidents; 
because,  with  the  protraction  of  the  work,  the  worker  becomes  first 
fatigued,  and  then  exhausted.     (Pages  580-582.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1900. 

The  statistics  of  accidents  show  that  the  organism  imperceptibly 
reaches  in  the  fifth  hour  of  work  such  a  degree  of  exhaustion  that  the 
power  of  observation  is  considerably  diminished;  accidents  occur  two  or 
three  times  as  frequently  during  this  fifth  hour  as  in  the  first  hours  of 
work.     (Pages  65-66.) 


Report  on  Condition  of  fVoman  and  Child  IVage-Earners  in  the  United 
States.  Vol.  XI.  Employment  of  IVomen  in  the  Metal  Trades.  Sen- 
ate Document  No.  645,  61st  Congress,  2nd  Session,  1911. 

This  table  combines  the  results  obtained  from  the  records  of  19  estab- 
lishments engaged  in  metal  manufacture,  126  cotton  mills  for  a  period  of 
one  vear,  and  one  cotton  mill  for  a  period  of  eight  years,*  the  unpublished 
records  of  the  Indiana  Department  of  Factory  Inspection  for  three  years, 
and  the  published  tabulation  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor. f 

*  Cotton  Textile  Industry,  Vol.  I  of  the  report,  p.  395. 

t  Fourteenth  Biennial  Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial 
Statistics.     1909-10,  Part  II,  p.  78. 


BAD    EFFECT    OF    LONG    HOURS    ON    SAFETY 


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212  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  The  establishments  from  which  records  were  obtained  employed  11,178 

STATES  j^^lg^  ^j^j  3  7gj  females,  a  total  of  14,959.     Since  the  records  were  ob- 

tained for  an  average  period  of  3.47  years,  this  represents  workers  to  the 
number  of  51,908  laboring  for  one  year.  The  number  working  in  the 
cotton  mills  for  one  year  was  64,571,  and  the  single  mill  for  eight  years 
represents  10,816  working  for  one  year.  In  all  127,295  worker  years  are 
represented  by  the  portion  of  the  table  based  upon  records  gathered  at 
first  hand.     (Page  95.) 

In  this  table  the  period  from  7  a.  m.  to  12  noon  is  one  of  almost  perfectly 
uniform  employment.  The  entire  force  is,  except  for  cases  of  injury  or 
illness  or  other  causes  of  absenteeism,  at  work;  These  absences  will,  of 
course,  in  so  large  a-  group  be  distributed  over  the  hours  regularly  and  so 
not  disturb  the  number  of  persons  exposed. 

The  period  from  1  to  5  in  the  afternoon  is  of  nearly  the  same  character. 
The  last  hour  is  clearly  influenced  by  a  lessening  number  of  people  em- 
ployed. Very  many  establishments  close  at  some  point  between  5  and  6, 
either  constantly  or  at  some  period  of  the  year.  This  undoubtedly  ac- 
counts in  large  measure  for  the  lessened  number  of  accidents  during  that 
hour,  as  compared  with  the  last  hour  of  the  morning.     (Pages  96-97.) 

.  .  .  Apparently  the  accident  rate  is  a  complex  product,  dependent 
on  a  variety  of  factors,  concerning  which  we  have  as  yet  little  information. 
One  factor  which  probably  has  a  very  marked  influence  is  the  rate 
of  production.  It  is  a  truism  that  the  faster  a  machine  operates,  other 
things  being  equal,  the  greater  the  danger  of  accident  from  it.     (Page  98.) 

,  .  .  Any  increase  of  speed  of  operation,  unless  accompanied  by  some 
counteracting  safeguard,  may  be  expected  to  show  a  higher  accident  rate. 
That  such  increase  of  speed  during  part  or  all  of  the  work  period  is  the 
general  practise  is  common  opinion.  .  .  . 

It  is  evident  that  in  the  interrelation  of  influences  acting  upon  the 
situation  now  one  and  now  another  may  be  dominant.  The  most  con- 
stant factor  will  be  fatigue.  It  will  be  present  in  varying  proportion  in 
every  case.  It  may  act  with  the  tendency  to  increase  speed  to  produce  a 
greater  number  of  accidents.  It  may  in  the  end  become  so  pronounced 
that  speed  is  reduced  and  the  accident  rate  lowered. 

It  is  safe  probably  to  offer  as  a  provisional  hypothesis  that  the  imme- 
diate cause  of  a  variation  in  the  accident  rate  through  the  hours  of  the  day 
is  the  varying  rate  of  activity.  Fatigue  then  comes  in  as  an  important 
secondary  factor,  serving  sometimes  to  increase  the  accident  rate,  some- 
times to  decrease  it. 

There  will  be  some  tendency  to  minimize  the  factor  of  fatigue  in  the 
above  process,  because  it  is  not  a  matter  of  acute  sensation.    We  can 


FATIGUE    OF    ATTENTION  213 

recognize,  and  measure  with  some  accurac}',  the  gradual  increase  of  the  united 
fatigued  condition  before  sensation  begins  to  advise  of  its  presence.  It 
is  a  steadily  progressive  process.  It  gradual!}'  upsets  those  nice  adjust- 
ments of  the  living  organism  upon  which  depend  efficient  labor  and  the 
safety  of  the  worker.  The  margin  of  safet}'  in  modern  industry  is  small. 
It  is  measured  too  frequentl}'  b\"  fractions  of  an  inch.  Reduce  the  alert- 
ness and  the  exactness  with  which  the  body  responds  to  the  necessities 
of  its  labor,  and  b_\'  just  so  much  have  \'ou  increased  the  liability  that  the 
hand  will  be  misplaced  that  fraction  which  means  mutilation.  fPages 
100-101.) 

(2)  Fatigue  of  Attention 

After  fatigue  has  set  in,  the  faculty  of  attention  is  in  in- 
verse ratio  to  the  duration  and  intensity  of  work  under- 
taken. Attention  is  al\va\'S  accompanied  by  a  sensation 
of  eflFort,  and  fatigue  of  attention  is  due  to  the  continu- 
ance of  the  efforts  and  the  difficulty  of  sustaining  them. 

Physiological  reaction  time  is  the  name  given  to  the 
interval  between  the  occurrence  of  some  external  phe- 
nomenon and  the  signal  of  its  having  been  perceived  by 
any  given  individual.  This  interval  is  greatl}'  influenced 
by  fatigue.  When  the  brain  is  fatigued,  attention  flags 
and  reaction  time  is  retarded.  Hence,  after  overexertion 
fatigued  workmen  are  subject  to  increased  danger  when 
reaction  time  is  slowest  and  attention  at  its  minimum. 

Revile  InteryiationaU  de  Sociologie.     Kovembre,  1895.     Le  Travail  Huniain   itaxy 
et  ses  Lois.     [The  Lau-s  of  Human   IVork.]     Ffl\ncesco  S.  Nitti, 

Uniz-ersiiy  of  \aples.     Paris ,  Giard  ei  Briere,  1895. 

Certain  writers  have  observed  that  accidents  are  more  frequent  in  the 
later  than  in  the  first  hours  of  work.  Ordinarily  this  significant  fact  is 
attributed  entirel}'  to  ps>"chic  causes — to  the  lack  of  interest  and  assiduity 
of  the  workman — whilst  it  actualh'  arises  from  a  purely  ph\"siological 
fact,  namel}',  that  attention  is  alwa_\'s  in  an  inverse  ratio  to  the  duration 
and  intensity  of  work.  It  ma\'  be  taken  as  a  fixed  law  that  all  work  las  a 
limit  heyand  which,  if  effort  continues,  attention  decreases  and  ieyids  to  dis- 
appear campletely.     (Page  1030.) 


2  14  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ITALY  This  is  a  fact  that  every  one  can  prove. 

A  captain  tells  me  that  at  the  beginning  of  a  march  the  soldiers  are 
prompt  and  attentive,  but,  at  the  end  of  a  certain  number  of  hours,  atten- 
tion decreases  little  by  little;  it  is  then  difficult  to  maintain  order:  the 
men  stumble  against  obstacles,  walk  at  hazard,  fall  into  ditches.  If  they 
are  forced  to  still  greater  exertion  they  advance  unevenly,  without  seeing 
anything,  indifferent  even  to  danger.  Attention  is  gradually  dissipated 
until  quite  lost. 

The  workman  is  at  first  cautious  and  attentive:  he  avoids  danger 
because  his  attention  is  alert:  as  sensibility  decreases  with  the  onset  of 
fatigue  his  attention  diminishes;  he  does  not  see  danger.  Accidents  of 
labor,  unhappily  called  "accidental,"  are  more  numerous  with  men  sub- 
jected to  exhausting  labors,  precisely  for  the  same  reason  that  they  are 
more  frequent  in  the  later  part  of  the  working  hours.  "The  number  of 
accidents,"  says  the  Imperial  German  Insurance  Office,  "increase  with 
extraordinary  rapidity  in  proportion  as  the  fatigue  and  weariness  of  the 
workmen  insensibly  increase."     (Page  1031.) 

It  is  then  a  fixed  fact  that  fatigue  blunts  sensibility  little  by  little,  and 
destroys  attention.     (Page  1032.) 

"With  fatigued  subjects,"  says  Fere,  "the  eyelids  relax,  the  convergence 
of  the  eyes  becomes  difficult,  the  position  of  the  eyes  lack  steadiness,  the 
gaze  is  vague  and  appears  to  be  fixed  on  vacant  space.  Convergence 
being  one  of  the  conditions  necessary  for  concentration  of  the  attention, 
the  defect  here  coincides  with  incapacity  for  mental  work."  (Page 
1032.) 

The  fact  that  fatigue  destroys  attention  was  brought  out  a  century 
ago  by  A.  Crichton. 

Now,  the  faculty  of  attention,  as  Darwin  has  so  admirably  shown,  is 
the  most  important  of  all  faculties  for  the  development  of  human  intelli- 
gence.    ("Descent  of  Man,"  Vol.  1,  page  44.)     (Page  1033.) 

Excess  of  muscular  labor,  by  suppressing  attention,  prevents  the  de- 
velopment of  intelligence.     (Page  1033.) 

Fatigue.  A.  Mosso,  Professor  of  Physiology,  University  of  Turin.  1896. 
Translated  by  Margaret  Drummond,  M.A.,  and  W.  B.  Drummond, 
M.B.,  Extra  Physician,  Royal  Hospital  for  Sick  Children,  Edinburgh. 
New  York,  1904. 

In  1850,  Hermann  V.  Helmholtz  made  out  exactly  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  mandates  of  the  brain  are  sent  along  the  nerves  to  the  muscles, 
and  measured  the  velocity  with  which  impressions  made  on  the  surface 


FATIGUE    OF    ATTENTION  21  5 

of  the  body  reach  the  brain.     Everyone  has  noticed  that  scarcely  do  we  ITALY 
feel  ourselves  pricked  before  we  instinctively  withdraw  our  hand. 

Helmholtz  measured  the  time  which  elapses  (1)  between  a  prick  and 
the  perception  of  the  pain;  (2)  between  the  perception  of  the  pain  and 
the  muscular  contraction  in  response.  He  found  that  in  man  the  nerve 
current  passes  along  the  motor  nerves  with  a  velocity  of  30  metres  per 
second.  The  rapidity  with  which  stimuli  are  propagated  along  the  sensory 
nerves,  which  conduct  impressions  from  the  periphery  of  the  body  to  the 
nervous  centres  is  very  similar.  Some  writers  have  found  that  the  rate  of 
propagation  along  the  nerves  may  be  as  slow  as  20  metres  per  second. 
(Pages  74r-75.) 

Physiologists,  especially  the  pupils  of  Wundt,  have  extended  to  all 
the  senses  their  investigations  of  the  phenomena  of  attention.  One  of 
the  most  singular  facts — one  of  which  we  have  all  had  practical  demon- 
stration when  fencing  or  playing  at  ball  or  at  any  game  of  skill — is  that 
attention  increases  the  promptitude  of  reaction;  when  we  are  off  our  guard 
we  require  a  longer  time  to  get  into  the  proper  position  and  hit  back. 

.  .  .  The  difference  is  not  in  the  rapidity  of  the  movement,  but  in  that 
of  the  psychic  processes.  The  time  of  physiological  reaction,  or  simply 
physiological  time,  is  the  name  given  to  the  interval  between  the  occur- 
rence of  an  electric  spark,  for  instance,  and  our  giving  some  sign  of  having 
perceived  it,  say,  by  touching  an  electric  button  on  which  our  hand  rests. 
This  short  space  of  time  varies  in  different  individuals,  and  represents  the 
delay  which  takes  place  before  we  take  account  of  one  of  the  most  simple 
forms  of  perception.  Great  individual  differences  are  found  in  this  as 
well  as  in  the  more  complex  forms  of  perception.  .  .  .  Fatigue  has  a  great 
influence  on  the  duration  of  this  reaction  time.  When  such  measurements 
are  repeated  without  an  interval  for  rest,  the  time  before  the  response  is 
given  gradually  increases. 

Most  people  take  about  134  thousandths  of  a  second  before  responding 
with  the  hand  to  a  touch  on  the  foot;  but  fatigue  of  the  attention  may 
prolong  the  interval  to  200  or  250  thousandths  of  a  second. 

Obersteiner  showed  that  noises  and  all  causes  which  tend  to  distract 
the  attention  lengthen  the  time  of  physiological  reaction.  One  example 
will  suffice  to  show  how  much  better  our  brain  functions  in  silence.  Ober- 
steiner had  an  organ  placed  in  the  room  where,  by  means  of  Hipp's  chro- 
nometer, he  was  measuring  reaction  time.  When  there  was  silence,  the 
subject  of  the  experiment  took  100  thousandths  of  a  second  before  with 
his  right  hand  he  gave  a  sign  of  having  felt  a  touch  on  his  left;  but  when 
the  organ  was  played,  the  time  was  prolonged  to  140  or  even  144  thou- 
sandths of  a  second.     This  retardation  took  place  in  spite  of  the  greater 


2l6  FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

ITALY  intensity  of  the  attention,  and  whenever  the  music  ceased,  the  time  of 

physiological  reaction  became  as  before.     (Pages  203-205.) 

In  weak  and  nervous  people,  especially  in  women,  a  very  prolonged 
strain  on  the  attention  may  give  rise  to  serious  ailments.     (Page  188.) 

If  the  brain  is  fatigued,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  be  attentive.  (Page 
198.) 

The  best  example  of  the  incapacity  for  attention  produced  by  muscular 
fatigue  is  given  by  Alpine  ascents.  Only  with  great  difficulty  could  Saussure 
do  a  little  intellectual  work  on  Mt.  Blanc.  "When  I  wished  to  fix  my 
attention  for  a  few  consecutive  moments,  I  had  to  stop  and  take  breath 
for  two  or  three  moments." 

In  my  own  case  I  have  observed  that  great  muscular  fatigue  takes 
away  all  power  of  attention  and  weakens  the  memory.  1  have  made 
several  ascents.  I  have  been  once  on  the  summit  of  Monte  Viso  and 
twice  on  that  of  Monte  Rosa,  yet  1  do  not  remember  anything  of  what  I 
saw  from  those  summits.  My  recollection  of  the  incidents  of  the  ascents 
becomes  more  and  more  dim  in  proportion  to  the  height  attained.  It 
seems  that  the  physical  conditions  of  thought  and  memory  become  less 
favorable  as  the  blood  is  poisoned  by  the  products  of  fatigue,  and  the 
energy  of  the  nervous  system  consumed.  .  .  .  Several  Alpinists  whom  I 
consulted  agreed  with  me  that  the  last  part  of  an  ascent  was  least  dis- 
tinctly remembered.     (Page  200.) 

Thirteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Vol.  V, 
Sec.  IV.  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on,  par  des  methodes  physiologiques, 
etudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres  dans  les  diverses  professions? 
Quels  sont  les  arguments  que  les  sciences  physiologiques  et  medicates 
peuvent  ou  pourraient  faire  valoir  enfaveur  de  tel  ou  tel  mode  d' organisa- 
tion du  travail?  {To  what  extent  may  fatigue  resulting  from  occupation 
he  estimated  hy  physiological  methods,  and  what  argument  can  medical 
and  physiological  science  present  that  will  influence  favorably  certain 
methods  of  industrial  organisation?]  Dr.  Zaccaria  Treves,  Uni- 
versity of  Turin.     Brussels,  1903. 

The  examination  of  psychic  functions  in  individuals  profoundly  fa- 
tigued by  walking  shows  that  preceding  fatigue  makes  the  subject  more 
susceptible  to  subsequent  fatigue,  and  that  physical  ailments  or  insuf- 
ficient sleep  have  the  same  effect. 

After  fatigue  a  delay  in  promptness  of  reaction  and  a  greater  number 
of  faults  of  memory  and  attention  are  noticeable,  whilst  moderate  work 
has  a  favorable  influence  upon  these  functions.     (Page  27.) 


FATIGUE   OF   ATTENTION  217 

The  Psychology  of  Attention  {anthori~ed   translation).     Th.  Ribot,   Pro-  FRANCE 
fessor  of  Comparative  a-nd  Experimental  Psychology  in   The  College 
de  France.     Chicago,  Open  Court,  1894. 

Under  the  general  head  of  exhaustion  we  include  a  very  numerous  group 
of  states  in  which  attention  cannot  pass  beyond  a  very  weak  stage.  .  .  . 

Examples  are  found  in  .  .  .  extreme  physical  or  mental  fatigue.  .  .  . 
In  exhaustion  it  is  impossible  or  extremely  difficult  to  fix  the  attention. 
(Page  97.) 


La  Fatigue  et  V Entrahiement  Physique.     [Fatigue  and  Physical  Training.] 
Dr.  Phil.  Tissie.     Paris,  Alcan,  1897. 

Attention  exhausts  a  weak  brain  and  puts  it  in  a  state  of  the  least  re- 
sistance, exactly  as  an  illness  would  do.     (Page  125.) 

Binet  and  Courtier  established  by  observation  of  the  capillary  pulse, 
noted  by  a  delicate  instrument,  that  the  mental  effort  required  for  fixed 
attention  excited  a  vaso-constrictor  reflex  with  acceleration  of  the  heart, 
and  of  respiration,  often  vaso-motor  irregularity  or  fluttering  at  this 
phase  of  excitation;  then  came  a  stage  of  depression,  with  slowed  pulse 
and  respiration,  and  a  general  weakening  of  dicrotism  of  the  capillary 
pulsation,  which  is,  they  state,  a  symptom  of  fatigue.     (Page  125.) 

The  power  of  attention  is  variable  with  individuals:  it  is  proportioned 
to  the  physical  development  and  age;  it  is  rudimentary  with  degenerates 
.  .  .  and  weak  persons;  it  is  little  developed  in  children.     (Page  125.) 

Every  impression  is  a  meniory  in  formation  or  which  may  be  evoked 
when  once  formed;  now,  childhood  is  spent  in  accumulating  memories 
for  all  the  rest  of  life,  and,  as  there  are  few  impressions  which  do  not  cause 
muscular  functioning,  it  follows  that  the  more  numerous  the  impressions, 
so  are  the  motions  more  numerous,  and,  vice  versa,  the  more  numerous  the 
movements  are,  so  are  the  impressions  and  the  stores  of  memory  more 
numerous.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  physical  activity  of  child- 
hood, which  seeks  to  adapt  itself  to  its  environment  by  the  intermediary 
of  its  sensory  organs.     (Page  127.) 

.Attention  exhausts  the  psycho-dynamic  forces  necessar}'  for  motion, 
and,  conversely,  motion  attenuates  or  suppresses  attention.  (Pages 
127-128.) 

The  power  of  attention  is  limited  and  intermittent  because  each  fixa- 
tion of  attention  is  accompanied  bv  a  sensation  of  effort.  (Pages  130- 
131.) 


2l8 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


FRANCE  Etude  sur  l' Influence  de  la  Duree  du  Travail  Quotidien  sur  la  Sante  Generale 

de  I'Adulte.     [Study  of  the  Effect  of  the  Length  of  Working  Hours  upon 
the  General  Health  of  Adults.]     Ilia  Sachnine,  1900. 

Attention  is  always  accompanied  by  a  sensation  of  effort,  and  fatigue 
resulting  from  attention  is  in  direct  proportion  to  the  continuance  of  the 
effort  and  the  difficulty  of  sustaining  it.  If  one  attempts  to  fix  his  atten- 
tion unwaveringly  upon  one  object,  he  is  soon  conscious  that  the  object  is 
less  keenly  realized,  then  becomes  clearer;  in  a  word,  attentiveness  has  a 
kind  of  rhythm;  it  oscillates.     (Page  135.) 

Every  one  knows  by  experience  that  if  attention  or  mental  work  be 
prolonged  beyond  measure  there  results  a  sort  of  mental  cloudiness  which 
tends  to  become  more  and  more  severe  and  may  be  accompanied  by  ver- 
tigo. The  mental  activity  diminishes;  under  fatigue,  attention  and 
memory  are  weakened,  the  association  of  ideas  becomes  difficult  and  dis- 
traction augments.     (Page  138.) 


Travail  et  Plaisir.     [Work  and  Enjoyment.]     Charles  Fere,  Doctor  of 
Medicine.     Paris,  Alcan,  1904. 

Fatigue,  which  is  shown  in  lessened  energy  of  voluntary  motions  and 
also  in  their  slackening  and  loss  of  precision,  brings  also  a  diminution  of 
muscular  tonicity.  There  is  a  fatigue  of  tone  (Tonus).  The  cramps  which 
often  coincide  with  other  signs  of  motor  weakness  may  be  considered  as 
due  to  a  sort  of  ataxy  of  tone.  This  means,  in  other  words,  that  the  physi- 
cal conditions  of  attention  are  profoundly  altered;  involuntary  attention 
is  diminished  as  well  as  voluntary  attention.     (Pages  446-447.) 

Defect  of  attention  hinders  receptivity.  At  the  same  time  memory 
undergoes  a  rapid  disintegration.  Depression  of  attention  and  of  mem- 
ory is  evinced  in  practical  life  by  mistakes,  errors,  troubles  of  association, 
etc.     (Page  447.) 


BELGIUM  Thirteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.     Brussels, 

1903.  Vol.  V ,  Sec.  IV.  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on  par  des  methodes 
physiologiques,  etudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres  dans  les 
diverses  professions?  Quels  sont  les  arguments  que  les  sciences  physio- 
logiques et  medicates  peuvent  ou  pourraient  faire  valoir  en  faveur  de  tel 
ou  tel  mode  d' organisation  du  travail?  [To  what  extent  may  fatigue 
resulting  from  occupation  he  estimated  by  physiological  methods,  and 
what  arguments  can  medical  and  physiological  science  present  in  favor 


FATIGUE    OF    ATTENTION  219 

of  Special  methods  of  industrial  organiiation?]     Dr.  Jean  de  Moor,   BELGIUM 
University  of  Brussels.     Brussels,  1903. 

An  excess  of  physical  labor  extends  its  depressing  influence  to  all 
nervous  functions.  It  diminishes  the  precision  of  movements  and  the 
exactness  of  their  rhythm,  and  promotes  trembling.  It  diminishes  cu- 
taneous sensibility  and  blunts  all  the  psychic  activities.     (Page  9.) 

Labor  always  involves  to  a  certain  degree  the  intervention  of  the  higher 
mental  activities;  more  and  more,  in  our  era,  the  share  of  mental  work 
grows  in  every  department.  It  is  thus  certain  that  in  many  occupations 
men  exhaust  not  only  the  muscles  employed  but  also  the  functions  of 
attention  and  association  which  are  incessantly  brought  into  action . 
(Page  9.) 

Uher  die   Ursachen  der  Neurasthenie  und  Hysterie  bei  Arheitern.     [The  Germany 
Causes  of  Neurasthenia  and  Hysteria  among  Working  People.]     Paul 
ScHONHALS.     A  Study  of  200  Cases  in  the  fVorkingman' s  Sanitarium 
at  Shonow  Zehlendorf.     Berlin,  1906. 

In  the  development  of  nervous  disorders,  overstrain  of  the  faculty  of 
attention,  which  is  concentrated  on  the  work,  is  of  the  most  decisive  in- 
fluence.    (Page  27.) 

Mediiinische  Klinik.     Bd.   3^,     Nr.  30,  1907.     Die  Ermiidung  des  Ner-  AUSTRIA 
vensystems    und    der    Muskeln.     [Nervous    and    Muscular    Fatigue.] 
Dr.  Jeno  Kollarits,  Professor  of  Neurology,  Buda-Pesth.     Berlin, 
1907. 

.  .  .  Fatigue,  like  a  shadow,  attends  every  manifestation  of  life,  .  .  . 
stimulation  modifies  tissue  change  and  promotes  disassimilation.  There- 
upon should  follow  a  process  of  active  assimilation.     (Page  893.) 

Symptoms  of  fatigue  are  caused  by  the  progress  of  disassimilation  as 
it  takes  place  in  the  living  and  working  tissues.  If  the  organism,  as  a 
whole,  is  incapable,  even  with  the  help  of  accelerated  heart  action  and 
deep  rapid  respirations  of  replacing  the  loss  to  tissues  through  consump- 
tion of  their  material,  then  we  speak  of  exhaustion. 

Fatigue  of  the  nervous  system  embraces  mental  fatigue,  or  weariness 
from  thought,— fatigue  of  motion,  and  fatigue  of  feeling  or  sensation. 
Every  one  knows  that  continuous  thought  is  fatiguing.  No  one  can  read 
indefinitely — sooner  or  later  the  mind  refuses  to  follow  the  words.  A  com- 
plete restoration  from  such  fatigue  is  only  to  be  attained  by  a  complete 
release  from  work. 


220 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


AUSTRU 


UNITED 
STATES 


It  is  important  to  know  how  long  one  cell  or  cell  group  of  the  brain  may 
remain  active  in  mental  work  .  .  .  (experiments  described  of  calling 
faces  of  acquaintances  before  mental  vision,  etc.).  It  is  probable  that 
disturbance  of  attention  is  nothing  else  than  the  speedy  wearying  of  the 
brain  cells  that  are  called  directly  into  action;  to  be  sure  the  heightened 
irritability  of  the  nervous  system  under  the  stimulus  of  attention  also 
comes  into  play.     (Page  894.) 

The  Mental  Symptoms  of  Fatigue.  Reprinted  from  the  Transactions  of 
the  New  York  State  Medical  /Association.  Edward  Cowles,  M.D., 
Medical  Superintendent  of  the  McLean  Hospital,  Somerville,  Mass. 
New  York,  Fless  and  Ridge,  1893. 

Every  exercise  of  the  will  in  attention  is  accompanied  by  the  expenditure 
of  energy,  and  by  the  "sense  of  effort"  that  occurs,  particularly  when 
attention  works  against  some  resisting  motive,  interest,  or  feeling.  This 
directing  and  inhibitory  control  is  at  its  best  in  the  equilibrium  of  health 
of  mind  and  body,  and  therefore  it  is  a  most  important  means  of  esti- 
mating mental  health  and  vigor;  mental  disorder  is  commonly  attended 
with  disturbances  of  the  normal  process  of  attention.     (Page  13.) 

Sixty-fifth  Annual  Meeting  of  the  American  Institute  of  Instruction.  The 
Relation  of  Fatigue  to  Social  and  Educational  Progress.  Henry  S. 
Baker,  Ph.D.     Boston,  1895. 

The  grand  law  of  fatigue,  as  related  to  the  mind,  is  that  the  highest 
faculties  are  the  first  to  weaken  from  general  fatigue,  and  become  dull, 
inactive,  or  useless.     (Page  38.) 

Continued  attention  to  one  subject  cannot  be  given  by  a  tired  person 
for,  being  a  higher  faculty,  it  tires  among  the  first.     (Page  38.) 

The  will  is  one  of  the  first  things  to  feel  the  effect  of  general  fatigue. 
A  tired  man  is  lazy,  physically  and  mentally.  His  higher  brain  cells 
have  "struck,"  as  it  were  for  a  holiday,  and  more  brain  food  and  time  to 
eat  it,  so  to  speak.     (Page  39.) 


E.     Bad  Effect  of  Fatigue  upon  Morals 

The  dangers  attendant  upon  excessive  working  hours 
are  shown  also  by  the  moral  degeneration  which  results 
from  over-fatigue.     Laxity  of  moral  fiber  follows  physical 


BAD    EFFECT    OF    FATIGUE    UPON    MORALS  22  1 

debility.  When  the  working  day  is  so  long  that  no  time 
is  left  for  a  minimum  of  leisure  and  recreation,  relief  from 
the  strain  of  work  is  often  sought  in  alcoholic  stimulants. 
In  extreme  cases  the  moral  breakdown  leads  to  mental 
degeneracy  and  criminal  acts. 


(1)  General  Loss  of  Moral  Restraints 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXII.     1842.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of  great 
Factories.  B^^^^^' 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  working  10  hours  a  day  would  be  more 
favourable  to  health  and  the  enjoyment  of  life  than  12  hours  a  dav  can 
be;  but  without  entering  into  the  question  of  health,  no  one  will  hesitate, 
I  think,  to  admit  that,  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  so  entire  an  absorption  of 
the  time  of  the  working  classes  .  .  .  must  be  extremely  prejudicial,  and 
is  an  evil  greatly  to  be  deplored.  Some  there  are,  undoubtedl}',  who,  by 
more  than  ordinary  natural  energy,  overcome  this  disadvantage;  but 
with  the  great  mass  it  has  the  effect  of  rendering  them  ignorant,  prejudiced, 
addicted  to  coarse  sensual  indulgences,  and  susceptible  of  being  led  into 
mischief  and  violence  by  any  appeal  to  their  passions  or  prejudices.  With 
so  few  opportunities  of  mental  culture,  and  of  moral  and  religious  training, 
it  is  surprising  that  there  should  be  so  many  virtuous  and  respectable 
people  among  them.  For  the  sake,  therefore,  of  public  morals,  of  bringing 
up  an  orderly  population,  and  of  giving  the  great  body  of  the  people  a 
reasonable  enjoyment  of  life,  it  is  much  to  be  desired  that  in  all  trades  some 
portion  of  every  working  day  should  be  reserved  for  rest  and  leisure. 
(Page  30.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  VI.     1901.     Report  from  the  Select  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Lords  on  Early  Closing  of  Shops. 

Witness,  Sir  W.  MacCormac,  President  of  the  Ro>-al  College  of  Sur- 
geons : 

2466.  ...  I  have  a  strong  opinion  that  moral  and  physical  well-being 
depend  largely  one  upon  the  other,  and  that  if  from  any  cause  the  physical 
condition  of  men  and  women  is  lowered  the  moral  nature  must  to  some 
extent  suffer  too.  ...  I  quite  agree  with  the  opinions  of  m_\'  predecessors 
that  such  long  hours  are  very  grievous,  and  are  calculated  to  do  the  com- 
munity in  which  the>'  largely  prevail  serious  harm.     (Page  120.) 


222 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


The  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts. 
Richards,  1901. 


Edited  by  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.     London, 


If  working  long  and  irregular  hours,  accepting  a  bare  subsistence  wage, 
and  enduring  insanitary  conditions  tended  to  increase  women's  physical 
strength  and  industrial  skill — if  these  conditions  of  unregulated  industry 
even  left  unimpaired  the  woman's  natural  stock  of  strength  and  skill — 
we  might  regard  factory  legislation  as  irrelevant.  But  as  a  matter  of 
fact  a  whole  century  of  evidence  proves  exactly  the  contrary.  To  leave 
women's  labour  unregulated  by  law  means  inevitably  to  leave  it  exposed 
to  terribly  deteriorating  influences.  The  woman's  lack  of  skill  and  lack 
of  strength  is  made  worse  by  lack  of  regulation.  And  there  is  still  a 
further  deterioration.  Any  one  who  has  read  the  evidence  given  in  the 
various  inquiries  into  the  Sweating  System  will  have  been  struck  by  the 
invariable  coincidence  of  a  low  standard  of  regularity,  sobriety,  and  mo- 
rality, with  the  conditions  to  which  women,  under  free  competition,  are 
exposed.     (Pages  209-210.) 

Diseases  of  Occupation  from  the  Legislative,  Social,  and  Medical  Points  of 
View.  Thomas  Oliver,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  Medical  Expert  on 
the  White  Lead,  Dangerous  Trades,  Pottery  and  Lucifer  Match  Com- 
mittees of  the  British  Home  Office.     New  York,  Dutton,  1908. 

The  cheerless  days,  too,  spent  in  a  textile  factory  amid  the  din  of  ma- 
chinery, and  the  monotonous  character  of  the  work,  are  not  such  as  of 
themselves  to  quicken  the  intellect  and  promote  the  higher  interests  of 
life.  Is  it  not  rather  that  they  tend,  through  the  strain  they  cause,  to 
encourage  a  craving  for  that  form  of  recreation  which  seeks  an  outlet  in 
excitement  and  pleasure,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  dishearten  men  and 
women,  who,  as  factory  operatives,  feel  that  they  cannot  rise  to  a  higher 
occupation  than  that  of  minding  machinery?  The  despotism  of  some 
branches  of  modern  labour  is  overpowering.  Factory  legislation  has  done 
something  to  minimize  this.  ...  To  be  of  helpful  service  factory  legisla- 
tion must  be  progressive  and  keep  pace  with  the  industrial  problems  special 
to  each  succeeding  age.     (Page  xii.) 


ITALY 


Revue  Internationale  de  Sociologie.  Nov.,  1895.  Le  Travail  Humain  et 
ses  Lois.  [The  Laws  of  Human  Work.]  Francesco  S.  Nitti, 
Professor,  University  of  Naples.     Paris,  Giard  et  Briere,  1895. 

A  fact  of  no  less  importance  affirmed  by  physicians  everywhere  and 
which  explains  why  people  subjected  to  long  hours  of  work  are  often  very 


BAD    EFFECT    OF    FATIGUE    UPON    MORALS  223 

excitable  without   displacing  real   resistance  in  industrial   struggles,   is  italy 
that  fatigue  causes  in  individuals  and  races  subjected  to  it,  an  irritable 
weakness,  an  excessive  excitation,  and  almost  always  a  feeble  will.     (Page 
1038.) 

Fatigue.  A.  Mosso,  Professor  of  Physiology,  U?iiversity  of  Turin,  1896. 
Translated  by  Margaret  Drummond,  M.A.,  aiid  W.  B.  Drummond, 
M.B.,  Extra  Physician  Royal  Hospital  for  Sick  Children,  Edinburgh. 
New  York,  Putnam,  1904. 

Extreme  fatigue,  whether  intellectual  or  muscular,  produces  a  change 
in  our  temper,  causing  us  to  become  more  irritable;  it  seems  to  consume 
our  noblest  qualities — those  which  distinguish  the  brain  of  civilized  from 
that  of  savage  man.  When  we  are  fatigued  we  can  no  longer  govern  our- 
selves, and  our  passions  attain  to  such  violence  that  we  can  no  longer 
master  them  by  reason. 

Education,  which  is  wont  to  curb  our  reflex  movements,  slackens  the 
reins,  and  we  seem  to  sink  several  degrees  in  the  social  hierarchy.  We 
lose  the  ability  to  bear  intellectual  work,  the  curiosity,  and  the  power  of 
attention,  which  are  the  most  important  distinguishing  characteristics 
of  the  superior  races  of  man.     (Page  238.) 

Proceedings  of  the  First  International  Convention  on  Tndustrial  Diseases. 
Milan,  1906.  Frenastenia  e  delinquen^a  in  rapporto  a  taluni  ordina- 
menti  del  lavoro.  [Imbecility  and  Criminality  in  Relation  to  certain 
Forms  of  Labor.]     Prof.  Crisafulli. 

Every  overfatigued  worker  is  subject  to  a  kind  of  poisoning  derived 
not  alone  from  the  insalubrity  of  his  place  of  work  and  surrounding  con- 
ditions, but  also  from  exhaustion. 

The  symptoms  of  this  abnormal  condition  are  always  more  apparent 
in  the  last  hours  of  the  working  day.  Muscular  weariness  produces 
cerebral  weariness.  In  a  word,  it  is  exhaustion  which  is  often  followed  by 
nervous  overexcitability,  by  hypersensitiveness,  melancholy,  sullenness, 
etc.,  all  of  which  urge  the  individual  to  impulsive  and  conscienceless  acts. 
From  this  to  crime  is  but  a  step.     (Page  149.) 

Muscular  work  influences  the  nervous  system,  for  good  or  ill.  The 
brain  is  profoundly  affected  by  muscular  overfatigue.  The  excessive 
weariness  and  lassitude  of  the  overworked  man  can  no  longer  be  consid- 
ered the  immediate  result  of  his  work,  by  rather  the  index  of  anomalies 
in  metabolism  from  which  auto-poisoning  inevitably  results.  Prof. 
Mosso  found  that  the  brains  of  carrier  pigeons,  after  a  flight  of  500  kilos, 


224 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


ITALY  were  pale  and  anaemic;   likewise  the  brains  of  quails,  which,  flying  from 

the  African  coast,  fell  exhausted  upon  our  shores.     (Page  150.) 

It  is  true  that  among  malefactors  there  are  many  who,  wearied  and 
tormented  by  overwork  and  exhaustion  suffer  persistent  changes  of  the 
organic  metabolism  to  the  detriment  of  the  inhibitory  centres,  numbing 
the  conscience,  enfeebling  moral  and  discriminatory  powers,  with  irre- 
sponsible resultant  actions  often  positively  instinctive. 

It  is  an  established  fact  that  overfatigued  workingmen,  through  the 
actual  poisoning  of  fatigue,  become  unsettled  in  their  mental  equilibrium, 
remaining  almost  paretics  in  mental  associations  and  discriminations,  in 
the  inhibitory  powers  and  in  the  sentiments.     (Page  157.) 


FRANCE 


GERMANY 


UNITED 
STATES 


Travail  ei  Plaisir.  [Work  and  Enjoyment.]  Charles  Fere,  Doctor  of 
Medicine.     Paris,  Alcan,  1904. 

It  is  said  that  laziness  is  the  mother  of  all  vices,  but  fatigue  is  no  less 
fertile;  it  increases  desires  and  lessens  self-control.     (Page  451.) 

Amiliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichts- 
beamten.  1896.  {Official  Information  from  Reports  of  the  {German) 
Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,  1897. 

Inspector  for  Baden: 

Then,  too,  physical  overexhaustion  cannot  promote  morality,  for  with 
lowered  bodily  resistance  goes  enfeeblement  of  will  power.     (Page  251.) 

Massachusetts  House  Document.    No.  98.    1866. 

Overwork  is  the  fruitful  source  of  innumerable  evils.  Ten  and  eleven 
hours  daily  of  hard  labor  are  more  than  the  human  system  can  bear,  save 
in  a  few  exceptional  cases.  ...  It  cripples  the  body,  ruins  health,  short- 
ens life.  It  stunts  the  mind,  gives  no  time  for  culture,  no  opportunity  for 
reading,  study,  or  mental  improvement.  It  leaves  the  system  jaded  and 
worn,  with  no  ability  to  study.  ...  It  tends  to  dissipation  in  various 
forms.  The  exhausted  system  craves  stimulants.  This  opens  the  door 
to  other  indulgences,  from  which  flow  not  only  the  degeneracy  of  individ- 
uals, but  the  degeneracy  of  the  race.     (Page  24.) 


Massachusetts    House    Document.     No.    44.     1867.     Report    of    Special 
Commission  on  the  Hours  of  Labor. 

It  is  certain  that  men  may  labor  so  severely  and  incessantly  as  in  the 
long  run  to  impair  the  vital  energies,  and  thus  reduce  the  powers  of  pro- 


BAD    EFFECT    OF    FATIGUE    UPON    MORALS  225 

duction;  and  it  ma_\-  be  further  true  that  too  great  amount  of  toil  may  not  united 
only  injure  the  ph}'sical  powers,  but  depress  or  impair  the  mental  faculties,  ^^^     ^ 
so  that  in  this  way  the  productive  capacity  of  a  people  may  be  greatly 
lessened.     And,  still  further,  not  onI>-  the  physical  and  mental  but  the 
moral  nature  of  man  may  be  imbruted  b\'  severe  and  unreasonably  pro- 
tracted toil. 

The  hours  devoted  to  labor  should  not  be  so  extended  as  not  to  leave 
sufficient  time  and  strength  to  engage  in  those  pursuits  which  will  qualify 
the  laborer  for  the  discharge  of  his  duties  to  himself,  his  family,  and  his 
government.     (Pages  22-23.) 

Evide?ice  Submitted  to  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  in  Favor  of  the  Enact- 
ment of  a  Ten-Hour  Laiv.     Laurence,  1870. 

After  many  years  of  careful  observation,  1  think  I  can  sa>-,  with  truth, 
that  the  results  of  the  eleven-hour  system  are  evil,  and  onl_\-  evil,  physi- 
cally, intellectually,  and  morally. 

Overtasking  all  the  powers  of  men,  women,  and  children;  pressing 
them  in  all  their  labors,  and  long,  weary,  exhausting  hours  of  toil  to  a 
mere  subsistence.  .  .  .  Any  system  of  labor  which  thus  tramples  upon  and 
treats  with  contempt  man's  higher  nature,  requiring  of  the  father,  mother, 
and  children  a  constant  battle  to  secure  a  bare  living,  leaves  no  time  to 
cultivate  the  intellectual  or  moral  nature;  every  energy  of  mind  and  body 
is  crushed.  Crime  treads  on  the  heels  of  crime  as  a  natural  result,  driving 
multitudes  to  the  intoxicating  cup  with  all  the  attendant  miseries.  I. 
Duncan.     (Pages  13-14.) 

Report  of  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1870-1871. 

Reduced  hours  of  labor  have  a  great  tendency  to  improve  one  morally, 
mentally,  and  physically — a  person  will,  under  continual  long  hours,  either 
succumb  from  want  of  physical  power,  or  become  a  mere  brute,  not  having 
time  to  think,  visit,  or  do  anything  that  would  tend  to  personal  improve- 
ment. Under  such  circumstances,  it  is  nothing  but  work  and  sleep,  if 
there  is  a  family  to  support.     (Page  591.) 

Report  of  the  Maine  Bureau  of  Industrial  and  Labor  Statistics.     1892. 

Employers  should  realize  that  long  hours  at  a  severe  tension  are  a 
cause  of  irritation  among  their  employees,  and  they  become  ripe  for  almost 
any  trouble,  and  trifles  are  often  sufficient  to  precipitate  violent  strikes. 
The  real  cause  of  many  of  these  strikes  is  overwork.     (Page  12.) 
15* 


UNITED 
STATES 


226  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Report  of  New  York  State  Factory  Inspector.     1899. 

Long  hours  of  hard  manual  labor  destroy  the  mental  appetite  in  almost 
every  instance. 

The  man  is  unfitted  for  reading  or  study — he  is  physically  tired — 
and  his  intellect  is  inactive.  The  drain  upon  his  vitality  has  been  con- 
tinuous and  heavy,  and  he  must  needs  sleep  in  order  to  recuperate.  This 
continues  indefinitely — each  succeeding  day  being  but  a  repetition  of  the 
former.     (Pages  16-17.) 


Report  of  the  Nebraska  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.  1907- 
1908. 

Girls  in  factories  are  expected  to  keep  up  a  certain  "pace"  while  at 
work,  and  ten  hours  of  driving  work  at  a  hot  pace  are  not  to  be  considered 
conducive  to  good  health  physically  or  to  leave  the  worker  in  any  humor 
for  applying  herself  to  educational  improvement.  Dances  and  shows  will 
be  the  most  attractive  things  to  be  indulged  in  after  work,  if  the  chance 
offer.     (Pages  33-34.) 

Sixty-fifth  Annual  Meeting  of  the  American  Institute  of  Instruction.  The 
Relation  of  Fatigue  to  Social  and  Educational  Progress.  Henry  S. 
Baker,  Ph.D.     Boston,  1895. 

Among  the  higher  functions  of  certain  brain  tracts  is  that  of  inhibition. 
These  tracts  are  called  "inhibitory  centres,"  and  their  function  is  like  that 
of  brakes  on  a  wagon,  or  like  the  governor  on  an  engine,  or  like  that  of  a 
coachman  who  holds  a  tight  rein  when  his  spirited  team  is  going  down  hill 
or  along  a  crowded  street.  The  effect  of  fatigue  on  these  centres  is  seen 
very  quickly  in  any  prolonged  effort.  ...  In  general,  self-control  is 
lost,  and  the  lower,  the  baser,  and  the  more  selfish  faculties  of  our  nature 
run  riot.  ...  In  short,  the  fatigued  person  is  very  sure  to  fly  off  on  a 
tangent  in  one  or  more  lines.  In  other  words,  his  inhibitory  centres 
have  ceased  to  act,  he  has  little  self-control.  Most  crimes  of  all  kinds  are 
committed  at  night,  when  men  are  tired,  ugly,  and  possessed  of  little 
judgment,  comparatively,  and  less  conscience.  .  .  .  The  rested  boy  or 
man  can  resist  temptation,  but  the  tired  one  cannot.  His  will  and  con- 
science are  both  too  weak.     (Page  41.) 

The  facts  of  fatigue  settle  scientifically  and  beyond  appeal  some  social 
and  religious  questions.  Dr.  C.  F.  Hodge,  of  Clark  University,  proved 
that,  while  eight  or  ten  hours  of  rest  restored  the  tired  nerve  cells  to  a 


BAD    EFFECT    OF    FATIGUE    UPON    MORALS  227 

condition  nearly  normal,  at  least  thirty  or  thirty-six  hours  is  needed  for  an   united 
absolutely  complete  recuperation.     That  means  that  a  Sabbath,  giving 
so  long  a  rest,  is  a  necessity,  if  man  is  to  do  his  best  work  physically  and 
intellectually  or  live  at  his  best  esthetically,  morally  and  religiously. 
(Pages  51-52.) 

Women  and  the  Trades.  Elizabeth  Beardsley  Butler.  The  Pitts- 
burgh Survey.  Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication.  Neiu-  York, 
Charities  Publication  Committee,  1909. 

Dulled  senses  demand  powerful  stimuli;  exhaustion  of  the  vital  forces 
leads  to  a  desire  for  crude,  for  violent  excitation.  Little  time  is  left  for 
pleasure  after  a  ten-hour  da\".  In  such  circumstances,  culture  of  hand 
or  brain  seems  unattainable,  and  the  sharing  of  our  general  heritage  a 
remote  dream.  A  consideration  of  even  more  immediate  importance  is 
that  such  circumstances  impel  undisciplined  girls  toward  unsocial  action, 
toward  vicious  or  criminal  behavior.  Craving  for  excitement  is  the 
last  symptom  of  a  starved  imagination.  At  this  point,  discrimination 
has  become  too  great  an  effort;  foresight  and  social  judgment  have 
become  impossible.  Any  excitation,  destructive  or  not,  is  acceptable, 
if  only  it  be  strong;  the  effect  of  it  is  to  create  a  desire  for  stronger  stim- 
ulation. Roller-skating  rinks,  dance  halls,  questionable  cafes,  may  figure 
only  temporarily  in  the  worker's  life,  or  by  increasing  the  demand  for 
excitement,  may  lead  to  sexual  license.     fPage  356.) 


(2)  Growth  of  Intemperance 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXL     1833.     Secoyid  Report  of  .  .  .   the   great 
Commissioners  for  inquiring  into  the  Employment  of  Children  in  Fac-  " 

tories  atid  .  .  .  Reports  by  the  Medical  Commissioners.     Dr.  Hawkins 
(Lancashire  district). 

Intemperance,  debaucher\-,  and  improvidence  are  the  chief  blemishes 
on  the  character  of  the  factory  workpeople,  and  those  evils  may  easily  be 
traced  to  habits  formed  under  the  present  system,  and  springing  from  it 
almost  inevitably.  ...  On  all  sides  it  is  admitted  that  indigestion,  hy- 
pochondriasis, and  languor  affect  this  class  of  the  population  very  widely. 
After  twelve  hours  of  monotonous  labour  and  confinement,  it  is  but  too 
natural  to  seek  for  stimulants  of  one  kind  or  another;  but  when  we  super- 
add the  morbid  states  above  alluded  to,  the  transition  to  spirits  is  rapid 
and  perpetual.     (Page  4.) 


228  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  LXXIII.     1844. 

BRITAIN  -^ 

Mr.  Roberton,  a  distinguished  surgeon  at  Manchester,  says,  in  a 
published  essay: 

I  regard  it  as  a  misfortune  for  an  operative  to  be  obliged  to  labour  for 
so  long  hours  at  an  exhausting  occupation,  and  often  in  an  impure  atmos- 
phere. I  consider  this  circumstance  as  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the 
astounding  inebriety  of  our  population. 

Many  females  state  that  the  labour  induces  an  intolerable  thirst; 
they  can  drink,  but  not  eat.     (Page  1095.) 

Mr.  V.  Smith: 

.  .  .  Overwork,  with  disproportionate  wages,  was  often  productive  of 
immorality.  The  reason  was  obvious;  overwork  produces  exhaustion 
and  a  craving  for  excitement,  which  led  to  immorality.  .  .  .  High  wages 
paid  for  work  very  laborious  were  apt  to  make  workmen  dissipated.  Over- 
exertion required  corresponding  periods  of  idleness.     (Pages  1501-1502.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXIII.     1877.     Report  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  Half-year  ending  April  30,  1877. 

Overtime  induces  drinking;  it  will  be  found  in  all  the  occupations  in 
which  overtime  is  worked  there  is  more  or  less  drinking.  In  trades  like 
brickmaking,  where  there  is  a  considerable  strain  upon  the  muscles,  there 
is  on  that  account  a  tendency  to  think  it  necessary  to  replace  the  waste  by 
exciting  drink,  and  this  is,  of  course,  intensified  when  work  is  continued 
longer  than  the  body  can  properly  sustain.     (Page  15.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXXIV.     1893.     Royal  Commission  on 
Labour.     Group  C. 

Mr.  George  Mitchell,  chemical  workers  of  Glasgow,  Imrie,  and  Ruther- 
glenn : 

21,250.  And  you  are  satisfied  that  that  is  an  accurate  statement  that, 
year  in  and  year  out,  60  per  cent  of  the  men  employed  in  the  chemical 
works  work  seven  days  a  week,  12  hours  per  day?  —  No.  It  is  not  the 
case  that  they  do  it,  from  the  very  fact  that  the  physical  strain  is  too 
great  for  them. 

For  instance,  as  a  general  rule,  they  are  paid  every  fortnight,  and  gen- 
erally on  the  Saturday  on  which  the  pay  occurs,  you  will  find,  if  you  take 
a  visit  through  the  chemical  works,  that  the  furnaces  are  in  a  great  number 
of  cases  out,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  men's  exhaustion  is  so  great 


BAD    EFFECT    OF    FATIGUE    UPON    MORALS  229 

that  they  generally  get  drunk  immediately  after  getting  their  pay,  and 
consequently  are  unable  to  come  to  their  work  that  afternoon.  .  .  . 

21,252.  You  say  in  consequence  of  the  ph}-sical  exhaustion  entailed 
by  their  labour,  that  on  the  pay  days  the  men  generally  get  drunk?  — 
Yes.     (Page  3.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XII.  1903.  Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

The  result  is  disastrous,  even  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  industry 
itself,  which  if  properly  organized  would  be  capable  of  offering  really 
desirable  employment  to  skilled  workers  instead  of  being,  as  it  too  often 
is,  the  last  resort  of  the  idle  and  intemperate.  ...  I  would  add  that  too 
often  the  very  intemperance  is  created  by  the  conditions  of  employment, 
by  the  excessive  overstrain  of  endurance.     (Page  174.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXXII.  1904.  Report  of  the  Inter- 
Departmental  Committee  on  Physical  Deterioration.     Vols.  I,  II,  III. 

Committee  report: 

160.  .  .  .  The  close  connection  between  a  craving  for  drink  and  bad 
housing,  bad  feeding,  a  polluted  and  depressing  atmosphere,  long  hours 
of  work  in  overheated  and  often  ill-ventilated  rooms,  only  relieved  by  the 
excitements  of  town  life,  is  too  self-evident  to  need  demonstration.  (Page 
30.) 

164.  The  tendency  of  the  evidence  was  to  show  that  drinking  habits 
among  the  women  of  the  working  classes  are  certainly  growing,  with 
consequences  extremely  prejudicial  to  the  care  of  the  offspring,  not  to 
speak  of  the  possibility  of  children  being  born  permanently  disabled. 
Factory  labour  is  mentioned  as  a  predisposing  cause.     (Page  31.) 

The  Case  of  the  J ourneymen  Bakers.  Evils  of  Night-work  and  Long  Houri 
of  Work.  William  Augustus  Guy,  M.B.,  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
College  of  Physicians,  Professor  of  Forensic  Medicine,  King's  College; 
Physician  to  King's  College  Hospital,  etc.     London,  Renshaw,  1848. 

But  we  must  look  at  night-work  and  overwork  in  another  light.  We 
must  look  at  it,  not  merely  as  the  cause  of  sickness  and  premature  decay, 
but  as  an  unwholesome  influence,  acting  day  by  day  directly  upon  the 
body  and  indirectly  upon  the  mind.  Bodily  exhaustion  is  evidently  un- 
favourable to  the  exercise  of  self-control.     It  produces  a  feverishness,  a 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


230 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


restlessness,  an  excited  state  of  mind,  which  is  very  apt  to  lead  to  exces- 
sive indulgence  in  spirituous  liquors.  The  mind  cannot  settle  to  anything 
even  to  sleep,  and  craves  excitement  and  exciting  amusements;  and  thus 
bad  habits  are  formed,  which  grow  upon  a  man  until  it  becomes  very 
difficult  to  throw  them  off.     (Page  12.) 


Dangerous  Trades.  Thomas  Oliver,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  Medical 
Expert  on  the  White  Lead,  Dangerous  Trades,  Pottery,  and  Lucifer 
Match  Committees  of  the  Home  Office.     London,  Murray,  1902. 

It  is  frequently  asserted  that  laundry  women  as  a  class  are  intemperate 
and  rougher  than  most  industrial  workers.  That  they  are  peculiarly 
irregular  in  their  habits  it  is  rmpossible  to  deny;  and  the  long  hours,  the 
discomfort  and  exhaustion  due  to  constant  standing  in  wet  and  heat, 
discourage  the  entrance  into  the  trade  of  a  better  class  of  workers  is  cer- 
tain. .  .  .  The  prevalence  of  the  drink  habit  among  many  of  them,  of 
which  so  much  is  said,  is  not  difficult  to  account  for:  the  heat  of  an  at- 
mosphere often  laden  with  particles  of  soda,  ammonia,  and  other  chemicals 
has  a  remarkably  thirst-inducing  effect;  the  work  is  for  the  most  part 
exhausting,  even  apart  from  the  conditions,  and  the  pernicious  habit  of 
quenching  the  thirst,  and  stimulating  an  overtired  physical  condition, 
with  beer.     (Pages  671-672.) 

GERMANY  J ahresherichte  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichtsbeamten  und  Bergbehorden  fur  das 
Jahr  1907.  Bd.  /.  Preussen.  [Reports  of  the  (German)  Factory  and 
Min^  Inspectors  for  1907.     Vol.  L     Prussia.]      Berlin,  1908. 

Wherever  night  shifts  or  excessively  long  hours  are  the  rule,  alcoholic 
stimulants  are  taken  constantly  as  a  means  for  keeping  up  the  energies 
...  it  is  then  doubly  harmful.     (Page  l-"*".) 

A  definite  decrease  in  the  consumption  of  alcoholic  drinks  is  to  be 
hoped  for  as  a  result  of  the  slowly  progressing  movement  for  shorter  hours, 
better  economic  conditions,  etc.  .  .  .  because  the  physical  strain  will 
then  be  lessened,  nutrition  better,  etc.     (Page  1^*^) 


Handbuch  der  Arbeiterwohlfahrt.  Bd.  II.  [Handbook  of  the  General 
Welfare  of  the  Working  Classes.  Vol.  II.]  Edited  by  Dr.  Otto 
Dammer.  Arbeiterschuti.  [Protection  of  Working  People.]  Dr. 
AscHER.     Stuttgart,  Enke,  1903. 

That  the  over-exhaustion  of  brain  and  nerves  not  only  is  frequent 
among  employees  in  responsible  posts,  as  on  railroads,  etc.,  but  has  also 


BAD    EFFECT   OF    FATIGUE    UPON    MORALS  23 1 

cost  many  innocent  lives  as  well,  is  too  well  known  to  need  referring  to 
here.  Of  no  less  importance  is  the  indirect  influence  of  working  time  on 
the  worker.  A  rest  so  short  that  it  actually  only  suffices  for  sleep  de- 
grades man  to  a  beast  of  burden,  undermines  family  life,  when  such  exists, 
demoralizes  the  individual,  who  is  allowed  only  the  possibility  of  satisfying 
sensual  wants,  drives  the  man  to  drink  and  the  woman  to  prostitution. 
(Page  79.) 


Verwaltungshericht  der   Landes-Versicherungsanstalt  Berlin,  fur  das  Jahr 

1906.  [Report  0}  the  State  Invalidity  and  Old  Age  Insurance  Depart- 
ment for  Berlin  for  1906.]  Report  of  the  Physician  in  Chief  of  the 
Beeliti  Sanitarium.  {Tuberculosis  not  included.)  Berlin,  Loewen- 
thal,  1907. 

It  is  self-evident  that  the  organism  of  the  workman,  overstrained  by 
claims  which  often  force  him  beyond  the  limit  of  his  natural  capacity, 
has  urgent  need  of  abundant  and  suitable  nourishment.  (Page  62.) 
.  .  .  That  a  body  so  ill-nourished  must  with  time  lose  its  capacity  for 
work,  is  undeniable,  and  it  is  only  too  readily  conceivable  that  its  possessor 
first  intermittently,  and  then  regularly,  resorts  to  stimulants  to  brace 
himself,  either  not  knowing  or  not  apprehending  the  greater  injury  that 
it  will  do  him.     (Page  63.) 

Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.    Berlin, 

1907.  Vol.  II.  Sec.  II.  Die  Ursachen  des  Alkoholismus.  [Causes 
of  Alcoholism.]     Dr.  H.  Vogt,  Germany,     Berlin,  1908. 

By  far  the  most  important  factors  in  alcoholism  are  the  power  and 
effect  of  external  conditions  .  .  .  the  influence  of  the  surroundings  .  .  . 
dangers  encountered  in  occupations;  then,  too,  the  repeated  exertions 
required  by  work,  often  far  exceeding,  whether  momentarily  or  continu- 
ously, the  strength  of  the  worker.     (Page  376.) 

Among  external  factors  encouraging  alcoholism  different  kinds  of 
working  conditions  present  very  special  temptations,  sometimes  because 
of  the  intensity  of  strain  involved  in  them,  or  it  may  be  because  they  are 
repulsive  to  the  worker  and  so  call  for  a  special  effort.     (Page  379.) 

Handworterhuch  der  Staatswissenschaften.  Bd.  I.  [Compendium  of 
Political  Science.  Vol.  I.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of 
Political  Science  in  Halle;    L.   Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin; 


GERMANY 


232 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  W.  Lexis,  Pwfessor  of  Political  Science  in  Gottingen;  and  Edg.  Loen- 

ING,    Professor    of   Law    in    Halle.     Arheits;^eit.     [Hours    of    fVork.] 
Dr.  H.  Herkner,  Berlin.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

Often  the  overtaxed  workman  seeks  to  relieve  this  tension,  to  keep 
up  by  the  stimulus  of  drink.  The  enhanced  capacity  temporarily  gained 
by  such  means,  especially  by  alcohol,  which  plays  a  fatal  part,  only  sinks 
later,  however,  into  a  more  pronounced  fatigue.     (Page  1216.) 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


Berichte  iiber  die  Fabrikinspektion  im  Jahr  1879.  [Reports  of  the  (Swiss) 
Factory  Inspectors.  1879.]  Berne,  Sidmpflische  Printing  House, 
1880. 

Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Inspector  of  1st  District: 

One  hears  much  complaint  of  the  drunkenness  .  .  .  immorality  of 
the  workmen,  but,  surprisingly  enough,  only  in  those  industrial  regions 
where  excessive  hours  of  work  are  regularly  the  rule.  An  employer  .  .  . 
whose  men  worked  from  early  morning  until  far  into  the  night  did  not 
seem  to  realize  that  this  was  the  real  reason  for  what  he  called  their 
"laziness."  For  who  can  fail  to  perceive  that  a  workman  who  is  kept  at 
crushingly  hard  work  early  and  late  must  become  tired  out — must  need 
artificial  stimulants  to  keep  him  going?     (Page  14.) 

It  seems  that,  in  general,  the  entire  discussion  of  the  normal  workday 
has  been  confined  too  exclusively  to  the  commercial  standpoint  and  that 
an  all-round  examination  of  the  subject  on  the  basis  of  the  suggestions 
here  made  is  greatly  to  be  desired.     (Page  14.) 


FRANCE  Debats  et  Documents  Parlementaires,  Chamhre  des  Deputes,  23^  Mars,  1881. 

[Parliamentary  Debates  and  Documents  {French),  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
Mar.  23,  1881.]  Suite  de  la  discussion  des  propositions  de  hi  concern- 
ant  la  duree  des  heures  de  travail  dans  les  usines  et  les  manufactures. 
[Discussion  of  the  sections  of  the  law  relating  to  the  length  of  hours  of 
work  in  workshops  and  factories.] 

Senator  Waddington: 

As  far  back  as  1848,  General  Castellane  said,  "The  workers  have  no 
time  to  sleep.  When  one  cannot  sleep,  one  must  keep  up  his  strength  by 
extra  food.  They  cannot  do  that,  so  they  have  recourse  to  alcoholic 
drinks  to  produce  a  fictitious  strength."     (Page  616.) 


BAD    EFFECT    OF    FATIGUE    UPON    MORALS  233 

Archives  Generales  de  Medecine.     Vol.   I.     1906.     La  Joiirnee  de  Hnit  FRANCE 
Heiires.     [The  Eight-hour  Day.]     Dr.  P.  Corneille.     Parts,  1906. 

Dr.  Verhaeghe,  in  la  Medecine  Sociale,  regards  the  long  working  da\- 
as  an  obvious  cause  of  overstrain  and  sees  in  this  overstrain  the  primary 
cause  of  alcoholism,  tuberculosis,  and  physical  degeneracy  in  all  its  forms. 

The  same  opinion  is  held  by  Dr.  Gley  of  the  Facult>-  of  Medicine. 

Like  Imbert,  he  sees  in  fatigue  the  chief  causes  of  labor  accidents,  and, 
like  Verhaeghe,  he  holds  that  excess  of  labor  leads  to  alcoholism.  (Page 
1199.) 

Proceedings  of  the  1st  Interyiaiional  Convention  cni  Industrial  Diseases.   ITALY 
Milan,  1906.     Frenasienia  e  delinquen^a  in  rapporio  a  taluni  ordina- 
menti  del  lavoro.     [Imhecility  and  Criminality  in  Relation  to  certain 
Forms  of  Labor.}     Prof.  Crisafulli. 

In  the  bitter  competition  of  the  age,  the  organism  of  workmen  quickie- 
succumbs  to  fatigue;  they  must  therefore  be  looked  after  with  all  due  care 
to  ward  off  the  many  incurable  ailments  that  threaten  the  life  of  both 
manual  and  brain  workers. 

...  In  many  cases  this  poisoning  produced  by  fatigue  drives  the 
working  man  to  drink,  b>'  means  of  which  he  hopes  to  restore  his  exhausted 
energy. 

The  consequences  are,  then,  serious  indeed,  there  being  a  double  poison- 
ing at  work,  that  of  fatigue  and  that  of  alcohol.     (Page  150.) 

Evidence  Submitted  to  the  Massachtisetts  Legislature  in  Favor  of  the  Enact-  't^^n^D 

SXAXES 

ment  of  a  Ten-Hcnir  Law.     Lawrence,  1870. 

G.  S.  Weaver,  Pastor  of  Universalist  Church,  Lawrence: 
I  beg  leave  to  state,  after  ten  >ears'  observation  in  this  community-, 
that  in  m}-  judgment  our  people  are  so  overworked  as  to  materialh-  hinder 
their  intellectual  and  spiritual  improvement.  Their  excessive  labor  quite 
unfits  them  for  serious  thought  and  for  seeking  the  advantages  of  Christian 
improvement.  I  seriously  question  whether  their  exhausted  condition 
does  not  create  a  desire  for  stimulants,  which  is  even  a  greater  evil  than 
overwork  among  our  laboring  people.  An\-thing  which  legislators  can  do 
to  preserve  the  phx'sical  force  of  our  people  and  temperate  habits  will  be 
work  in  the  right  direction,  and  nothing  is  clearer  than  that  the  mothers 
and  children  are  the  class  speciall_\-  needing  legislative  care. 

I  could  say  much  from  observation  on  these  two  points.  Overwork  and 
Intemperance.     (Pages  20-21.) 


234  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Report  of  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1871. 

STATES  "  ■ 

Labor  excessively  protracted  defeats  its  own  end — the  maximum  of 
production — by  the  exhaustion  and  sickness  engendered,  and  by  the 
drunkenness,  dissipation,  and  idleness  of  which  it  is  the  efficient  cause. 

The  evils  resulting  from  the  excessive  labor  of  factory  men,  women, 
and  children,  especially  the  latter  two  classes,  produce  marked  results  of 
a  detrimental  nature.     (Page  573.) 

Massachusetts  Senate  Documents,  No.  33.     1874. 

The  Committee  on  the  Labor  Question  to  whom  was  referred  so  much 
of  the  Governor's  address  as  relates  to  Labor  Reform,  having  considered 
so  much  thereof  as  pertains  to  the  enactment  of  a  ten-hour  law,  and  having 
also  considered  the  petition  of  Wendell  Phillips  and  others  for  the  passage 
of  such  a  law,  report:  .  .  .  that  working  eleven  and  twelve  hours  a  day 
in  these  factories  saps  the  energies  and  produces  a  depression  of  spirits 
that  finds  relief  only  in  the  indulgence  of  intoxicants.     (Page  \.) 

Relations  between  Labor  and  Capital.  United  States  Senate  Committee 
on  Education  and  Labor.  Vol.  1.  1883.  Gov't  Printing  Office,  1885. 
Testimony  of  Robert  How.\rd,  Mule-spinner  in  Fall  River  Cotton 
Mills. 

1  have  noticed  that  the  hard,  slavish  overwork  is  driving  those  girls 
into  the  saloons,  after  they  leave  the  mills  evenings  .  .  .  good,  respect- 
able girls,  but  they  come  out  so  tired  and  so  thirst\'  and  so  exhausted  .  .  . 
from  working  along  steadily  from  hour  to  hour  and  breathing  the  noxious 
effluvia  from  the  grease  and  other  ingredients  used  in  the  mill.  (Page 
647.) 

Wherever  you  go  .  .  .  near  the  abodes  of  people  who  are  overworked, 
you  will  always  find  the  sign  of  the  rum-shop. 

Drinking  is  most  prevalent  among  working-people  where  the  hours  of 
labor  are  long.     (Page  649.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1900. 

Excessive  work  and  long  hours  are  the  causes  that  have  powerfully 
promoted  the  use  of  stimulants  and  intoxicating  liquors.  The  harmful 
influence  of  a  long  working  day  acts  not  only  directly  upon  those  who 
work,  but  also  upon  future  generations  and  threatens  the  vigor  and  full 
development  of  the  human  race.     (Page  66.) 


BAD    EFFECT   OF    FATIGUE    UPON    MORALS  235 

Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Annual  Convention  of  the  International  Associa- 
tion of  Factory  Inspectors  of  America.  Indianapolis,  1900.  Niagara 
Falls,  1901.  {Bound  in  New  York  Department  of  Labor  Report,  1901.) 
The  Shorter  IVorkday  in  its  Effect  upon  the  Personal  Character  of  the 
Worker.     John  Holbrook,  Deputy  Commissioner  of  Labor,  Michigan. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  the  moralization  of  time  in  reference  to  its 
effects  upon  personal  character.  The  worker  who  formerly  toiled  long 
hours  from  morning  till  night  and  six  days  in  the  week,  left  idle  on  the 
seventh  day,  was  under  great  temptation  to  make  a  brute  of  himself  on 
that  day.  Too  tired  to  do  anything,  jaded  body,  starved  brain,  brutalized 
soul,  there  could  be  no  Sunday  rest  for  such;  there  was  nothing  left  to  do 
but  get  drunk  as  the  natural  result  of  a  tired  and  brutalized  body  and  soul. 

More  leisure  has  given  opportunities  for  thought  and  the  growth  of 
intelligence  which  eager  minds  have  not  been  slow  to  improve;  the  news- 
paper, work  of  science,  and  a  quiet  Sunday  in  which  more  than  a  small 
minority  attend  worship,  have  been  wonderfully  helpful  and  elevating. 

Under  the  old  order  of  things  no  man  could  avail  himself  of  Sunday 
rest  and  worship.  He  was  too  tired  and  too  weary  to  enjoy  them,  even 
if  he  had  the  capacity,  which  was  very  doubtful;  nor  was  he  fitted  for 
home  life  and  its  duties,  and  consequently  missed  its  moralizing  effects. 
(Pages  564-565.) 

Industrial  Conference  under  the  Auspices  of  the  National  Civic  Federation, 
New  York,  1902.  The  Eight-hour  Day.  Prof.  George  Gunton, 
Institute  of  Social  Economics.     The  IVinthrop  Press,  New  York,  1903. 

So  long  as  the  laborer  works  to  the  point  of  being  exhausted,  so  far  is 
the  possibility  of  this  educational  opportunity  destroyed.  To  work  in 
the  factory  till  exhausted  disqualifies  a  laborer  for  reading  a  book,  for 
instance,  and  for  enjoying  the  social  influences  of  family  and  friends.  It 
fits  him  for  the  saloon,  it  fits  him  for  the  need  of  stimulants;  he  comes  to 
the  point  where  he  wants  the  quickest  relief,  and,  unfortunately,  that  is 
too  frequently  the  saloon.     (Page  173.) 

American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science.  Vol.  XXVII,  No.  3. 
1906.  Philadelphia.  The  Manhood  Tribute  to  the  Modern  Machine: 
Influences  Determining  the  Length  of  the  Trade  Life  among  Machinists. 

James  O'Connell,  President  International  Association  of  Machinists: 

In  searching  for  something  to  brace  up  his  nerves  the  worker  has  no 

idea  he  is  taking  great  risks,  or  running  any  danger  of  becoming  a  victim 


UNITED 
STATES 


236  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  to  the  drug  habit.     Unfortunately,  it  often  happens  that  he  strikes  some- 

STATES  thing  which  for  the  time  seems  to  renew  the  health  and  vigor  of  the  years 

gone  by,  but  the  relief  is  onl\-  temporarw  He  must  repeat  and  increase 
the  dose,  and  before  he  knows  it — he  perhaps  never  realizes  it — he  be- 
comes the  slave  of  some  derivative  of  coal  tar,  alkaloid  or  alcohol.  (Page 
494.) 

The  Steel  PVorkers.  John  A.  Fitch.  The  Pittsburg  Survey.  Russell 
Sage  Foundation  Publication.  Nezv  York,  Charities  Publication  Com- 
mittee, 1910. 

The  dust  of  the  mills,  too,  that  the  men  have  been  breathing  for  twelve 
hours,  sends  another  quota  to  their  beer  or  whiskey  to  clear  out  their 
throats.  Then  comes  the  largest  contingent  of  all,  the  men  wearied  with 
the  heat  and  the  work,  some  almost  overcome  and  dragging  their  feet. 
These  feel  the  necessity  of  a  stimulant,  and  they  get  it  day  after  day, 
regardless  of  the  waste  of  physical  and  nervous  energy  involved  in  keeping 
themselves  keyed  up  to  their  work  by  an  artificial  aid.  I  do  not  think  I  am 
far  wrong  when  1  say  that  a  large  majority  of  steel  workers  sincerely 
believe  that  the  regular  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  is  essential  to  keep  them 
from  breaking  down.     (Page  227.) 

The  better  class  of  steel  workers,  who  view  their  fellows  with  a  sym- 
pathetic eye,  explain  the  holida\'  intoxication  of  a  certain  element  in  the 
industry  as  a  logical  result  of  steady  work  and  the  long  day.  After  weeks 
and  months  of  work,  twelve  hours  a  day,  and  no  holidays,  a  man  gets  far 
behind  in  his  accumulation  of  the  pleasure  that  he  feels  to  be  his  due. 
(Page  228.) 


F.     Bad  Effect  of  Long  Hours  on  General  Welfare 
(1)  State's  Need  of  Preserving  Health 

The  experience  of  manufacturing  countries  has  illus- 
trated the  evil  effect  of  overwork  upon  the  general  wel- 
fare. Health  is  the  foundation  of  the  state.  No  nation 
can  progress  if  its  workers  are  crippled  by  continuous  over- 
exertion. The  loss  of  human  energy,  due  to  excessive  work- 
ing hours,  is  a  national  loss,  and  must  inevitably  result  in 
lowering  the  nation's  prosperity. 


STATE  5    NEED    OF    PRESERVING    HEALTH  237 

HciKsard's  Parliam^Kiar-:  Dihates.     I'd.  LXXll',     1S44.  GREAT 

BRITAIN 

N'iscount  Howick: 

I  contend  that  you  altogether  misappl)'  the  maxim  of  leaving  industn- 
to  itself  when  \'ou  use  it  as  an  argument  against  regulations  of  which  the 
object  is  not  to  increase  the  productive  power  of  the  countr>".  or  to  take 
the  fruits  of  a  man's  labour  from  himself  and  give  it  to  another,  but,  on 
the  contrar}-,  to  guard  the  labourer  himself  and  the  community  from  evils 
against  which  the  mere  pursuit  of  wealth  affords  us  no  securit}'.  The  mere 
increase  of  a  nation's  wealth  is  not  the  onl\- — it  ought  not  e\"en  to  be  the 
first  and  highest — object  of  a  Government.  The  welfare,  both  moral  and 
physical,  of  the  great  bod>-  of  the  people  I  concei\'e  to  be  the  true  concern 
of  the  Government  ...  In  the  too  eager  pursuit  of  wealth,  a  nation,  like 
an  individual,  m.ay  neglect  what  is  of  infinitel}'  higher  importance.  (Page 
642.) 

Factory  Ad  Lezislciiior..     The  Cohden  Pri:/  Essay  for  1S91.     \'ictorine 
Jeans.     LokJo}!.  T.  Ftsier  L'Kziin.  1892. 

The  bodih'  and  intellectual  energ>'  of  the  individual  workman  is.  after 
all,  the  onl>"  true  basis  of  an\'  kind  of  national  greatness.  .  .  .  Long  ex- 
perience teaches  this:  that  no  law  which  promotes  the  ph\'sical,  intel- 
lectual, and  moral  good  of  the  working  classes  can  in  the  long  run  prove 

economically  unsound.     (.Page  91.) 

The  Case  for  the  Faciory  Ads.     Edited  hy  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.     London, 
Richard.  1901. 

The  question  arises,  however,  whether  on  philanthropic  grounds  alone 
individuals  of  mature  \'ears  can  be  denied  the  right  to  work  as  long  and 
as  unhealthil}-  as  they  like.  The  .-\cts  of  1891  and  1S95  show  signs  of  a 
recognition,  if  a  tard>'  one.  that  the  real  grounds  of  interference  with  in- 
dustr\-  are  considerations  of  public  health  and  safet>-.  The  old  idea  of 
protecting  certain  classes  of  workers  because  the}"  are  not  ''free  agents'' 
is  more  and  more  felt  to  be  irrelevant,  if  not  meaningless.  There  are  still 
those  who  ask  in  astonishment.  "'.Ma\-  not  a  man,  ma>'  not  a  woman, 
emplo}-  their  capital  or  their  labour  as  the\-  choose?"  But  the  State  says, 
with  a  less  and  less  hesitating  sound.  "Not  under  conditions  wasteful  of 
the  life,  or  destructive  of  the  efficiency  of  those  emplo\-ed,  or  dangerous 
to  the  safet\-  and  well-being  of  the  community."  To  this  conclusion  it 
has  been  driven  bv  inquirv  into  the  conditions  of  public  health.  (.Page 
123.) 


238  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  Handbuch  der  Hygiene.  Bd.  8^.  {Handbook  of  Hygiene.  Vol.  8^.\  Ed- 
ited by  Dr.  Theodore  Weyl.  Allgemeine  Gewerbehygiene  und  Fab- 
rikgesetigebung.  [General  Industrial  Hygiene  and  Factory  Legisla- 
tion.]    Dr.  Emil  Roth.    Jeria,  1894. 

In  no  field  have  State  and  society  greater  duties  to  perform  than  in 
industrial  hygiene  and  the  prevention  of  accidents,  and  these  duties 
become  more  serious  as  the  difficulty  and  dangers  of  occupation  increase. 

.  .  .  And  yet  no  one  can  deny  that  the  present  industrial  labor  of 
women  and  children  betokens  a  misdirection  of  working  strength  which, 
by  dint  of  premature  and  unnatural  drains  upon  and  exhaustion  of  labor 
capacity,  is  capable  of  inflicting  moral  and  physical  injury  upon  the  fam- 
ily. Obviously  also,  the  preservation  and  vigor  of  the  family  are  the  first 
essentials  of  all  social  reforms.  .  .  .  The  protection  of  labor  is  not  only 
a  postulate  of  humanity  and  of  morals,  but  above  all  else,  of  the  national 
health. 

The  aim  and  purpose  of  our  work  is  to  benefit  the  whole  race,  by  bring- 
ing the  egoistic  desires  of  individuals  into  harmony  with  the  purposes  of  a 
unified  society.     (Pages  1-3.) 

Die  Pathologie  und  Therapie  der  Neurasthenic.  [Pathology  and  Thera- 
peutics of  Neurasthenia.]  Dr.  Otto  Binswanger,  Professor  of  Psy- 
chiatry and  Director  of  the  Psychiatric  Hospital  at  Jena.  Jena, 
Fischer,  1896. 

General  prophylaxis  will  find  its  most  pressing  duty  to  lie  in  the  pro- 
tection of  those  members  of  society  who  are  still  healthy,  from  immoderate 
demands  upon  their  strength.  As,  on  account  of  the  competition  in  all 
classes  of  society,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  relax  intensity  of  work  for  any 
one  individual  without  destroying  his  chances  for  success,  a  general  plan 
of  hygienic  regulation  of  work  must  be  adopted  with  a  view  to  the  pres- 
ervation of  racial  vigor,  and  the  working  energy  demanded  shall  be  re- 
duced enough  to  allow  rest  and  recreation  in  ample  extent  for  every  one. 
(Page  358.) 

Archiv  fiir  Unfallheilkunde,  Gewerbehygiene  und  Gewerbekrankheiten. 
Bd.  I.  Uber  den  Gesundheitsschuti  der  Gewerblichen  Arbeiter.  [Pro- 
tection of  the  IVorkingman' s  Health.]  Dr.  Schaefer.  Stuttgart, 
Enke,  1896. 

There  is  scarcely  a  single  industrial  occupation  in  which  one  or  more  of 
the  above  influences  (results  of  excessive  standing,  sitting,  etc.)  is  not 


STATE  S    NEED    OF    PRESERVING    HEALTH  239 

prominent.     We  include  them  therefore  in  the  general  dangers  of  occupa-   Germany 
tion  to  which  factory  workers  especially  are  exposed.     (Page  202.) 

The  claim  for  a  shorter  working  da>',  which  has  been  pressed  in  all 
civilized  countries  within  the  past  few  decades,  and  which  ma>-  be  defined 
as  an  absolute  social  need,  can  not  be  urgently  enough  supported  in  the 
interest  of  the  public  health.     (Page  204.) 

Gesammelte  Ahhandlungen.  Bd.  III.  [Complete  Works.  Vol.  III.] 
Die  Volkswirthsc'bafUiche  Bedetihmg  der  Ferkiir^ung  des  Industriellen 
Arheitstages.  [The  Economic  Significance  of  a  Shorier  Working  Day.] 
Ernst  Abbe.  Paper  read  before  the  Political  Society,  Jena,  1901. 
Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 

As  the  expenditure  of  power  due  to  the  machines  running  idle  amounts 
to  a  useless  consumption  of  30-40  millions  of  marks  of  coal,  wasted  in 
Germany,  so,  even  more  important,  is  the  waste  of  energy  in  the  loss  of 
eflTiciency  of  3  or  4  million  men.  And  the  question  then  arises:  What  is 
the  sense  of  this  undoubted  waste  of  strength,  when  it  is  possible  for  men 
to  produce  the  same  in  the  8  hours  that  they  do  in  10?  And  whose  loss 
is  it?  Is  it  only  the  loss  of  individual  convenience  to  men  who  would  find 
it  more  agreeable  to  spend  only  8  hours  at  work,  or  is  it  a  loss  that  has  a 
general  social  and  economic  significance?  I  hold  it  is  the  latter.  (Page 
236.) 

This  squandering  of  human  strength  means  a  loss  to  the  intelligence 
and  mental  activity  of  the  human  race;  it  means  that  a  valuable  capital 
which  Germany  possesses  in  the  intelligence  of  her  workers  is  lying  idle, 
because  the  conditions  are  not  such  as  to  permit  this  intelligence  to  expand 
to  its  full  value.     (Page  237.) 

Grenifragen  des  Nerven  und  Seelenlehens.  Bd.  VI.  [Borderland  Problems 
of  Nervous  and  Psychic  Life.  Vol.  VI.]  Edited  by  Loewenfeld  and 
KuRELLA.  Oher  die  geistige  Arbeitskraft  und  ihre  Hygiene.  [On 
Mental  Working  Pozver  and  its  Hygiene.]  Dr.  L.  Loewenfeld. 
Wiesbaden,  Bergmann,  1906. 

The  efficiency  of  the  individual  is  a  part  of  the  national  efficiency. 
If  one  considers  how  rushing  and  incessant  the  commercial  rivalry  of 
civilized  states  is  to-day,  and  realizes  how  closely  the  results  of  this  struggle 
depend  upon  the  intellectual  capital  which  the  nations  have  at  their  com- 
mand, one  is  obliged  to  admit  what  a  great  significance  for  national  wel- 
fare there  is  in  the  mental  working  capacity  of  the  individual.     But  among 


240 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  those  most  concerned  there  has  been,  as  yet,  by  no  means  adequate  recog- 
nition of  this  fact.  .  .  .  We  are  still  far  from  being  able  to  say  that  all  is 
done  that  can  be  done,  b>'  private  initiative  and  by  the  state,  to  preserve 
and  develop  the  brain  power  of  the  nation.     (Page  68.) 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


Haudzvdrierbiick  der  Staatswissensckaften.  Bd.  I.  [The  Compendium  of 
Political  Science.  Vol.  I.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of 
Political  Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin; 
W.  Lexis,  Professor  of  Lau:  in  Halle.  Arbeitsieit.  [Hours  of  fVork.] 
Dr.  H.  Herkner,  Berlin.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

But  there  is  one  time  when  politico-economic  doubts  (as  to  the  in- 
dustrial results  of  restriction)  must  take  second  place.  Wherever  the 
length  of  working  hours  is  responsible  for  injury  to  health  or  morals,  then 
the  state  is  justified  in  interfering,  even  although  the  results  from  the 
economic  point  of  view  cannot  be  clearly  determined.  It  conflicts  with 
the  moral  sense  of  modern  nations  to  permit  the  robbery  of  human  work- 
ing power  and  to  allow  men  to  be  used  simply  as  means  of  enriching  other 
men.  Such  parasitic  industries  present  no  elements  of  strength,  but  only 
disease  and  weakness.     (Page  1207.) 

Berichie  der  eidg.  Fabrikinspektoren  iiher  ihre  Amsidtigkeit  in  den  Jahren 
1894  luid  1895.  [Reports  of  the  {Su-iss)  Factory  Inspectors.  1894  and 
1895.]     Aarau.  Sauerldnder,  1896. 

Among  the  social  questions  of  the  day  the  reduction  of  hours  holds 
first  rank.  ...  It  cannot  be  denied  that  one  who  abuses  his  strength  by 
excessive  labor,  loses  his  health  and  frequently  becomes  a  worn-out  and 
useless  man  before  his  time,  often  indeed  a  charge  upon  society.  The 
interest  of  the  workman  and  the  interest  of  society  are  at  one  in  demanding 
a  just  and  rational  limit  of  the  hours  of  work.     (Page  129. J 


ROUMANIA 


Proceedings  of  the  Elaenth  International  Congress  of  Medicine,  Rome, 
1895.  Vol.  I.  Die  Stellung  des  Staates  ^ur  Modernen  Bacteriolog- 
ischen  Forschiing  [The  Attitude  of  States  to  Modern  Bacteriological 
Investigation.]     Dr.  V.  Babes,  University  of  Bucharest.     Rom.e,  1895. 

There  should  be  ph\sicians  specially  trained,  and  free  from  the  claims 
of  general  practice,  who  could  make  widely  known  in  responsible  circles 
and  especiall\-  among  statesmen,  all  the  achievements  of  medical  science 
and  the  lines  of  practical  application  on  which  their  vast  importance  for 

the  health  of  nations  might  be  utilized.  .  .  . 


STATE  S    NEED    OF    PRESERVING    HEALTH  24I 

Men  so  trained  must  then,  before  all,  agitate  strongly  for  a  fundamental  roumania 
reconstruction  of  society  in  the  interest  of  an  international  and  social 
reform  based  upon  the  following  principles,  namel}-;  that  individual 
health  cannot  be  separated  from  the  general  health;  that  the  health  of 
one  class  is  decided  by  that  of  another  class;  and  that  precisely  the  health 
of  the  lower  classes  possesses  the  highest  socio-economical  value  of  all. 
(Page  244.) 

Eighth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Budapest,  AtJSTRiA 
1894.  Vol.  VII.  Sec.  V.  Uber  das  Verhaltniss  der  Dauer  des 
Arheitstages  lur  Gesimdheit  des  Arheiters  und  dessen  Einfltiss  aiif  die 
Offentliche  Gesundheit.  [The  Length  of  the  Working  Day  in  its  Re- 
lation to  the  Workman  s  Health  and  Influence  upon  Public  Health.] 
Dr.  E.  R.  J.  Krejcsi,  Vice-Secretary  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
Budapest.     Budapest,  1896. 

One  of  the  most  important,  most  pressing  questions  is  the  regulation 
of  working  hours,  and  this  question  cannot  be  considered  to  be  settled 
even  in  those  states  which  have  already  established  a  "normal"  working 
day.  In  the  face  of  all  the  facts,  of  the  dangers  threatening  the  public 
health  through  overexertion  arising  from  too  long  working  hours,  it  be- 
comes the  duty  of  States  to  give  continuous  attention  to  the  claims  made 
for  a  hygienic  and  therefore  an  allowable  working  time,  and  to  lower  the 
duration  of  working  hours  progressivel\',  ...  in  accordance  with  the 
findings  of  authorized  physiological  and  socio-economic  investigations. 
The  scruples  which  have  been  loudest  heard  in  opposition  are  gradually 
being  silenced,  and  experience  will  prove  that  the  factory  hand  will  be 
able  to  attain  a  higher  efficiency  by  practice  and  training.  We  do  not 
know,  to-day,  at  what  point  in  production,  as  gauged  by  the  working  time, 
a  permanent  inferiority  of  capacity  comes  on.  It  is  possible  that  it  ma\' 
appear  after  a  number  of  hours  that  would  seem  to  us,  with  our  present 
ideas,  very  small  indeed.     (Page  331.) 

Tenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.     Paris.  1900.   FRANCE 
In  one  volume.     Address  of  M.  Waldeck  Rousseau,  President  of  the 
Council,  Minister  of  the  Interior,  France.     Paris,  Masson,  1900. 

More  and  more  do  democracies  realize  that  the  laws  of  h\"giene  are  an 
integral  part  of  their  programme. 

They  are  recognizing  that  the  working  classes — to  whom  the  means  of 
obeying  the  claims  of  private  sanitation  are  too  often  lacking — have  the 
right  to  demand  a  minimum  guarantee  from  public  hvgiene;  that  laws 
16* 


242 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


FRANCE  are  necessary  to  enforce  this;  that  such  laws  are  a  debt  of  society  toward 

its  members.     (Page  15.) 

Revue  d' Economie  Politique.  T.  XVI.  1902.  La  Protection  Legale  des 
Travailleurs,  esi-elle  Necessaire?  [Is  Legal  Protection  for  IVorking 
People  Necessary?]  M.  Raoul  Jay,  Professor  of  Law,  University  of 
Paris. 

The  strength  of  the  nation  is  the  strength  of  the  individuals  that  com- 
pose it.  No  one  contests  the  terrible  consequences  that  a  nation  must 
expect  that  subjects  its  children  to  labor  which  checks  their  physical  and 
mental  development.  .  .  .  But  to  safeguard  the  nation's  interest  it  does 
not  suffice  merely  to  regulate  child  labor.  "To  protect  the  child  and  not 
to  protect  the  mother  is  an  absurdity."  Said  Jules  Simon  .  .  .  What 
good  is  gained  if — even  supposing  the  child  is  protected — the  strength  of 
the  adult  is  wrecked  in  a  few  years  by  excessive  or  unhealthy  labor; — if 
the  adult  is  not  given  the  leisure  necessary  to  develop  his  human  quali- 
ties? .   .   . 

To  secure  the  necessary  "national  minimum"  is,  for  some  countries, 
an  imperative  duty.  I  am  thinking  of  the  military  service,  where  the 
strength  of  all  is  the  guaranty  of  national  independence.    (Pages  148-149.) 

Revue  d' Economie  Politique.  T.  XV.  1901.  La  Nouvelle  Reglemen- 
tation  de  la  Journee  de  Travail.  [The  New  Labor  Legislation.]  M. 
BouRGUiN,  Professor  of  Political  Economy,  Lille. 

The  whole  movement  of  modern  civilization  tends  in  the  direction  of  a 
progressive  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor.  .  .  .  The  future  of  the  race 
must  not  be  compromised,  family  life  destroyed,  the  physical  energy  of 
the  worker  shattered,  or  his  intellectual  or  moral  development  stunted  by 
excessive  toil.     (Page  344.) 


BELGIUM  ^^^  Projets  de  Limitation  de  la  Duree  dii  Travail  des  Adultes  en  Belgique. 

[Proposals  regarding  Limitation  of  Hours  of  Work  for  Adults  in  Belgium.] 
Hector  Denis.  No.  X  of  the  Publications  of  the  Belgian  Section  of 
the  International  Association  for  Labor  Legislation.  Liege,  Bernard, 
1908. 

In  the  debate,  M.  Dejace  attributed  a  police  power  to  the  State  by 
which  it  might  properly  intervene  not  only  to  restrain,  but  also  to  prevent 
abuses.  As  serious  exploitation  compromises  not  only  the  existence  of  the 
worker  but  also  the  very  future  of  the  race,  this,  to  his  mind,  was  sufficient 


STATE  S    NEED    OF    PRESERVING    HEALTH 


243 


ground,  and  the  only  legitimate  ground,  for  preventive  intervention  by   BELGIUM 
Government.     (Page  18.) 

M.  Denis  held  that  state  regulation  is  not  only  justified  when  the  actual 
existence  of  the  worker  and  of  the  race  is  threatened,  but  further  that  it  is 
justifiable  in  securing  the  necessary  conditions  for  the  conservation  and 
development  of  the  laboring  classes  physically,  intellectually,  morally, 
socially,  and  politically.     (Page  19.) 

Psychology  furnishes  a  justification  of  restrictive  law,  in  demonstrating 
the  defectiveness  and  slow  development  of  the  consciousness  of  fatigue. 
The  social  consciousness,  then,  must  supplement  that  of  the  individual. 
(Page  20.) 


Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1871. 

It  is  claimed  that  legislation  on  this  subject  is  an  interference  between 
labor  and  capital.  .  .  .  But  legislation  has  interfered  with  capital  and 
labor  both,  in  the  demand  for  public  safety  and  the  public  good.  Now 
public  safety  and  public  good,  the  wealth  of  the  Commonwealth,  centred, 
as  such  wealth  is,  in  the  well-being  of  its  common  people,  demands  that 
the  State  should  interfere  by  special  act  in  favor  of  .  .  .  working  women, 
and  working  children,  by  enacting  a  ten-hour  law,  to  be  enforced  by  a 
system  of  efficient  inspection.     (Page  567.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health. 
VIS,  M.D. 


1873.     Edward  Jar- 


All  additions  to  the  physical,  moral,  or  intellectual  power  of  individuals 
in  any  individual  are,  to  that  extent,  additions  to  the  energy  and  the  pro- 
ductive force — the  effectiveness  of  the  State;  and  on  the  contrary,  all 
deductions  from  these  forces,  whether  of  mind  or  body — every  sickness, 
and  injury  or  disability,  every  impairment  of  energy — take  so  much  from 
the  mental  force,  the  safe  administration  of  the  body  politic.  .  .  . 

The  State  thus  has  an  interest  not  only  in  the  prosperity,  but  also  in 
the  health  and  strength  and  effective  power  of  each  one  of  its  members. 
(Page  336.) 


National  Convention  of  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  United  States, 
delphia,  June  8-9,  1887.     Columbus,  Myers,  1887. 


Phila- 


Rufus  R.  Wade,  Chief  Factory  Inspector  of  Massachusetts: 
The  history  of  what  is  called  our  Ten-hour  Law  was  a  record  of  con- 
stant, feverish  struggle,  maintained  year  after  year,  passed  in  one  branch 


244  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  ^^  the  Legislature  and  defeated  in  the  other,  and  it  was  not  until  severaj 

STATES  annual  sessions  had  elapsed  that  the  bill  so  earnestly  and  bitterly  fought 

over  became  a  law.     It  is  well  that  such  bills  are  enacted;  it  is  well  that 
the  producers  of  wealth  have  been  recognized.     (Page  199.) 

...  In  our  State  the  policy  has  been  of  conserving  manhood.  The 
eye,  the  hand,  the  brain  of  the  worker  are  finer  machines  than  any  pro- 
duced by  his  labor  and  skill.  So  we  think  it  is  wiser  to  improve  our  people 
than  to  increase  the  productive  capacity  of  our  machinery.     (Page  13.) 

Report  of  the  Michigan  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1898. 

A  shorter  working  day  for  these  classes  of  laborers  seems  an  imperative 
necessity  if  we  would  increase  the  true  value  of  the  State;  for  we  believe 
that  a  nation,  state  or  community,  has  but  one  value,  and  that  is  human 
life  and  happiness.  Any  system  which  depreciates  or  robs  us  of  the  wealth 
of  the  human  is  an  injury  to  the  best  interests  of  the  State.     (Page  77.) 

Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.  Part 
III.  1907-1908 .  Industrial  Hygiene  and  the  Police  Power;  Being 
a  Reprint  of  a  Paper  on  the  Legitimate  Exercise  of  the  Police  Power  for 
the  Protection  of  Health,  by  Henry  Baird  Favill,  M.D. 

In  the  industrial  world,  health  is  the  foundation  of  productiveness  and 
the  bulwark  of  economy.  That  society  and  progress  depend  utterly  upon 
these  factors  can  hardly  be  questioned.  It  is  hence  only  necessary  to 
reach  a  conclusion  as  to  the  fundamental  importance  of  health  as  related 
to  the  product  of  any  individual  or  to  have  a  comprehensive  grasp  of  the 
elements  of  waste  and  dissipation  in  social  affairs  to  at  once  put  the  ques- 
tion of  public  health  as  a  thing  apart  to  be  dealt  with  as  a  social  problem 
irrespective  of  its  particular  bearing  upon  any  class  of  citizens.  (Page 
480.) 

We  must  study  the  relation  of  health  to  labor. — It  needs  no  argument 
to  maintain  that  abundant  data  and  well  considered  demonstration  will 
be  necessary  to  bring  to  pass  this  great  reform.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of 
this  discussion  to  go  into  the  detail  of  the  research  leading  to  this  end. 
It  is  agreed  that  labor  legislation  must  have  its  foundation  in  clear  eco- 
nomic advantage.  It  is  perhaps  not  so  well  agreed,  but  the  idea  is  rapidly 
growing,  that  of  all  the  factors  of  an  economic  advantage,  health  is  the 
most  crucial.  Upon  this  hypothesis,  therefore,  the  conclusion  may  rest, 
that  the  logical  primary  step  is  the  establishment  of  broad  and  effective 
study  of  health  as  related  to  laboring  conditions.     (Pages  485-486.) 


STATE  S    NEED    OF    PRESERVING    HEALTH  245 

American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science.  Vol.  XXVII.  No.  3, 
1906.  Philadelphia.  Physical  and  Medical  Aspects  of  Labor  and 
Industry.  Frederick  L.  Hoffmann,  Statistician  Prudential  In- 
surance Company  of  America,  Newark,  N .  J . 

The  most  valuable  possessions  of  a  workman  are  his  health,  strength, 
and  intelligence.  The  conservation  of  health  and  strength,  the  pro- 
longation of  life  and  prevention  of  disease,  are  important  economic 
factors  which  more  or  less  determine  the  success  of  nations  in  the  struggle 
for  commercial  supremacy  and  race  survival.  A  gain  in  longevity,  an 
increase  in  vitality,  a  decrease  in  disease  liability,  are  all  economic  ele- 
ments of  the  greatest  possible  economic  importance. 

They  lie  at  the  root  of  the  true  problem,  for  they  determine  in  the 
long  run  the  real  and  enduring  progress,  prosperity  and  well-being  of  the 
masses.     (Page  465.) 

The  period  of  industrial  activity  of  wage-earners  generally,  but  chiefly 
of  men  employed  in  mechanical  and  manufacturing  industries,  it  may  be 
assumed,  should  properly  commence  with  the  age  of  fifteen  and  terminate 
at  sixty-five.     (Page  465.) 

.  .  .  There  is  an  economic  value  inherent  in  every  year  of  a  workman's 
life,  and  .  .  .  every  gain  in  human  longevity  above  the  age  of  fifteen  and 
below  the  age  of  sixty-five  represents  a  corresponding  gain  to  the  nation 
at  large  and  a  distinct  contribution  to  the  accumulated  wealth  and  capital 
of  the  nation.     (Page  466.) 

.  .  .  If  on  the  basis  of  an  average  net  gain  to  society  of  300  dollars 
per  annum,  the  50  active  years  of  a  working  man's  life  represent  a  total 
of  15,000  dollars,  then  if  death  should  occur  at  the  age  of  25,  the  economic 
loss  to  society  would  be  13,695  dollars;  if  at  the  age  of  35,  it  would  be 
10,593  dollars;  if  at  the  age  of  50,  4495  dollars;  and,  finally,  if  at  the  age 
of  60,  the  loss  would  still  be  1090  dollars.  Of  course,  the  values  would 
vary  considerably  in  different  employments,  but  the  broad  principle  is 
fairly  well  illustrated  and  with  approximate  accuracy  in  this  calculation. 
(Page  467.) 

If  this  theory  is  applied  to  the  problem  of  preventive  medicine  and 
vital  statistics,  some  extremely  suggestive  conclusions  result  from  a 
careful  study  of  the  facts.  Out  of  every  1000  males  living  at  the  age 
of  fifteen  ...  by  the  last  English  life  table  464  will  survive  to  the  age 
of  sixty-five,  while  556  will  have  fallen  out,  or  have  died,  in  the  mean- 
time, as  the  result  of  either  accidents  or  disease.  The  present  considera- 
tion takes  into  account  only  the  556  out  of  every  1000  who  die  between 
the  age  of  fifteen  and  sixty-five  from  causes  which,  by  modern  standards 


UNITED 
STATES 


246  FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  of  medicine  and  hygiene,  are  largely  of  a  preventable  nature.     This 

STATES  theory  is  readily  susceptible  of  statistical  proof,  but  it  needs  merely  to 

be  pointed  out  that  the  mortality  from  some  of  the  most  important  of 

these  causes,  such  as  consumption,  typhoid  fever,  and  industrial  accidents, 

is  more  or  less  decreasing  in  all  civilized  countries.     (Page  468.) 

...  If  the  duration  of  life  has,  on  the  average,  the  considerable  eco- 
nomic value  referred  to  at  the  outset,  then  it  manifestly  must  be  to  the 
advantage  of  the  state  and  the  employers  of  labor  that  nothing  within 
reason  be  left  undone  to  raise  to  the  highest  possible  standard  the  level  of 
national  physique  and  of  health  and  industrial  efficiency.  .  .  .  The  in- 
terests of  the  nation,  of  wage  earners  as  a  class,  and  of  society  as  a  whole, 
transcend  the  narrow  and  selfish  interests  of  the  short-sighted  employers 
of  labor  who,  disregarding  the  teachings  of  medical  and  other  sciences, 
manage  industry  and  permit  the  existence  of  conditions  contrary  to  a 
sound  industrial  economy  and  a  rational  humanitarianism.  There  can 
be  no  question  of  doubt  but  that  at  the  present  time  the  average  life  and 
industrial  efficiency  of  a  workingman  in  the  United  States  is  not  what  it 
should  be,  and  it  is  manifestly  the  duty  of  the  State,  of  employers  of  labor, 
of  labor  associations,  and  of  workingmen  themselves  to  take  the  facts  of 
the  problem  into  consideration  and  by  intelligent  co-operation  raise  to 
the  maximum  the  standard  of  life  and  health  in  American  industry. 
(Page  484.) 

National  Child  Labor  Committee.  New  York.  Proceedings  of  the  Fifth 
Annual  Conference.  Chicago,  III,  1909.  The  Federal  Children's 
Bureau.     Henry  B.  Favill,  M.D.     Chicago,  III. 

Absolute  control  of  the  health  of  the  individual  can  never  be  the 
function  of  the  State.  Control  of  the  conditions  under  which  the  lives 
of  the  people  shall  be  lived  and  their  energies  expended  is  an  inevitable 
necessity.  The  State  will  approach  this  problem  from  the  standpoint  of 
self-preservation.  Defective  health  is  the  foundation  of  crime,  pauper- 
ism, and  degeneracy  as  well  as  that  widespread  inefficiency  due  to  obvious 
disease. 

All  sociologic  forces  have  come  to  recognize  this  fact.  The  physical  well- 
being  of  the  people  is  the  deepest  interest  of  the  State.     (Pages  37-38.) 

(2)  States'  Need  of  Preserving  Health  of  Women 

The  health  of  the  race  is  conditioned  upon  preserving  the 
health  of  women,  the  future  mothers  of  the  Republic. 


NEED   OF    PRESERVING    HEALTH    OF    WOMEN  247 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XIV.     1868-1869.     Reports  of  Inspectors  great 
of  Factories  for  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1869.  Britain 

The  question  of  the  cheapening  of  labor  by  the  extended  employment 
of  women  and  children  from  home,  is  one  of  ever  deepening  interest  in  a 
country  like  ours.  .  .  .  Whatever  affects  the  female  character,  its  in- 
fluence on  society,  on  her  own  life  as  well  as  on  the  conditions  of  life  in 
her  offspring,  is  being  gradually  encircled  with  contingencies,  the  result  of 
which,  to  those  who  see  them  in  their  various  phases,  it  is  not  possible  to 
regard  without  considerable  anxiety.  .  .  .  The  time  seems,  indeed,  to  be 
fast  approaching  when  the  cheapness  of  production  with  a  certain  amount 
of  excellence  only  is  to  be  the  trader's  great  highway  to  prosperity,  and 
when  whatever  relates  to  social  life  is  to  succumb  to  the  competition 
which  is  running  to  and  fro  upon  it.     (Page  75.) 


Problems  of  Poverty.     John  A.  Hobson,  M.A.     London,  Methuen,  1891. 

Surely,  from  the  large  standpoint  of  true  national  economy,  no  wiser 
use  could  be  made  of  the  vast  expansion  of  the  wealth-producing  power 
of  the  nation  under  the  reign  of  machinery,  than  to  secure  for  every  woman 
destined  to  be  a  wife  and  a  mother,  that  relief  from  the  physical  strain  of 
industrial  toil  which  shall  enable  her  to  bring  forth  healthy  offspring,  and 
to  employ  her  time  and  attention  in  their  nurture.  .  .  .  (Page  168.) 


Women's  JVork  and  Wages.     Edward  Cadbury,  M.  Cecile  Matheson, 
and  George  Shann.     London,  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  1906. 

The  employer  is  responsible  for  the  hours  passed  inside  his  place  of 
business,  and  if  the  conditions  are  such  that  the  average  worker  is  checked 
in  development,  or  is  actually  deteriorating,  the  employer  is  running  into 
debt  to  the  country. 

If  he  uses  up  human  capital  instead  of  the  interest  in  energy,  etc.,  which 
can  be  repaired  daily  by  an  average  constitution,  his  business  is  aided 
either  by  the  worker's  relatives  or  by  the  rates  which  must  provide  for 
those  who  are  prematurely  disabled.  Women  especially  fall  off  in  ca- 
pacity in  consequence  of  early  overstrain,  and  this  has  a  disastrous  effect 
on  their  offspring;  while  many  in  middle  life  drag  on  a  miserable  existence 
on  the  diminished  wages  they  are  able  to  earn.  In  so  much  as  this  is  due 
to  work  and  not  to  home  life,  our  labor  conditions  need  reform,  and  em- 
ployers and  the  consuming  public  must  be  held  jointly  responsible. 
(Pages  198-199.) 


248 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


CANADA  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  a  Dispute  respecting  Hours  of  Employ- 

ment between  the  Bell  Telephone  Co.  of  Canada,  Ltd.,  and  Oper- 
ators at  Toronto,  Ont.  The  Department  of  Labor.  Ottawa,  Canada, 
1907. 

Conclusions  and  Recommendations: 

We  believe  that  where  it  is  a  question  between  the  money-making 
devices  of  a  large  corporation  and  the  health  of  young  girls  and  women, 
business  cupidity  should  be  compelled  to  make  way.  The  evidence  given 
before  us,  and  the  facts  of  experience,  as  cited,  go  to  prove  that  this  is  a 
matter  which  cannot  with  safety  be  entrusted  to  the  parties  concerned,  but 
is  one  which  in  the  interest  of  the  protection  of  the  health  and  well-being 
of  persons  engaged  in  this  form  of  industrial  pursuit  calls  for  legislative 
interference  on  the  part  of  the  State.     (Page  97.) 


GERMANY 


Jahresberichte  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichtsbeamten  im  Konigreich  Wiirttemburg 
fiir  dar  Jahr  1902.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  IViirttemburg.     1902.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1903. 

As  in  the  long  run  the  commercial  success  of  a  nation  depends  upon 
its  possessing  a  healthy,  skilled,  and  mentally  alert  population,  a  reduc- 
tion of  working-women's  hours,  intelligently  systematized,  can  only  be 
advantageous  to  industry.     (Page  188.) 

The  ten-hour  day  for  working  women  can  be  introduced  into  all 
branches  of  industry  without  real  diificulty,  and  considering  the  con- 
tinually greater  demands  that  are  being  made  on  the  physical  and  mental 
elasticity  of  workers  in  general  and  women  in  particular,  it  will  be  in  the 
interests  of  the  maintenance  of  a  healthy  working  class.     (Page  211.) 


Handbuch  der  Hygiene.  Bd.  8^.  [Handbook  of  Hygiene.  Vol.  S^.]  Ed- 
ited by  Dr.  Th.  Weyl.  Hygienische  Fiirsorge  fiir  Arbeiterinnen  und 
deren  Kinder.  [Hygienic  Care  of  IVorking  IVomen  and  their  Chil- 
dren.]    Dr.  Agnes  Bluhm,  Berlin.     Jena,  1894. 

Two  leading  reasons  exist  for  the  newly  developing  codes  of  protective 
laws  relating  to  woman  in  industry.     She  requires  special  care  because: 

1.  She  is  physically  not  as  strong  as  man. 

2.  She  is  the  bearer  of  the  future  race  whose  health  and  vigor  will 

be  markedly  influenced  by  hers,  and  the  State  must  therefore 
feel  the  keenest  interest  in  securing  a  vigorous  and  efficient 
posterity.     (Page  83.) 


NEED    OF    PRESERVING    HEALTH    OF    WOMEN  249 

Die    Arbeits^eit    der    Fabrikarbeiierinnen.     Nach   Berichten  der  Getverbe-   GERMANY 
Aufsichtsbeamien  bearbeitd  im  Reich sanit  der  Innern.     [The  PVorkiiig 
Hours  of  IVome-fi  in  Factories.     From  the  Reports  of  the   {German) 
Factory  Inspectors.     Compiled  in  the  Imperial  Home  Office.]     Berlin, 
Decker,  1905. 

The  inspector  for  Breslau  says,  "The  reduction  of  the  working  da\- to  ten 
hours  is  such  a  decided  step  in  advance,  and  is  of  such  marked  and  whole- 
some influence  on  the  mental,  physical,  and  moral  status  of  the  entire 
working  population,  that  its  introduction  should  be  emphaticall}-  urged." 

The  inspector  for  Cologne  says,  "The  reduction  of  the  working  day  for 
all  women  over  sixteen  years  must  be  regarded  as  a  necessity'  for  both  moral 
and  hygienic  reasons." 

The  inspector  for  Hanover  says,  "The  reasons  for  the  reduction  of  the 
working  day  to  ten  hours — 

(^2)  The  physical  organization  of  wom^an, 

(&)   Her  maternal  functions, 

{c)   The  rearing  and  education  of  the  children, 

id)  The  maintenance  of  the  home — 
are  all  so  important  and  so  far  reaching  that  the  need  for  such  education 
need  hardly  be  discussed." 

Another  inspector  says,  "Considering  the  detrimental  ph>-sical  defect 
of  factory  work,  its  nerve-exhausting  character,  its  ruinous  influence  on 
family  life,  and  the  care  of  children,  and,  indeed,  under  all  the  aspects  0: 
the  physical,  moral,  and  mental  development  of  the  working  class,  the 
reduction  of  the  legal  working  da>"  for  women  must  be  regarded  as  an 
emphatic  demand  and  a  moral  obligation,  whose  introduction  must  be 
urged  after  a  careful  and  conscientious  weighing  of  all  the  reasons  for 
and  against  it."     (Page  106.) 

Most  of  those  factory  inspectors  who  advise  the  legal  establishment  of 
the  maximum  10-hour  working  day  dwell  with  emphasis  on  the  urgent 
necessity  of  shorter  working  hours  from  the  standpoint  both  of  health  and 
morals.     (Page  106.) 

Debats  Parlementaires.    Senat.    7^  Juillet,  1891.    [Proceedings  of  the  French   FRANCE 
Senate,  Jidy  7,  1891.]     Rapport  siir  le  travail  des  enfants,  des  lilies 
mineures,    et   des  femmes   dans    les   etablissemenis  indiistriels.     [Re- 
port   on  the   Industrial  Employment  of  Children,    Yoimg  Girls  and 
Women.] 

M.  Jules  Simon: 

It  is  impossible  for  mie  not  to  tell  the  Senate  what  1  think  of  the  position 


250 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


FRANCE  of  women  in  industry,  and  that  I  may  gain  your  favor,  gentlemen,  I  ask 

permission  to  tell  you  that  for  at  least  forty  years  I  have  applied  myself 
to  this  question.     (Page  573.) 

When  I  ask,  when  we  ask,  for  a  lessening  of  the  daily  toil  of  women,  it 
is  not  only  of  the  women  that  we  think,  it  is  not  principally  of  the  women, 
it  is  of  the  whole  human  race.  It  is  of  the  father,  it  is  of  the  child,  it  is 
of  society,  which  we  wish  to  re-establish  on  its  foundation,  from  which 
we  believe  it  has  perhaps  swerved  a  little.     (Page  575.) 


ITALY  Proceedings  of  the  First  International  Convention  on  Industrial  Diseases. 

Milan,  1906.  Frenastenia  e  delinquen^a  in  rapporto  a  taluni  ordina- 
menti  del  lavoro.  {Imbecility  and  Criminality  in  Relation  to  certain 
Forms  of  Labor.]  Professor  Crisafulli. 

Uninterrupted  social  progress  cannot  be  dissociated  from  social  and 
moral  betterment. 

This  can  be  obtained  only  when  the  physical  and  mental  welfare  of  the 
worker  shall  be  protected  through  rational  and  efficacious  measures;  when 
the  children  shall  be  shielded  through  the  elimination  of  all  danger  of 
degeneration;  when  woman  shall  be  protected,  so  that  during  girlhood 
she  shall  not  enfeeble  her  natural  powers  of  resistance,  and  as  a  mother 
shall  be  able  to  perform  her  duties.     (Page  158.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Massachusetts    Legislative    Documents.     House.     No. 
of  Special  Commission  on  the  Hours  of  Labor. 


44.    1867.    Report 


Eleven  hours'  toil  each  day  for  six  days  in  each  week  is  more  than 
women  and  children  ought  to  be  required  to  perform.  We  are  certain 
that  they  cannot  do  this  without  impairing,  sooner  or  later,  their  vital 
powers,  and  shortening  the  duration  of  life.  We  are  confident  that  it  is 
a  most  uneconomical  waste  of  life,  which  it  is  the  interest  of  the  State  to 
prevent.     (Page  8.) 


Report  of  the  Ohio  Inspector  of  Workshops  and  Factories.     1890. 

...  It  must  be  remembered  that  these  female  factory  employees  will 
in  all  probability  at  some  time  become  mothers,  and  to  be  broken  down  in 
health  when  that  important  period  of  their  life  arrives,  would  certainly  be 
conducive  to  evil  results,  and  a  condition  we  should  strenuously  endeavor 
to  avoid.     (Pages  37-38.) 


NEED  OF   PRESERVING   HEALTH   OF   WOMEN  25 1 

Report  of  the  Michigan  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1897. 

.  .  .  Is  it  not  high  time  that  so  far  as  law  can  effect  the  labor  of  the 
"Nation's  wards" — the  women  and  children — the  hours  of  labor  should 
be  limited  and  regulated;  and  that  so  far  as  governmental  power  and 
influence  can  be  exerted,  it  should  be  upon  the  side  of  those  who  are  the 
bone  and  sinew,  the  foundation  and  the  mainspring  of  a  country's  great- 
ness, prosperity,  and  progress?     (Page  213.) 

Report  of  the  Nebraska  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.  1907- 
1908. 

Scientists  and  thinkers  have  pointed  out  that  health  and  vitality  are 
the  capital  of  society.  It  follows,  then,  that  any  lessenmg  or  weakening 
of  the  natural  power  of  womanhood  over  the  race  will  be  distinctly  in- 
jurious. To  lower  the  standard  of  bodily  strength  will  bring  a  disastrous 
reaction  on  society  later.  To  deprive  her  of  mental  training  means  simply 
a  retrogression  to  serfdom — slow,  perhaps,  but  sure.  Prevention  of  these 
things  is  the  object  of  about  all  of  the  laws  passed  in  recent  years  by 
progressive  States  and  Nations.  In  too  many  instances  the  laws  are 
crude  and  give  too  wide  a  latitude  for  transgressors.     (Page  ZZ.) 

Report  of  the  Minnesota  Bureau  of  Labor,  Industries,  and  Commerce. 
1907-1908. 

In  Europe,  where  large  standing  armies  are  maintained  and  the  physical 
condition  of  the  race  as  a  race  is  more  minutely  noted,  there  has  long  been 
an  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  maintaining  the  health  of  the  mother. 
.  .  .  The  long  period  of  standing  on  their  feet,  the  shortened  time  for 
meals,  all  combine  to  militate  strongly  against,  not  only  her  own  health, 
but  the  health  of  those  who  shall  come  after  her.     (Pages  243-244.) 

Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.  1907- 
1908.  Part  VII.  Women  Workers  in  Milwaukee  Tanneries.  Irene 
Osgood,  Special  Agent. 

Unless  we  change  the  present  demoralizing  condition  we  will  continue 
to  see  women,  worn  out  by  the  work  of  their  youth,  unable  to  do  their 
part  in  making  happy  and  successful  homes.  Their  children,  if  not  given 
better  opportunities,  go  through  the  same  course  and  keep  up  the  circle 
of  vicious  inefficiency.  We  can  look  for  better  conditions  only  with  the 
increased  intelligence  and  efficiency  of  the  more  fully  developed  girl, 


UNITED 
STATES 


252  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  working   in  co-operation  with  an  employer  who  recognizes  that  she  is 

entitled  in  the  workshop  to  cleanliness,  to  good  sanitation,  light,  and  air; 
to  protection  from  dangerous  machinery;  to  the  removal  of  all  brutalizing 
conditions,  and  of  all  conditions  which  place  undue  strain  upon  her  moral 
character,  even  to  excluding  her  from  employment  in  certain  industries. 
She  should  be  entitled  to  every  safeguard  to  health,  such  as  shortening  the 
work  period,  the  opportunity  for  a  nourishing  noon  meal;  the  prevention 
of  undue  strain  upon  her  body,  and  breaks  during  the  working  hours  for 
bodily  rest.     (Pages  1111-1112.) 

Report  of  the  Washington  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  and  Factory  Inspection. 
1909-1910. 

By  reason  of  the  conditions  surrounding  them  it  is  undoubtedly  true 
that  the  women  wage-earners  must  look  to  the  state  for  assistance  in 
securing  the  benefits  of  a  reduced  working  day. 

Usually  the  nature  of  their  employment,  their  fear  of  losing  their 
positions  and  the  fact  that  others  are  waiting  to  take  their  places  combine 
to  render  it  impossible  for  female  wage  earners  to  perfect  an  organization 
possessing  the  strength  or  influence  such  as  is  wielded  by  the  unions  of 
skilled  mechanics.  It  becomes  of  moment,  therefore,  to  mquire  whether 
the  state  itself  should  not  enlist  its  aid  in  behalf  of  this  class  of  toilers.  .  .  . 
The  fact  that  many  women,  under  existing  conditions,  are  working  con- 
tinually on  the  verge  of  physical  and  nervous  exhaustion  cannot  be  con- 
tradicted. Their  power  of  endurance  is  strained  to  the  utmost  at  all 
times,  and  the  element  of  recreation  scarcely  enters  into  their  lives,  for 
the  reason  that  the  hours  not  spent  at  their  work  must  be  devoted  to  an 
effort  to  regain  their  energy  for  tomorrow's  toil. 

Yet  it  is  to  these  same  women  wage-earners  that  the  state  must  look 
in  large  measure  for  the  mothers  of  its  future  citizens,  and  it  would  appear, 
therefore,  that  the  state  has  a  vital  interest  in  this  phase  of  the  situation. 
As  a  nation  and  as  a  state,  we  are  devoting  a  great  deal  of  thought  and  en- 
deavor to  the  subject  of  conservation  of  our  natural  resources,  and  it  is 
fair  to  ask  if  it  is  not  worth  while  to  give  some  attention  to  the  problem  of 
conserving  and  protecting  the  physical  strength  of  our  wage-earning  wo- 
manhood.    (Pages  11-12.) 


(3)  The  Double  Burden  of  Working  Women 

Overlong   working   hours    are    particularly    injurious    to 
women  because  their  sex  doubles  the  claims  made  upon 


WAGE    WORK    AND    HOME    DUTIES  253 

them.  After  working  hours  domestic  duties  must  be  per- 
formed. The  unmarried  as  well  as  the  married  woman 
cannot  avoid  home  work  for  herself  or  her  family,  the  per- 
formance of  which,  after  the  regular  day's  labor,  lengthens 
her  working  time  by  several  hours.  With  shorter  working 
hours  the  unavoidable  domestic  duties  may  be  performed 
without  exhausting  the  workers. 

Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  LXXIV.     1844.  great 

BRITAIN 

Sir  R.  Peel: 

Robert  Sutcliffe,  an  operative,  said:  .  .  .  "with  regard  to  their  own 
families  ...  If  they  did  not  wish  their  daughters  to  grow  up  completely 
unfit  for  ever}'  domestic  duty  which,  as  wives  and  mothers,  they  would 
be  called  on  in  after  life  to  discharge,  they  must  insist  on  a  curtailment  of 
the  present  excessive  and  protracted  toil  they  endured  in  the  factories. 
He  had  daughters  at  work  in  the  factory — they  were  required  to  get  up  at 
five  in  the  morning  and  they  did  not  get  home  till  eight  in  the  evening, 
and  they  were  then  in  such  a  state  of  exhaustion,  both  of  body  and  mind, 
they  were  altogether  unfit  to  learn  anything  of  household  economy." 
(Pages  676-677.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXVIII.     1844.     Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories  for  Half-year  ending  31st  Dec,  1843. 

The  substitution  of  female  for  male  labour,  which  has  increased  to 
so  great  an  extent  of  late  years,  is  attended  with  the  worst  consequences 
to  the  social  condition  of  the  working  classes,  by  the  women  being  with- 
drawn from  domestic  duties;  and  diminished  comforts  at  home  have  the 
most  corrupting  influence  upon  the  men.  All  these  evils  are  much  ag- 
gravated, when  the  women  are  worked  so  excessively  that  their  life  must 
be  passed  between  the  workshop  and  bed.  The  subject  has  been  re- 
peatedly mentioned  to  me  by  some  considerate  and  humane  mill  owners, 
who  know  the  evils  of  such  a  system,  and  wish  to  see  it  put  down. 
(Page  4.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVIII.     1856.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  Half-year  ending  31st  Oct.,  1855. 

The  necessity  of  some  restriction  of  labour,  for  the  mitigation  of  the 
evils  of  the  excessive  labour  of  women  and  }'oung  persons,  cannot  be 


254  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  doubted;  and  the  effect  of  such  restriction  upon  their  physical  and  moral 

condition  is  a  matter  of  serious  importance  and  of  vital  moment.  .  .  . 
Women  were  deprived  of  those  hours  so  requisite  to  the  head  of  a  family 
for  her  home,  and  the  performance  of  domestic  duties.     (Page  81.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XIV.     1868-1869.     Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories. 

It  has  been,  for  instance,  the  strongest  plea  for  all  kinds  of  relaxations 
under  the  Factories  Acts  Extension  Act,  1867,  during  the  past  year  that 
the  working  classes  are  beginning  to  reside  1,  2,  or  3  miles  from  their 
places  of  work,  and  in  several  instances  that  they  come  and  go  by  railway. 
On  that  account,  if  for  no  other,  the  hours  of  work  ought  not  to  be  ex- 
tended to  7,  8,  or  9  o'clock  at  night,  i.  e.,  to  the  time  of  starting  the  last 
train  outward.  Nothing  could  be  much  worse  in  a  social  point  of  view 
than,  for  women  especially,  to  have  to  return  home  from  work  at  8,  9, 
or  10  o'clock  at  night  to  their  families,  in  all  weathers,  and  out  of  every 
degree  of  temperature,  if  they  may  ride  2  or  3  miles,  to  complete  their 
days'  work  in  neglected  domestic  duties.     (Page  293.) 


Problems  of  Poverty.     John  A.  Hobson,  M.A.     London,  Methuen,  1891. 

In  estimating  the  quantity  of  work  which  falls  to  the  lot  of  industrial 
women-workers,  we  must  not  forget  to  add  to  the  wage-work  that  domestic 
work  which  few  of  them  can  wholly  avoid,  and  which  is  represented  by 
no  wages.  Looking  at  the  problem  in  a  broad  human  light,  it  is  difficult 
to  say  which  is  the  graver  evil,  the  additional  burden  of  the  domestic 
work,  as  far  as  it  is  done,  or  the  habitual  neglect  of  it,  where  it  is  evaded. 
...  To  the  long  hours  of  the  factory  worker  or  the  shop-woman,  we 
must  often  add  the  irksome  duties  which  to  a  weary  wife  must  make  the 
return  home  a  pain  rather  than  a  pleasure.     (Page  156.) 


Women's  IVork.    A.  Amy  Bulley  and  Margaret  Whitley.     London, 
Methuen,  1894. 

...  If  the  arguments  in  favour  of  a  general  reduction  of  the  hours  of 
labour  are  strong  anywhere,  they  are  peculiarly  strong  in  the  case  of 
women,  for  in  a  vast  number  of  cases  a  woman,  when  she  leaves  her  daily 
work,  has  to  begin  a  second  spell  of  work  at  home.     (Page  163.) 


WAGE    WORK    AND    HOME    DUTIES  255 

Jahres-Berichie   der   Geiverhe-Aufsichtsbeamten    im    Konigreich    Wiirtiem-   GERMAiry 
herg  fiir  das  Jahr  1899..     [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the 
Kmgdom  of  IVilrtteniberg,  1899]     Berlin,  Reichsdruckerei,  1900. 

The  majority  of  women  are  employed  about  10  hours  a  day.  But 
taking  this  as  the  usual  workmg  day  and  adding  to  it  the  time  which  a 
married  wom.an  must  give  to  her  family  cares,  there  results  a  total  working 
day  of  13  or  14  hours  for  her,  an  amount  of  labor  that  is  usually  not  re- 
quired of  a  single  woman.     (Page  19.) 

Overfatigue  of  the  nervous  system  is  a  result  of  the  work  of  married 
women  in  factories:  only  very  strong  constitutions  are  able  to  bear  such 
exertion  without  harm.     (Page  20.) 


Jahres-Berichte  der  Geiverhe-Aufsichtsheamten  im  Konigreich  IViirttemherg 
fiir  das  Jahr  1902.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  IViirttemherg.     1902.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1903. 

In  behalf  of  the  ten-hour  day  we  advance  the  following  reasons: 

First  and  foremost,  women 's  health.  As  already  shown,  m  the  report 
for  1899  on  "Employment  of  married  women  m  Factories,"  serious  injury 
arises  from  strenuous  factory  work  carried  on  year  in  and  year  out  in 
combination  with  work  in  the  home. 

Such  over-exertion  saps  the  strength  of  women  prematurely  and 
gradually  undermines  their  health.  The  children  of  such  mothers  are, 
according  to  the  overwhelming  testimony  of  trained  nurses,  doctors, 
clerg>'men,  and  others  who  were  consulted  by  the  factory  inspectors, 
usually  pallid  and  delicate. 

When,  in  turn,  these  children  enter  the  factories  right  after  leaving 
school,  a  healthy,  sturdy,  and  persistent  race  is  not  to  be  looked  for. 
(Pages  186-187.) 


Jahreshericht  der  Crossher-oglich  Badischen  Fahrikinspektion  fiir  das  Jahr 
1902]  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  of  Baden,  1902]  Karlsruhe, 
Tbiergarten,  1903. 

Special  Report  on  length  of  hours  of  women. 

In  the  report  for  1899  it  was  exhaustively  shown  how  greatly  a  re- 
duction of  hours  was  needed  for  the  health,  not  only  of  married  women, 
but  of  all  women,  and  it  was  pointed  out  that  housework  and  homekeeping 
require  time  and  strength  which  women,  after  eleven  hours  in  the  factory 
were  quite  unable  to  give.     Many  tim.es  did  working  women  tell  the  in- 


256  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  spectors  how  exhausting  the  long  workday  was,  and  how  greatly  they 
desired  a  shorter  day.  In  opposition  to  them,  employers  often  declared 
that  the  women  would  make  no  good  use  of  longer  leisure,  but  would  only 
idle  it  away. 

Such  ideas  have  certainly  not  proved  to  be  correct,  nor  have  they  been 
shared  by  all  employers.  For  instance,  the  owner  of  a  large  factory, 
forced  by  competition  to  an  11-hour  day,  declared  that  the  legal  estab- 
lishment of  10  hours  would  be  a  blessing  for  the  women.     (Page  73.) 

Die  Arheitsieit  der  Fabrikarbeiterinnen.  Nach  Berichten  der  Gewerbe- 
Aufsichtsbeamten  bearbeitet  im  Reichsamt  des  Innern.  [The  Working 
Hours  of  JVomen  in  Factories.  From  the  Reports  of  the  (German) 
Factory  Inspectors,  Compiled  in  the  Imperial  Home  Office.]  Berlin, 
Decker,  1905. 

From  Cassel: 

It  is  important  to  remember  what  a  shortening  of  working  hours  means 
to  the  working  woman  who  has  to  go  a  long  distance  to  and  from  her 
work.  Often  an  hour  is  spent  thus,  making  it  not  10  hours,  but  12  hours 
that  the  worker  is  compelled  to  be  away  from  home.     (Page  109.) 

It  was  frequently  pointed  out  that  the  interests  of  working  women  re- 
quire a  shorter  day  because  of  the  necessary  household  duties  which  they 
often  have  to  perform  after  working  hours.  The  inspector  from  Wiirt- 
temburg  said:  "It  often  happens  that  married  and  unmarried  women 
must  work  for  hours  at  home  before  and  after  going  out  to  the  mill  or 
shop,  whereas  the  stronger  man  is  entirely  exempt  from  this  additional 
labor."     (Page  110.) 

The  inspector  for  Upper  Bavaria  dwells  upon  the  advantage  accruing 
to  the  health  of  working-girls  as  follows: 

"In  the  matter  of  health  the  shortening  of  the  working  hours  is  of 
unusual  value,  because  for  them  free  time  is  not  resting  time,  as  it  is 
for  a  man.  For  the  working-girl  on  her  return  from  the  factory  there  is  a 
variety  of  work  waiting.  She  has  her  room  to  keep  clean  and  in  order, 
her  laundry  work  to  do,  clothes  to  repair  and  clean,  and,  besides  this, 
she  should  be  learning  to  keep  house  if  her  future  household  is  not  to  be 
disorderly  and  a  failure."     (Page  HI.) 

Many  mspectors  urge  the  need  of  shortening  the  hours  of  labor  on 
grounds  of  morality.  From  Offenbach  it  is  reported:  "The  period 
before  marriage  is  the  time  for  learning  the  future  profession,  but  during 
this  period  the  factory  worker  is  exposed  to  strain  and  fatigue,  which 
hinder  her  bodily  development  and  deprive  her  of  educational  oppor- 


WAGE    WORK    AND    HOME    DUTIES  257 

tunity.     Desirable,  therefore,  would  be  a  reduction  of  the  working  hours   Germany 
which  should  give  to  married  women  more  time  for  their  housework  and 
family  life,  and  to  the  younger  unmarried  women  the  opportunity  to 
learn  the  art  of  home-making,  because  upon  this  the  health,  welfare,  and 
prosperity  of  her  whole  family  will  depend."     (Page  113.) 

Schriften  der  Gesellschaft  fiir  Soiiale  Reform,  Heft  7-8.  [Publications  of 
the  Social  Reform  Society.  Nos.  7  and  8\  Die  Herabsetiung  der 
Arheitsieit  fiir  Frauen  und  die  Erhohmgdes  Schut^alters  fiir  Jugendliche 
Arheiter  in  Fabriken.  [The  Reduction  of  IV omen' s  Working  Hours 
and  the  Raising  of  the  Legal  Working  Age  for  Young  Factory  Employees.] 
Dr.  August  Pieper  and  Helene  Simon.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

The  protection  of  health  takes  precedence  over  everything  else.  The 
health  of  women  is  more  quickly  undermined  in  wage-earning  occupations 
than  that  of  men,  partly  because  they  are  less  strong  and  resistant  and 
partly  because  they  are  burdened  with  domestic  as  well  as  industrial 
labor — more  especially  when,  as  married  women,  they  have  to  care  for  a 
family.     (Page  4.) 

Whether  the  working  woman  as  such  is  less  resistant  to  injurious  con- 
ditions than  the  working  man  is  immaterial.  What  is  important  to  re- 
member is  that  her  sex  doubles  the  claims  made  upon  her,  and  it  is  this 
that  undermines  her  vital  resistance.  To  the  physiological  burdens  and 
the  overwork  due  to  a  combination  of  housework  and  industrial  toil, 
imperfect  nutrition,  and  deficient  recreation  are  often  to  be  added — she 
has,  in  short,  distinctly,  an  average  standard  of  living  that  is  inferior  to 
that  of  men.     (Page  91.) 

The  reports  of  1899  (Germany)  upon  factory  work  for  married  women 
gave  the  inspectors  occasion  to  advocate — as  they  did  in  almost  every 
part  of  the  country — a  progressive  reduction  of  working  hours  to  10  and 
9  hours,  and,  especially  for  girls  under  18,  to  8  hours.  Their  investiga- 
tions amply  exposed  the  vicious  circle  of  destructive  influences  that  the 
working-woman  traverses.  As  a  young  girl,  her  health  is  early  sacrificed; 
as  a  grown  woman,  she  is  driven  between  home  duties  and  wage-earning. 
She  succumbs  without  having  been  able  to  guide  the  life  of  her  family  to  a 
prosperous  development.     (Page  109.) 

Handbuch  der  Medi^inischen  Statistik.  [Handbook  of  Medical  Statistics.] 
Dr.  Friedrich  Prinzing,  Ulm.     Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 

The  injurious  effects  of  factory  work  on  married  women  are  noticeable 
in  many  ways.     Factory  work  is  chiefly  detrimental  to  married  women 
17* 


258 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  because  of  the  unreasonable  demands  made  upon  their  strength  by  the 
combination  of  factory  with  housework.  On  social  grounds  the  prohibi- 
tion of  factory  work  for  married  women  is  not  practicable,  but  much  may 
be  done  to  protect  the  health  of  such  women  by  legal  restriction  and  regu- 
lation of  working  hours,  ample  rest  legally  secured,  and  special  provisions 
for  pregnancy  and  the  period  of  lactation.     (Page  129.) 


FRANCE 


UNITED 
STATES 


Dehats  Parlementaires.  Senat.  9"  Juillet,  1891.  {Proceedings  of  the  French 
Senate,  July  9,  1891.]  Rapport  sur  le  travail  des  enfants,  des  filles 
mineures,  et  des  femmes  dans  les  etahlissements  indusiriels.  [Report 
on  the  Industrial  Employment  of  Children,  Young  Girls,  and  iVomen.] 

M.  Waddington: 

The  woman  wage-earner,  gentlemen,  does  not  always  live  at  the  mill- 
gates;  she  is  therefore  obliged  to  make  a  half  or  three-quarters'  hour 
journey  before  she  arrives;  consequently  she  will  leave  home  at  half-past 
five  in  the  morning,  only  to  return  at  half-past  eight  or  nine  o'clock  in 
the  evening.  Is  that  living?  Under  such  circumstances  can  a  woman 
truly  care  for  her  children  and  her  home?     (Page  584.) 

La  Protection  Legale  des  Travailleurs.  {Legal  Protection  of  IVorking 
People.]  Discussions  of  the  French  Section  of  the  International  As- 
sociation for  Labor  Legislation,  3rd  Series,  1905-1906.  Paris,  Alcan, 
1907. 

After  the  woman  has  worked  the  same  number  of  hours  in  mill  or  shop 
that  men  have  done,  she  goes  home  and  has  to  do  more  work  there. 
(Page  182.) 

Report  of  the  Colorado  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1887-1888. 

I  think  ten  hours  a  day  too  long  for  female  workers.  Many  of  them 
have  to  cook,  clean,  wash,  and  sometimes  care  for  some  sick  person  in 
their  family,  and  also  do  many  other  things  too  numerous  to  mention,  after 
a  hard  day's  work.  They  cannot  afford  to  have  such  work  done  for  them; 
their  pay  is  far  too  small.     (Page  336.) 


Report  of  the  Maine  Bureau  of  Industrial  and  Labor  Statistics.     1888. 

I  think  that  if  Saturday  afternoons  were  given  to  the  working  women 
for  recreation,  the  amount  of  good  done  would  more  than  compensate  for 
the  loss  of  labor  or  money.     Considering  the  various  demands  upon  the 


WAGE    WORK    AND    HOME    DUTIES  259 

working  woman's  time  outside  of  work  hours, — in  caring  for  her  room  and   united 

•  •  •  STATES 

clothes  and  numerous  other  duties, — it  seems  that  this  provision  should 
be  made  for  her.     (A  worker.)     (Page  101.) 

Report  of  the  Ohio  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1889. 

Working  women  even  more  than  working  men  suffer  because  of  long 
hours  of  labor.  Generally  speaking,  they  work  many  more  hours  every 
day  than  men,  because  after  the  day  in  the  workshops  is  ended  many  of 
them  must  be  occupied  with  household  cares,  while  men  may  rest.  Ten 
hours  a  day  to  at  least  one-third  of  the  working  women  means  oftener 
fifteen.     (Page  47.) 

Report  of  the  Illinois  Factory  Inspectors.     1893. 

In  many  cases  the  shortening  of  the  day  has  been  in  the  morning,  so 
that  women  and  children  who  have  had  a  long  walk  or  ride  before  reaching 
the  factory  at  7  o'clock,  now  sleep  an  hour  later  and  reach  their  work  at 
8.  The  mother  of  the  family,  who  rises  still  earlier  to  cook  the  breakfast 
and  put  up  the  lunch,  also  profits  by  this  added  hour  of  rest.     (Page  19.) 

Report  of  the  Michigan  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1899. 

Where  is  the  man  who  dare  say  regulation  by  law  is  not  necessary  .  .  . 
in  case  of  public  works  of  females?  It  is  idle  to  say  they  are  able  to  take 
care  of  themselves;  they  cannot,  and  while  legal  restrictions  must  not  be 
made  to  hinder  women  from  earning  an  honest  living  under  suitable 
conditions,  there  is  one  principle  which  must  be  applied  as  a  test  of  suit- 
ability in  all  situations — the  proved  tendency  of  their  occupation  under 
certain  conditions  to  destroy  health  and  unfit  them  for  their  duties  as 
wives  and  mothers.  And  what  will  happen  to  a  home  when  the  mother 
is  compelled  to  work  in  a  factory  ten  hours,  toiling  all  day,  coming  back 
after  dark  to  her  children,  weary,  jaded,  fretful,  almost  desperate?  Tidi- 
ness, cleanliness,  and  happiness  are  impossible.     (Page  61.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1900. 

The  wife's  life  is  darkened  even  more  by  the  long-hour  day,  especially 
if  she  also  be  a  working  woman.  Even  if  the  day  be  one  of  only  ten  hours, 
she  must  arise  as  early  as  five  o'clock  to  prepare  breakfast  for  her  husband 
and  herself,  so  that  they  may  be  at  their  work  places  at  seven.  Beginning 
at  that  early  hour  her  day  will  be  a  very  long  one.     (Page  70.) 


26o 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  the  Illinois  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     Part  II.     1906. 

Time  leaving  home  for  work  and  reaching  home  from  work,  ride  or 
walk,  car  fare. 

Record  obtained  from  those  (working  women)  reporting  as  to  the 
hours  when  leaving  home  for  work  and  the  hours  reaching  home  after 
the  day's  work.  2535  reported  as  to  the  time  leaving  home  for  work. 
Of  this  number  20.8  per  cent  had  to  leave  home  in  the  morning  before 
6.30  o'clock;  54.6  per  cent  from  6.30  to  7.00  and  24.6  per  cent  at  7.00 
A.  M.  or  later. 

The  number  reporting  the  time  arriving  home  from  work  was  2486. 
Of  this  number  9.1  per  cent  reached  home  in  the  evening  before  5.00  to 
5.30;  20  per  cent  from  5.30  to  6.00;  49.2  per  cent  from  6.00  to  6.30,  and 
21.7  per  cent  6.30  and  later. 

Car  fare  is  an  expense  incident  to  the  working  girl,  especially  in  larger 
cities,  where  factories  and  other  places  are  liable  to  be  located  remote  from 
residence  districts.  The  record  here  shown  is  for  2484  women  or  girls. 
60.7  per  cent  walk  to  and  from  their  work,  35.4  per  cent  use  the  cars,  and 
3.9  per  cent  both  ride  and  walk.     (Page  195.) 


(4)  Effect  of  Women's  Overwork  on  Future  Generations 

When  the  health  of  women  has  been  injured  by  long 
hours,  not  only  is  the  working  efficiency  of  the  community 
impaired,  but  the  deterioration  is  handed  down  to  succeed- 
ing generations.  The  overwork  of  future  mothers  thus 
directly  menaces  the  welfare  of  the  state. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXI.  1833.  Second  Report  of  the  .  .  . 
Commissioners  for  inquiring  into  the  employment  of  Children  in  Fac- 
tories, .  .  .  and  Reports  by  the  Medical  Commissioners. 

Sir  David  Barry's  report  (Scotland) : 

Having  on  one  occasion  given  a  certificate  to  the  effect  that  1  believed 
that  persons  occupied  in  factories  were  not  more  subject  to  disease  than 
those  engaged  in  other  occupations,  and  having,  on  further  experience  had 
reason  to  doubt  the  correctness  of  the  views  I  then  held,  ...  on  a 
similar  certificate  being  presented  to  me  last  year,  1  declined  to  sign  it. 
...  I  believe  it  will  be  found  to  be  the  case  that  nearly  all  the  wives  of 
weavers  and  many  of  those  of  labourers,   formerly  worked  in  factories; 


women's  overwork  and  future  generations         261 
and  even  eivine  the  circumstances  of  low  wages,  and  consequent  domestic   great 

BRITAIN 

privations,  their  due  weight,  I  think  we  have  reason  to  fear  that  the  de- 
scendants of  those  people  are  physically  deteriorating.  .  .  .  A.  C.  Kil- 
gour,  M.D.     (Page  30.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XII.     1886.     Report  from  Select  Com- 
mittee on  Shop  Hotirs  Regulation  Bill. 

Witness,  W.  Abbotts,  M.D.: 

2000.  Does  their  employment  injuriously  affect  them  as  child-bearing 
women  in  after  years?  According  to  all  scientific  facts  it  would  do  so; 
it  leads  to  pelvic  diseases,  and  would  affect  them  in  after  years  when  they 
become  mothers.  .  .  . 

2007.  And  you,  as  a  medical  man  of  a  considerable  number  of  years' 
experience  would  not  look  to  girls  who  have  been  worked  so  man}'  hours 
in  one  position,  standing,  as  the  bearers  of  healthy,  strong  children? — 
1  should  not. 

2008.  Then  it  naturally  follows,  does  it  not,  that  this  is  a  very  serious 
matter  in  the  interests  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  apart  from  the  immediate 
injury  to  the  person  concerned? — Yes,  as  regards  the  physical  condition  of 
the  future  race.     (Page  102.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII.     1892.     Select  Committee  on  Shop 
Hours  Bill. 

Witness,  Mr.  Sutherst,  Barrister  and  author  of  "Disease  and  Death 
Behind  the  Counter" : 

1361.  You  have  stated  .  .  .  that  the  women  are  handicapped  by 
their  physical  inequalities? — Decidedly;  they  are  expected  to  become 
mothers,  and  the  very  long  standing  and  overwork  prevents  them  from 
rearing  subsequently  a  healthy  progeny.     (Page  60.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXXIX.     1893.     Report  of  Royal  Com- 
mission on  Labour. 

Mr.  Henry  Mayers  Hyndman: 

8409.  .  .  .  Under  present  conditions,  especially  in  the  case  of  women, 
.  .  .  the  hours  of  work  are  injurious  to  them;  it  is  directly  injurious  to 
them  in  every  shape  and  way,  and  helps  to  enfeeble  the  coming  generation 
owing  to  the  weakness  of  mothers  after  those  long  periods  of  standing  and 
toiling.     (Page  595.) 


262  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  British   Sessional   Papers.     Vol.   XXXII.     1904.     Report   of  the   Inter- 

Departmental  Committee  on  Physical  Deterioration.     Vols.  I,  II,  III. 

Committee  report: 

251.  A  very  general  agreement  was  expressed  that  the  factory  employ- 
ment of  mothers  had  a  bad  effect  on  the  offspring,  both  direct  and  indirect. 

253.  The  three  ladies  quoted  by  Miss  Anderson  (Principal  Lady 
Inspector  of  Factories)  were  unanimous  as  to  the  stress  and  strain  in- 
volved in  the  "employment  of  women  from  girlhood,  all  through  married 
life,  and  through  child-bearing."     (Vol.  I,  page  47.) 

Ihid.  Memorandum  on  Employment  of  Mothers  in  Factories  and  W^ork- 
shops.  By  Miss  A.  M.  Anderson,  H.  M.  Principal  Lady  Inspector 
of  Factories. 

30.  As  to  the  general  effect  of  these  conditions  on  the  health  of  the 
women  and  their  children.  Miss  Squire  for  Lancashire,  and  Miss  Paterson 
for  Dundee  report  similarly: 

"That  it  is  the  employment  of  women  from  childhood,  all  through 
married  life,  and  through  child-bearing,  that  impresses  itself  upon  the 
mind  .  .  .  that  it  is  useless  for  medical  men  and  others  not  familiar  with 
the  conditions  of  mill  life  there  to  pronounce  any  opinion  on  the  effect 
of  factory  work  upon  the  mother  and  infant;  they  have  no  conception  of 
the  stress  and  strain  and  of  the  general  conditions  of  life  and  work  in 
these  mills.     (Vol.  I,  page  124.) 

Miss  Paterson  expressly  points  to  cases  showing  that  it  is  the  stress 
and  strain  of  the  work,  and  the  necessity  of  maintaining  a  high  standard, 
coupled  with  decreasing  physical  capacity  of  the  child-bearing  woman 
under  such  conditions  that  generally  determine  the  moment  when  the 
manager  in  a  jute  mill  sends  her  home.  .  .  .  Sometimes  a  neighbor  will  take 
her  place  in  the  mill  of  the  woman  who  has  been  sent  home  on  account  of 
her  physical  inability  to  maintain  her  output,  in  return  for  her  taking 
charge  of  that  neighbour's  children  for  a  small  sum.     (Vol.  I,  page  124.) 

.  .  .  Great  harm  is  done  and  suffering  occasioned  to  the  women  by 
their  remaining  at  work  too  long  before  confinement,  as  well  as  by  their 
returning  too  soon  after  it.  .  .  .  Two  of  the  doctors  with  whom  Miss 
Squire  conferred  in  Preston  attributed  the  large  number  of  premature 
births  to  continued  work  in  the  mill  during  pregnancy  and  all  considered 
that  an  exceptional  number  of  cases  of  uterine  trouble  existed  and  was 
attributable  to  too  early  return  to  work.     (Vol.  1,  page  124.) 

Dr.  W.  Leslie  Mackensie,  M.A.,  M.D.,  M.R.C.P.E.,  Medical  In- 
spector to  the  Local  Government  Board  for  Scotland: 


women's  overwork  and  future  generations         263 
6749.     If  the  mother  suffers  from  insufficient  food  or  from  exhaustion    great 


or  over-work,  or  disease,  the  result  is  that  disease  is  shown  in  the  child 
That  is  my  opinion.  .  .  . 

6752.  And  precautions  should  be  taken  that  she  should  not  suffer 
from  overA'ork  during  the  period  of  child-bearing? — Yes;  before  and  after 
child-bearing.     (Vol.  II,  page  266.) 

6897.  Now,  in  >-our  memorandum,  I  note  this  passage.  You  say, 
"If  inherited  characters  are  to  mature,  therefore,  the  mother  must  re- 
main (a)  capable  of  maintaining  her  own  physical  equilibrium,  (b)  capable 
of  giving  her  excess  of  nourishment  to  the  embryo.  If  she  fails  in  (a)  or 
(b)  the  embryo  either  dies  or  suffers  in  rate  of  growth,  or  in  ultimate  size." 
Well,  then,  I  suppose,  from  that  we  should  draw  the  conclusion  that  in 
your  opinion  the  child  of  a  slum  mother  would  be  born  defective  in  growth? 
— It  may  be  so. 

6899.  And  the  same  with  the  factory  worker? — Yes,  I  think  so.  (Vol. 
II,  page  272.) 

The  Factory  System.  Illustrated  in  a  series  of  letters  to  the  Right  Hon.  Lord- 
Ashley,  M.P.     William  Dodd.     London,  John  Murray,  1842. 

Of  the  evil  tendency  of  factory  life  on  women  and  children,  .Mr.  Greg 
speaks  thus: 

"The  fourth  cause  of  ill-health,  which  prevails  among  the  manufactur- 
ing population  may  be  traced  to  the  injurious  influence  which  the  weakened 
and  vitiated  constitution  of  women  has  upon  their  children." 

"They  are  often  employed  in  factories  some  years  after  their  marriage, 
and  during  their  pregnancy,  and  up  to  the  very  period  of  their  confine- 
ment, which  all  who  have  attended  to  the  physiology  of  this  subject  know 
must  send  their  offspring  into  the  world  with  a  debilitated  and  unhealthy 
frame,  which  the  circumstances  of  their  infancy  are  ill-calculated  to 
renovate.  Hence,  when  these  children  begin  to  work  themselves,  they 
are  prepared  at  once  to  succumb  to  the  evil  influences  by  which  they  are 
surrounded."     (Pages  139-40.) 

Infant  Mortality:  A  Social  Problem.  Geo.  Newman,  M.D.,  D.P.H., 
F.R.S.E.,  Lecturer  on  Public  Health  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital, 
Lo'ndan;  Medical  Officer  of  Health,  Metropolitan  Borough,  Finsbury. 
Londcm,  Methuen,  1906. 

Physical  fatigue,  particularly  if  accompanied  by  a  strain  and  stress,  are 
likely  to  exert  a  decided  effect  in  the  production  of  premature  birth,  par- 


BRITAIN 


264 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


ticularly  if  these  conditions  are  accompanied  by  long  hours  of  work  and 
poor  or  insufficient  nourishment.     (Page  80.) 

The  direct  injuries  to  women  and  girls  employed  in  factories  and  work- 
shops are:  (c)  Injury  through  fatigue  and  strain,  long  hours  and  insuf- 
ficient periods  of  rest  for  food,  .  .  .  and  (e)  Too  short  a  period  of  rest  at 
the  time  of  childbirth.  Over  and  over  again,  in  the  official  reports  of 
factory  inspectors  or  medical  officers  of  health,  does  one  meet  with  evi- 
dences of  these  injuries.  Where  the  conditions  resulting  in  these  evils, 
coupled  with  the  absence  of  the  mother  from  home,  are  present,  the  infant 
mortality  is  high;  where  they  are  not  present,  it  is  usually  low.  (Pages 
131-132.) 

In  consequence  of  the  fact  that  while  there  has  been  a  steady  and  con- 
tinuous decline  in  the  general  mortality  of  Preston  during  the  past  thirty 
years,  the  infant  mortality  has  shown  an  increase,  a  sub-committee  was 
appointed  to  inquire  into  the  causes  (1902),  and  submitted  certain  con- 
clusions: 

(1)  First  among  these  causes  is  the  employment  of  female  labor  in 
mills.  An  occupation  requiring  a  woman  to  stand  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  day  when  continued  up  to  within  a  few  days  or  even  hours  of 
the  time  of  parturition,  must  act  to  the  detriment  of  the  offspring,  and 
there  is  less  chance  of  the  latter  coming  into  the  world  fully  grown,  well 
formed,  and  in  good  health.  Many  deaths  taking  place  during  the  first 
month,  which  are  returned  as  due  to  premature  birth,  immaturity,  con- 
genital debility,  convulsions,  and  the  like,  may  safely  be  ascribed  to  this 
cause.     (Page  134.) 

In  a  general  way  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  the  employment  of  women 
from  girlhood  all  through  married  life  and  through  the  period  of  child- 
bearing,  the  continual  stress  and  strain  of  the  work  and  hours,  and  general 
conditions  prevailing  in  women's  labor,  that  is  exerting  its  baneful  in- 
fluence on  the  individual  and  on  the  home.     (Page  136.) 


GERMANY        Verhandliiiigen  des  Reichstags,  103.  Sit-iing,   18.  April,  1891.     [Proceed- 
ings of  the  German  Reichstag,  103rd  Session,  April  18,  1891.] 

Representative  Ulrich: 

All  the  reasons  that  can  be  offered  in  support  of  a  shortened  work  day 
in  general,  hold  with  double  force  in  favor  of  shortening  the  working  time 
of  women.  For  the  danger  of  degeneration  of  the  race  is  actually  greater 
on  the  mother's  than  on  the  father's  side.  ...  On  the  one  hand  excessive 
work  breaks  down  the  woman  personally,  on  the  other  hand,  through  her 
break-down,  it  destroys  the  home.     For  this  reason  chiefly  the  dark  side 


women's  overwork  and  future  generations         265 

of  female  labor  is  extraordinarily  inore  significant  than  is  usually  realized.    Germany 
(Page  2410.) 

Die  Arbeits~eit  der  Fahrikarheiterinnen.  Nach  Bericbten  der  Gewerhe- 
Aujsichtsheamten  hearheitet  im  Reich samt  des  Innern.  [The  IVorking 
Hours  of  fVomen  in  Factories.  From  the  Reports  of  the  {German)  Fac- 
tory Inspectors.  Compiled  in  the  Imperial  Home  Office.]  Berlin, 
Decker,  1905. 

The  reports  from  Merseburg,  Erfurt,  Breslau,  Hanover,  Wurttemberg, 
and  Offenbach  dwell  upon  the  dependence  of  future  generations — their 
total  efficiency  and  value — upon  the  protection  of  working  women  and 
girls.     (Page  111.) 

The  report  for  Wurttemberg  says,  in  regard  to  the  injurious  effect  of 
factory  work:  "The  children  of  such  mothers — according  to  the  unanimous 
testimony  of  nurses,  physicians,  and  others  who  were  interrogated  on 
this  important  subject — are  mostly  pale  and  weakly;  when  these  in  turn, 
as  usually  happens,  must  enter  upon  factory  work  immediately  upon 
leaving  school,  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  family,  it  is  impossible 
for  a  sound,  sturdy,  enduring  race  to  develop."     (Page  111.) 

Handbucb  der  Hygiene.  Bd.  8^.  [Handbook  of  Hygiene.  Vol.  8^.]  Ed- 
ited by  Dr.  Theodore  Weyl.  Hygienische  Fiirsorge  fUr  Arbeiterinnen 
und  deren  Kinder.  [Hygienic  Care  of  IVorking  Women  and  their 
children.]     Dr.  Agnes  Bluhm.     Jena,  1894. 

Women  bear  the  following  generation  whose  health  is  essentially  in- 
fluenced by  that  of  the  mothers,  and  the  State  has  a  vital  interest  in  se- 
curing for  itself  future  generations  capable  of  living  and  maintaining  it. 
(Page  83.) 

Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I'Industrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im- 
portance et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Prof.  Etienne 
Bauer.  [The  Nightwork  of  Women  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its 
importance  and  legal  regulation^  Interdiction  du  travail  de  nuit  des 
femmes  en  Allemagne.  [Prohibition  of  nightwork  for  women  in  Ger- 
many.]    Dr.  Max  Hirsch.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

The  influence  of  improper  factory  labor  ...  on  future  generations  is 
exerted  both  before  and  after  child  birth.  Great  importance  is  attached 
to  the  general  effect  of  labor  on  the  sexual  organs,  even  on  the  general 
health  of  the  female  worker,  and  that  at  a  very  early  period.     A  woman 


266 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  with  an  enfeebled  and  emaciated  body,  ...  is,  according  to  experience, 
less  capable,  or  even  absolutely  incapable  of  producing  healthy  and  robust 
offspring.  The  ailments  of  both  a  special  and  a  general  sort,  due  to  un- 
suitable work,  weigh  heavily  and  in  advance  of  birth,  in  many  cases,  on 
the  descendants.  Aside  from  the  fact  that  female  factory  workers  are 
frequently  deprived  of  children,  as  a  result  of  complete  sterility  or  frequent 
abortions  or  still  births,  the  surviving  infants  suffer  much  of  the  time  from 
feebleness  and  sicknesses  of  all  kmds,  so  that  they  bear  with  them  from 
the  cradle  the  causes  of  premature  death,  to  which  must  be  added  the 
effective  evils  and  dangers  of  a  durable  character  which  are  manifested 
during  the  period  of  lactation  and  up  to  the  last  period  of  infant  life. 
(Page  26.) 

A  very  considerable  number  of  reports  indicate  as  a  cause  of  the  ex- 
cessive mortality  of  suckling  infants,  besides  insufficient  nourishment, 
the  insufficient  care  given  to  them,  since  the  mother  is  prevented  by  work 
at  the  factory  from  devoting  herself  sufficiently  to  her  children  when 
they  are  in  good  health,  and  even  when  they  are  sick.  .  .  .  It  is  indeed 
sad  for  innumerable  women  to  be  injured  in  health,  in  vitality,  and  robbed 
of  the  full  pleasure  of  living,  through  the  conditions  of  industrial  labor; 
but  the  crime  of  society  takes  on  huge  proportions  when,  for  the  love  of 
additional  gain,  very  often  extremely  small,  the  flower  of  the  new  genera- 
tion is  crushed  and  blighted. 

But  if  such  are  the  effects  of  normal  work  by  women  during  the  day, 
they  are  very  much  worse  in  the  case  of  the  prolongation  of  the  hours  of 
work,  above  all  when  the  work  continues  late  in  the  evening  and  into  the 
night.  Not  only  that  the  fatigue  and  exhaustion  of  the  mother  increases 
in  a  progressive  ratio  with  each  additional  hour,  but  also  that  she  is  kept 
from  exercising  her  motherhood  precisely  at  the  time  when  her  care  is 
most  indispensable  to  her  little  ones.     (Pages  27-28.) 


FRANCE 


Revue  d'Hygiene  et  de  Police  Saniiaire.  La  Protection  de  la  Femme  dans 
V Industrie.  {The  Protection  of  Woman  in  Industry.]  Dr.  Henri 
Napias.     Paris,  Masson  et  Cie.     T.  XVIII.     20  Mars,  1896. 

Everyone  knows  that  there  is  still  much  to  do,  and  that,  if  our  legisla- 
tion has  already  bettered  conditions,  new  ameliorations  are  desirable,  but 
they  will  come,  1  think,  only  through  the  pressure  of  public  opinion, 
.  .  .  which  will  become  exacting  .  .  .  when  doctors  have  made  clear  the 
utility  of  a  protection  which  looks  not  only  to  the  woman,  but,  secon- 
darily, the  child  to  be  born  by  her;  when  it  knows  better  that  to  protect 
the  mother  is  an  absolute  necessity  for  the  future  of  the  race.    (Page  193.) 


women's  overwork  and  future  generations         267 

Proceedings  of  the  1st  International  Convention  on  Industrial  Diseases.   ITALY 
Milan,  1906.     Frenastenia  e  delinquen^a  in  rapporto  a  taluni  ordina- 
menti  del  lavoro.     [Imbecility  and  Criminality  in  relation  to  certain 
forms  of  labor.]     Prof.  Crisafulli. 

A  great  number  of  bom  deficients  are  the  offspring  of  mothers  worn 
out  by  work  from  girlhood:  work  not  alone  precocious  but  also  over- 
fatiguing  and  unhealthful;  and  these  mothers  were  tortured  by  toil 
even  during  the  period  of  their  pregnancy.  The  ailments  of  the  pregnant 
woman  which  react  painfully  upon  the  foetus,  the  hardships  of  childbirth, 
the  sicknesses  of  infancy,  etc.,  can  easily  be  traced,  among  certain  classes 
of  workers;  in  the  majority  of  cases  they  are  recognized  as  direct  and 
essential  causes  of  imbecility;  arrested  or  deficient  mental  development, 
at  least  in  great  measure,  can  also  be  traced  to  such  causes.     (Page  146.) 

...  On  the  other  hand,  over-fatigue  often  generates  hereditary  weak- 
ness, both  physical  and  moral,  by  reason  of  which  many  unfortunates 
never  attain  their  full  development,  and,  in  course  of  time  they  commit 
essentially  instinctive  acts  that,  if  not  absolutely  criminal,  are  certainly 
irrational.     (Page  149.) 

Evidence  Submitted  to  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  in  Favor  of  the  Enact-  united 

STATES 

ment  of  a  Ten-Hour  Law.     Lawrence,  1870. 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  I  am  fully  satisfied  that  the  long 
hours  of  confinement  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  mills  is  very  injurious  to 
health,  and  of  such  an  enervating  nature,  as  to  operate  very  unfavorably 
upon  the  offspring — for  of  course  if  the  parents  are  feeble,  the  oiTspring 
must  inevitably  be  of  a  feeble  and  sickly  nature.  (Page  8.)  John  B. 
Whitaker,  M.D. 

Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1870. 

It  debilitates  them,  and  makes  them  unfit  for  the  reproduction  of  their 
kind.  Young  women,  as  a  general  rule,  do  not  make  good  housekeepers 
when  brought  up  in  a  cotton  mill,  not  having  opportunity  enough  to 
initiate  themselves  into  such  duties  on  account  of  the  long  hour  system. 
(Pages  312-313.)     Employee. 

Report  of  the  Maryland  Bureau  of  Industrial  Statistics.     1896. 

Once  inside  the  walls  of  the  factory  a  weary  day's  work  of  ten  hours' 
duration  is  begun,  with  an  intermission  for  lunch  at  noon.  .  .  . 


268  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  When  the  dav's  work  is  at  last  over,  the  wearied  crowd  troopine  from 

STATES  '  .  r      o 

their  place  of  employment  hasten  in  all  directions  to  their  homes,  which 
in  many  instances  are  in  the  extreme  suburbs  of  the  city.  Once  home, 
they  swallow  a  hasty  supper  and  soon  retire  to  a  needed  and  deserved  rest, 
with  no  pleasant  anticipations  for  the  morrow. 

What  lives  are  these  for  future  wives  and  mothers?  Future  generations 
will  answer.     (Page  52.) 

Report  of  the  Michigan  Bureau  of  Labor.     1908. 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  the  consequences  to  the 
citizenship  of  the  state,  both  at  the  time  and  in  the  future,  are  more 
grave  if  women  work  in  the  wrong  trades,  or  too  many  hours  or  under 
improper  conditions.  It  injures  the  mothers  of  our  citizens,  so  that  in- 
fants are  born  to  die  young,  or  grow  into  men  weak  and  sickly — which  is 
bad  for  the  state  as  well  as  themselves.  .  .  .  We  shall  begin  to  see  that 
...  for  the  mjury  to  the  women,  the  mothers,  the  homes,  and  the  rising 
generation,  there  must  be  special  laws  for  the  conditions  under  which 
women  work.     (Page  337.) 

Report  of  the  JVisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.  1907- 
1908.  Part  VII.  IVonien  IVorkers  in  Milwaukee  Tanneries.  By 
Irene  Osgood,  Special  Agent. 

The  effect  upon  the  home  and  upon  society  of  the  woman  who  has 
been  forced  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  industrial  or  occupational  diseases,  has 
never  been  measured.  Her  lack  of  knowledge  of  domestic  affairs  conse- 
quent upon  her  former  enforced  freedom  from  household  cares,  and  her 
ignorance  concerning  the  welfare  of  children,  must  necessarily  make  for 
domestic  unhappiness,  and  for  another  race  of  children  poorly  prepared  to 
meet  the  hardships  of  workmg  class  life.     (Page  1061.) 

Journal  of  Political  Economy.  Vol.  XIV.  1906.  Legislative  Control 
of  IVomen's  Work.     S.  P.  Breckinridge. 

The  assumption  of  control  over  the  conditions  under  which  industrial 
women  are  employed  is  one  of  the  most  significant  features  of  recent 
legislative  policy.  In  many  of  the  advanced  industrial  communities  the 
State  not  only  undertakes  to  prescribe  a  minimum  of  decency,  safety,  and 
healthfulness,  below  which  its  wage-earners  may  not  be  asked  to  go,  but 
takes  cognizance  in  several  ways  of  sex  differences  and  sex  relationships. 


INFANT   MORTALITY  269 

.  .  .  In  the  third  place,  the  State  sometimes  takes  cognizance  of  the  pecu-  united 
liarl}'  close  relationship  which  exists  between  the  health  of  its  women 
citizens  and  the  ph\-sical  vigor  of  future  generations.  ...  It  has  been 
declared  a  matter  of  public  concern  that  no  group  of  its  women  workers 
should  be  allowed  to  unfit  themselves  by  excessive  hours  of  work,  b\' 
standing,  or  other  physical  strain,  for  the  burden  of  motherhood  which 
each  of  them  should  be  able  to  assume.     (Page  107.) 

The  object  of  such  control  is  the  protection  of  the  physical  well-being 
of  the  community  by  setting  a  limit  to  the  exploitation  of  the  improvident, 
unworkmanlike,  unorganized  women  who  are  yet  the  mothers,  actual  or 
prospective,  of  the  coming  generation.     (Pages  108,  109.) 


(5)  Infant  Mortality 

Experience  and  medical  observation  show  that  over\vork 
before  as  well  as  after  marriage  has  a  disastrous  effect  upon 
childbirth.  The  death  rate  is  high  among  children  of 
women  who  have  overworked  during  girlhood  as  well  as 
among  children  of  working  mothers. 

Overwork  during  pregnane}'  and  too  soon  after  child- 
birth, together  with  the  inevitable  neglect  of  infants  b\' 
mothers  who  are  kept  awa\'  from  home  by  overlong  work- 
ing hours,  are  further  contributing  causes  to  a  high  infant 
mortality. 

Besides  their  high  death  rate  at  birth  and  during  the 
first  years  of  infancy,  the  children  of  exhausted  workers 
are  below  the  normal  in  size  and  weight. 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XIX.     1873.     Reports  of  the  Inspectors   great 
of  Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1872.  ^ 

Mr.  R.  H.  Leach,  certifying  surgeon  for  upwards  of  thirty  years,  says: 
Shorten  their  hours  of  labor,  for  1  believe  that  scores  of  infants  are 
annually  lost  under  the  present  s>'stem.  As  things  now  stand,  a  mother 
leaves  her  infant  (say  of  two  months  old)  at  6  a.  m.,  often  asleep  in  bed, 
at  8  she  nurses  it,  then  until  12.30  the  child  is  bottle  fed,  or  stuffed  with 
indigestible  food.  On  her  return  at  noon,  overheated  and  exhausted,  her 
milk  is  unfit  for  the  child's  nourishment,  and  this  state  of  things  is  again 


270  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  repeated  until  6  p.  M.;  the  consequence  is,  that  the  child  suffers  from  spas- 

BRITAIN  •  •  • 

modic  diarrhoea,  often  complicated  with  convulsions  and  ending  in  death. 
(Page  56.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  LV.  1873.  Report  to  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board  on  Proposed  Changes  in  Hours  and  Ages  of  Employment 
in  Textile  Factories.     By  J.  H.  Bridges,  M.D.,  and  T.  Holmes. 

Experience  afforded  by  residence  in  the  worsted  manufacturing  town 
of  Bradford,  and  extensive  practise  among  its  population  during  periods 
of  from  one  to  thirty-five  years: 

Q.     Has  the  labor  any  tendency  to  increase  the  rate  of  infant  mortality? 
A.     Yes.     The  evils  occurring  in  women  .  .  .  indirectly  affect  the 
more  perfect  growth  of  the  child  in  utero,  and  dispose  it  when  born  more 
easily  to  become  diseased. 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  Bradford  Medico  Chirurgical  Society,  at  a 
meeting  held  February  4,  1873. 

Sub-Committee. 

President,  J.  H.  Bell,  M.D. 

P.  E.  MiALL,  M.R.C.S. 
Secretary,   David  Goyder,  M.D. 
(Pages  39,  40.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXXII.  1904.  Report  of  the  Inter- 
Departmental  Committee  on  Physical  Deterioration.  Vols.  I,  II,  III. 
1904. 

English  Mortality  among  Infants  under  One  Year  of  Age.  Prepared 
under  Dr.  Tatham's  direction,  from  the  Official  Returns  in  the  General 
Register  Office. 

...  In  the  years  1873-77  the  rates  in  the  urban  countries  were  higher 
than  those  in  the  rural  by  26  per  cent  among  male  and  by  29  per  cent 
among  female  children,  while  in  the  years  1898-1902  the  differences  had 
increased  to  30  per  cent  and  34  per  cent  respectively.  .  .  . 

Taking  together  diarrhceal  diseases  and  diseases  of  the  stomach  and 
liver,  the  recent  five  years  show  an  increase  of  more  than  70  per  cent  in 
the  urban  and  of  nearly  70  per  cent  in  the  rural  countries. 

.  .  .  The  increased  mortality  from  diarrhceal  diseases  is  probably 
attributable  in  great  part  to  the  prevalence  of  artificial  infant  feeding, 
and  this  view  appears  to  be  consistent  with  the  fact  that  the  increase  has 
been  greater  in  the  urban  than  in  the  rural  countries.     (Vol.  I,  page  130.) 


INFANT   MORTALITY  27 1 

Anthropometric  Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  British  Association  of  great 

^  ^  BRITAIN 

1883. 

It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  the  physical  (and  most  probably  the 
mental)  proportions  of  a  race,  and  their  uniformity  within  certain  limits 
are  largely  dependent  upon  the  size  of  the  female  pelvis,  which  acts  as  a 
gauge  as  it  were  of  the  race,  and  eliminates  the  largest  mfants,  especially 
those  with  large  heads  (and  presumably  more  brains)  by  preventing  their 
survival  at  birth.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Note.  It  is  probably  in  this  direction  that  we  must  look  for  an 
explanation  of  the  degenerative  influences  of  .  .  .  sedentary  occupa- 
tions, as  they  .  .  .  favour  the  production  of  .  .  .  imperfectly  developed 
bodies  of  women.     (Vol.  II,  page  98.) 

Transactions  of  the  National  Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Social  Science. 
Vol.  26.  1882.  Infant  Mortality.  Thomas  M.  Dolan,  F.R.C.S. 
London,  Longmans,  1883. 

We  can  produce  statistics  which  prove  that  the  death  rate  of  infants, 
the  offspring  of  women  who  are  engaged  as  operatives,  is  so  high  as  to 
require  some  special  explanation  to  account  for  it;  and  still  more  we  can 
furnish  evidence  which  seems  to  connect  this  high  death  rate  with  the 
employment  of  women  in  factories.  .  .  .  (Page  358.)  I  .  .  .  asked 
several  practitioners  .  .  .  who  attended  a  large  number  of  operatives, 
"Could  yon  fix  the  annual  number  of  infantile  deaths  during  the  last  five 
years  attributable  in  your  opinion  to  the  employment  of  the  mothers  in 
factories  before  or  too  soon  after  labour?"  Five  replied  fixing  the  mor- 
tality at  15  to  20  per  annum,  two  were  of  opinion  that  20  per  cent  of  in- 
fantile deaths  should  be  assigned  to  this  cause.  .  .  .  Since  1872  1  have  .  .  . 
attended  over  2800  cases  of  midwifery  among  that  class.  My  increased 
experience  convinces  me  of  the  correctness  of  my  views.     (Page  361.) 

In  further  confirmation  of  them  it  is  singular  how  unanimous  all 
medical  officers  of  health  are  in  assigning  the  employment  of  women  in 
factories  as  a  cause  of  infant  mortality. 

...  Dr.  Harris  Butterfield,  Medical  Officer  of  Health  for  Bradford 
.  .  .  comments  on  the  excessive  mortality  of  infants  in  our  large  towns. 
This  mortality  he  attributes  in  great  measure  to  the  too  early  weaning 
of  infants  by  mothers  employed  in  factories.  .  .  . 

Dr.  Dudley,  Medical  Officer  of  Health,  Staleybridge  .  .  .  calls  the 
attention  of  the  authorities  to  the  excessive  infant  mortality  to  the  dis- 
trict.    This  he  attributes  to  the  same  causes.  .  .  .  (Page  361.) 

M.  Jean  Dolphus,  one  of  the  largest  manufacturers  in  Alsatia,  found 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


272 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


that  the  women  employed  in  his  factory  lost  40  per  cent  of  their  children 
in  the  first  year,  the  average  mortality  at  that  age  being  there  18.  (Page 
363.) 


Infant  Mortality.  A  Social  Problem.  George  Newman,  M.D.,  D.P.H., 
F.R.S.E.,  Lecturer  on  Public  Health  at  St.  Bartholomew' s  Hospital, 
London;  Medical  Officer  oj  Health,  Metropolitan  Borough,  Finshury. 
London,  Methuen,  1906. 

A  nation  grows  out  of  its  children,  and  if  its  children  die  in  infancy  it 
means  that  the  sources  of  a  nation's  population  are  being  sapped,  and 
further  that  the  conditions  that  kill  such  a  large  proportion  of  infants 
injure  many  of  those  which  survive.  Last  year,  1905,  there  was  a  loss  to 
the  nation  of  120,000  dead  infants,  in  England  and  Wales  alone,  a  figure 
which  is  almost  exactly  one  quarter  of  all  the  deaths  in  England  and  Wales 
in  that  year.     (Page  2.) 

And  this  enormous  sacrifice  of  human  life  is  being  repeated  year  by 
year  and  is  not  growing  less.     (Page  7.) 

Nor  is  England  alone.  .  .  .  The  birth  rate  is  declining  in  civilized  na- 
tions with  few  exceptions;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  death  rate. 
But  the  infant  mortality  rate,  as  a  rule,  is  stationary  or  even  increasing. 

There  are  two  features,  however,  which  appear  to  be  common  to  the 
high  infant  mortality  districts,  namely,  a  high  density  of  population  and  a 
considerable  degree  of  manufacturing  industry.     (Page  26.) 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I'Industrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im- 
portance et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Nightwork  of  JVomen  in  Industry.  Its  importance  and  legal  regula- 
tion.    Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

Moreover  and  above  all  we  observe  in  all  countries  where  woman  is 
protected  a  lessening  of  female  and  also  of  infant  mortality.  In  England 
the  convincing  argument  drawn  from  this  fact  has  often  been  cited. 
There  among  100  new-born  the  proportion  of  infants  dying  in  the  first 
year  of  their  existence  was  15  per  cent  from  1873  to  1875  in  England  and 
Wales,  and  12.8  per  cent  in  Scotland;  by  contrast,  the  percentages  were 
respectively  only  14.6  and  12.2  from  1884  to  1893.  From  1873  to  1875 
the  percentage  rose  to  16.75  in  seven  great  centres  of  industry.  In 
Switzerland  there  was  noted  a  similar  reduction  in  infant  mortality,  which 
averaged  from  1871  to  1880,  19.3  per  cent,  and  from  1881  to  1890,  only 
16.5  per  cent.  .  .  .  (Pages  xxxvii,  xxxviii.) 


INFANT   MORTALITY  273 

Annalen  des  Deutschen  Reichs,  Bd.  21,  1888.     [Annals  of  the  German  Em-    GERMANY 
pire,   Vol.  21,  1888.]     Der  Internationale  Schut{  der  Arheiter.     [In- 
ternational Labor  Legislation.]     Dr.  George  Adler,    University  of 
Freiburg.     Munich  and  Leipsic,  Hirth,  1888. 

The  worst  physiological  effects  of  factory  work  for  women  were  shown 
by  the  increased  number  of  still-births.  In  the  district  of  Miilhausen, 
between  1875-79,  not  less  than  58  still-born  infants  to  1000  births  were 
reported,  whilst  in  country  regions  the  proportion  was  only  30-40  per 
1000. 

The  death  rate  of  infants  in  their  first  year  also  increased  startlingly 
as  a  result  of  industrial  toil  for  women.  Thus  for  Miilhausen  and  its 
district,  between  1873-82,  infant  mortality  was,  on  an  average,  240  to 
1000  infants  born  living.  Naturally  also,  this  region  furnished  a  smaller 
quota  of  military  recruits  than  the  numbers  of  its  population  should  have 
warranted.     (Page  470.) 

Verhandlungen  des  Reichstags,  103.   Sit^ung,  18.  April,  1891.  [Proceedings 
of  the  German  Reichstag,  103rd  Session,  April  18,  1891.] 

Representative  Bebel: 

The  effect  of  the  excessive  industrial  labor  of  women  upon  the  death 
rate  of  infants  is  shown  by  some  statistics  of  Saxony,  which  comprise  the 
period  from  1880  to  1885,  and  show  the  death  rate  of  children  in  their 
first  year  in  the  industrial  towns  and  districts.  The  mortality  of  infants 
under  a  year  old  in  the  cities  of  the  whole  empire  averaged  28.5  per  cent, 
while  in  those  cities  of  pre-eminently  manufacturing  importance,  it  rose 
from  36  to  45  per  cent,  and  in  those  where  women  were  employed  in  the 
highest  numbers,  as  m  the  vicinity  of  Chemnitz,  it  rose  from  40  to  over 
50  per  cent.     (Page  2420.) 


Zeitschrift  der  So-iale  IVissenschaft,  Bd.  VIII,  Nr.  10, 1905.  Die  Fruchi- 
barkeit  selhst  arbeitender  und  den  arheitenden  Stdnden  angehoriger 
Frauen.  [The  Fertility  of  Women  of  the  Working  Classes  and  of  those 
Engaged  in  Industry.] 

This  subject  has  been  investigated  by  Prof.  Ugo  Broggi,  who,  in  an 
article  in  the  Zeitschrift  fiir  Versicherungswissenschaft  (July  1,  1905) 
states  that  of  172,365  Italian  women  between  the  ages  of  15  and  54  years 
who  were  employed  in  industrial  occupations  the  average  child-bearing 
co-efficient  was  only  45  per  thousand,  or  about  one-third  of  the  general 
18* 


274 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY 


FRANCE 


UNITED 
STATES 


fertility  of  Italian  women  (120  per  1000).  The  investigation,  in  detail, 
included  7029  working  women  in  chemical  industries  and  collieries.  The 
average  fertility  was  46  per  cent.  1595  women  in  food  factories  showed 
an  average  fertility  of  39  per  cent;  134,770  women  in  the  textile  trades, 
39  per  cent;  and  28,971  in  varied  industries  such  as  paper,  wood,  clothing, 
tobacco  factories,  etc.,  73  per  cent.  Thus,  throughout,  a  lower  fertility 
than  the  normal.  One  exception  only  was  noted,  in  the  women  employed 
by  the  state  in  the  state  tobacco  manufactories,  who,  with  a  fertility  of 
104  per  cent  came  nearest  in  their  child-bearing  capacity  to  the  average 
of  the  entire  female  population.     (Pages  663-664.) 

Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Berlin, 
1907.  Vol.  II.  Sec.  IV.  Ermildung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  [Over- 
work as  a  Result  of  Occupation.]  Dr.  Imbert,  University  of  Montpel- 
lier.     Berlin,  Hirschwald,  1908. 

Pinard  and  his  pupils  have  shown  that  the  period  of  gestation  is  of 
shorter  duration  in  working  classes  than  it  is  in  well-to-do  classes. 

Again,  the  average  weight  of  infants  at  birth  is  inferior  accordingly  as 
the  mother  has  labored  up  to  the  time  of  delivery  or  when  her  work  has 
been  very  hard.     (Page  641.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1890. 

In  his  report  to  the  federal  government  of  Switzerland,  dated  Berne, 
1889,  Dr.  Decurtius,  states  that  in  the  few  years  since  a  law  was  passed 
in  his  country  forbidding  the  employment  of  women  for  six  weeks  after 
their  confinement,  the  mortality  of  children,  including  the  still-born,  de- 
creased from  twenty-nine  per  cent  to  five  per  cent.  The  same  decrease 
was  observed  in  Mtilhausen,  the  great  manufacturing  city  of  Alsace, 
where,  owing  to  the  efforts  of  some  philanthropic  employers,  a  general 
voluntary  observance  of  similar  rules  prevails,  and  adequate  provision  is 
made  for  the  care  of  the  mother  during  her  absence  from  the  factory. 
But  Dr.  Decurtius  makes,  furthermore,  the  important  statement  that, 
while  the  mortality  of  such  children  is  not  sensibly  greater  than  that  of 
the  children  of  artisans  and  farm  laborers,  so  long  as  the  mothers  are  thus 
kept  from  factory  work  and  taken  care  of,  it  immediately  increases  as  soon 
as  they  return  to  work.     (Pages  81,  82.) 

According  to  Dr.  Otto  Pringsheim,  while  the  average  mortality  of 
children  in  the  Netherlands  is  18.88  per  cent,  it  is  twenty-one,  thirty  and 
thirty-three  per  cent  in  the  manufacturing  cities  of  Maestricht,  Eindhoven 
and  Gonda,  respectively.     This  higher  rate  m  the  cities  named  he  attrib- 


INFANT   MORTALITY  275 

uteS;  emphatically,  to  the  hard  labor  of  female  workers  and  the  dissolution   united 
of  family  life  by  the  factory  system.     (Page  82.)  states 

Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor.  No.  SO.  January,  1909. 
Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  Great  Britain.  Victor  S.  Clark, 
Ph.D. 

The  Dundee  investigations  suggest,  though  sufficient  statistics  were 
not  obtained  to  confirm  the  point,  that  the  employment  of  women  in 
factories  before  childbirth  may  cause  their  children  to  be  of  light  weight; 
and  the  deaths  due  to  a  number  of  causes  attributable  to  the  general  con- 
dition of  prematurity  are  probably  larger  than  the  average  among  the 
infants  of  this  class  of  workers. 

The  relation  of  the  factory  employment  of  women  to  infant  mortality 
seems  well  established,  though  there  must  be  other  important  factors  in 
the  problem.  In  Bradford  the  mortality  of  children  under  1  year  is  160 
per  1000  among  working  mothers,  as  compared  with  40.8  per  1000  among 
those  of  mothers  who  are  not  working.     (Page  77.) 

The  higher  death  rate  of  infants  whose  mothers  are  employed  in  in- 
dustrial work  may  be  ascribed  broadly  to  two  general  causes,  (1)  prenatal 
conditions  and  (2)  neglect  after  birth.  Where  mothers  work  unfavorable 
prenatal  conditions  are  nearly  constant  from  year  to  year,  but  neglect 
after  birth  causes  deaths  to  fluctuate  accordingly  as  the  season  is  more  or 
less  favorable  for  the  survival  of  infants  receiving  improper  care.  In 
Dundee  the  deaths  within  a  week  of  birth  are  very  large,  and  those  due  to 
"immaturity"  are  more  frequent  than  in  cities  where  fewer  mothers  work. 
"It  is  impossible  to  apportion  the  cases  of  immaturity  to  definite  causes, 
but  it  may  be  broadly  stated  that  premature  birth  and  other  causes  of 
death  classified  with  it  under  the  head  of  immaturity  are  due  to  congenital 
weakness  in  the  infant,  and  this  congenital  weakness  it  is  usual  to  attribute 
to  prenatal  causes."  One  of  the  leading  English  experts  reports:  "The 
effects  of  poverty  and  hard  work  while  the  child  is  being  formed  in  the 
womb  do  undoubtedly  have  the  effect  of  producing  weakly  children,  who 
either  grow  up  weakly  or  die." 

The  first  phase  of  material  neglect,  after  the  child  is  born,  forced  upon 
the  mother  by  the  necessity  of  working  in  a  factory,  is  the  cessation  of 
breast  feeding.  And  the  relative  mortality  of  infants  not  fed  at  the  breast 
appears  to  be  higher  in  case  of  women  engaged  in  industrial  work,  even 
in  their  homes,  than  in  case  of  other  mothers.     (Pages  78,  79.) 

Yet  even  the  most  enthusiastic  social  reformers  do  not  call  for  amend- 
ments to  the  law  to  prevent  women — or  even  to  prevent  mothers— from 


UNITED 
STATES 


276 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


working  in  factories.  This  employment  is  recognized  as  an  economic 
necessity  for  the  working  people  at  present.  It  is  a  condition  that  it 
would  be  far  better  for  a  country  never  to  reach — even  at  the  expense  of 
less  wealth  and  so-called  industrial  progress — but  once  incurred  it  can 
not  be  remedied  abruptly.  However,  amendments  forbidding  the  em- 
ployment of  mothers  immediately  before  and  for  two  or  three  months 
after  childbirth,  combined  if  necessary  with  temporary  pensions  to  work- 
ing mothers,  to  carry  them  over  this  critical  period,  are  advocated  by  men 
who  would  not  be  called  extremists.  Meanwhile  the  municipal  authori- 
ties, through  their  lady  health  visitors  and  private  associations,  are  doing 
something  to  meet  the  worst  evils  arising  from  these  causes.     (Page  81.) 


(6)  Race  Degeneration 

Deterioration  of  any  large  portion  of  the  population 
inevitably  lowers  the  entire  community,  physically,  men- 
tally, and  morally.  In  communities  where  excessive  work- 
ing hours  have  long  prevailed,  one  generation  after  another 
has  suffered  from  overwork,  inherited  weakness,  and  the 
loss  of  all  family  decencies,  until  actual  race  degeneration 
has  resulted.  Progressive  decline  in  stature,  strength, 
and  efficiency  becomes  markedly  evident.  This  is  conspicu- 
ously shown  by  the  large  percentage  of  persons  necessarily 
excluded  from  military  service  for  physical  unfitness. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  73.     1844. 

Lord  Ashley: 

By  the  system  we  permit,  the  laws  of  nature  are  absolutely  outraged, 
but  not  with  impunity.  The  slow  but  certain  penalty  is  exacted  in  the 
physical  degradation  of  the  human  race,  including,  as  it  does,  the  ruin  of 
the  body,  and  the  still  more  fatal  corruption  of  the  moral  part.  (Page 
1086.) 

Mr.  M.  Geachy: 

On  one  Member  of  the  Government,  at  last  a  Ten  Hours'  Bill  has  an 
hereditary  claim.  Five-and-twenty  years  ago  the  first  Sir  Robert  Peel 
said  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  speaking  of  a  Ten 
Hours'  Bill: 

"Such  an  unlimited  and  indiscriminate  employment  of  the  poor  con- 


RACE    DEGENERATION  277 

sistins  of  a  great  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  trading  districts,    great 

BRITAIN 

will  be  attended  with  effects  to  the  rising  generation,  so  ruinous  and  alarm- 
ing, that  1  cannot  contemplate  them  without  dismay,  and  thus  the  great 
effort  of  British  ingenuity,  whereby  the  machinery  of  our  manufactures  has 
been  brought  to  such  perfection,  instead  of  being  a  blessing  to  the  nation, 
will  be  converted  into  the  bitterest  curse."     (Page  1217.) 

Mr.  C.  Buller: 

In  Wiltshire  the  average  duration  of  life  was  33  years,  m  Manchester 
it  was  only  17.  .  .  .  Now,  it  could  not  be  doubted  that  the  evils  of  this 
physical  condition  were  calculated  to  grow  worse  in  every  succeeding  gen- 
eration. A  people  whose  life  was  reduced  to  one  half  of  the  usual  average 
of  the  labouring  class  by  no  accident,  no  sudden  disaster,  no  chance  epi- 
demic, but  by  the  constant  action  of  circumstances  unfavorable  to  health 
and  longevity,  were  not  likely  to  propagate  a  vigorous  and  healthy  race. 
He  thought  that  no  legislature  could  view  with  indifference  a  state  of 
things  that  thus  shortened  human  life,  and  tended  to  deteriorate  the 
species.     (Page  1435.) 

Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  74.     1844. 

Sir  R.  Peel: 

Mr.  John  Moor,  surgeon,  stated,  unless  something  was  done  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  the  factory  workers,  the  rising  generations  in  the 
manufacturing  districts  would  be  debilitated  more  than  the  present,  and 
so  generation  would  go  on  until  the  human  species  would  be  everything 
but  extinguished.  As  a  medical  man  of  40  years'  standing  in  the  town  of 
Bolton,  he  had  no  hesitation  in  making  this  declaration.  The  ravages 
which,  in  his  capacity  of  surgeon,  he  had  witnessed  from  scrofula  and 
other  diseases,  consequent  upon  confinement  to  the  mills,  had  been  so 
disastrous  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  if  the  system  of  confinement 
in  mills  for  so  long  a  period  each  day  was  continued  much  longer,  there 
would  be  but  few  engaged  in  factory  labour  who  would  escape  deformity. 
In  many  cases  which  came  under  his  own  knowledge,  inflammation  of  the 
feet  and  legs  ensued,  which  had  to  be  followed  by  amputation.  From 
these  and  many  other  considerations,  he  was  decidedly  of  opinion  that  10 
hours'  labour  in  factories  was  even  more  than  could  be  endured  without 
injury  to  the  human  constitution.     (Page  679.) 

One  other  of  his  (Lord  Ashley's)  statements  .  .  .  had  been  called 
in  question.  He  had  made  it  on  the  authority  of  a  medical  man  in  Lanca- 
shire, that  long  protracted  labour  had  a  most  injurious  effect,  especially 
in  cases  of  pregnancy,  that  varicose  veins  had  formed  and  bursting,  ended 
in  death.     (Page  679.) 


278  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  British  Sessional  Papers.    Vol.  XV.   1870.   Reports  of  Inspectors  of  Factories. 

BRITAIN 

This  condition  of  the  factory  population  has  .  .  .  been  brought  under 
mynoticeby  one  of  my  certifying  surgeons.  .  .  .  Dr.  Ferguson  writes  thus: 

"Within  my  short  experience  ...  I  see  a  marked  degeneration  in  the 
height  and  general  development  of  children  presented  for  examination, 
especially  in  those  of  18  years  and  upwards,  and  have  had  to  reject  during 
the  last  2  years  more  than  200,  because  those  coming  to  pass  had  not  more 
than  the  average  strength  and  appearance  of  11  years.  I  attribute  this 
degeneration  mainly  to  the  intemperate  and  improvident  habits  which 
prevail  extensively  amongst  the  parents.  Boys  of  15  and  16  years  old 
come  before  me  almost  every  week,  not  having  more  than  the  average 
height  and  development  of  13  years,  their  lips  pale  and  the  muscles  flabby. 
I  fear  drunkenness  is  on  the  increase  among  factory  hands,  especially 
among  the  women."  .  .  .  (Pages  156,  157.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVI.     1875.     Reports   of  Inspectors   of 
Factories.     For  half-year  ending  30th  April,  1875. 

It  was  during  this  period  that  the  factory  hand  became  changed  from 
the  healthy  labourer  to  the  weakly,  anaemic,  and  frequently  decrepit 
operative.  Doubtless,  from  the  cost  of  the  introduction  of  steam,  and 
the  desire  to  run  the  machinery  as  long  as  possible,  the  factory  hands  did 
degenerate  from  the  sturdy  labourer  and  operative  in  the  valleys  and  on 
the  hill  sides  of  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  to  the  wasted  and  down-trodden 
operative  of  the  purely  manufacturing  town,  working  daily  and  all  day 
long,  and  possibly  part  of  the  night  also,  in  a  close,  hot,  ill-ventilated 
factory,  returning  from  work  to  a  dwelling  more  unhealthy  than  the  fac- 
tory, until  the  factory  population  appeared  to  have  become  a  distinct 
race,  that  was  known  at  a  glance,  so  defined  had  the  effects  of  overwork 
and  unhealthy  dwellings  become  upon  the  physical  appearance  and  con- 
dition of  the  people.     (Page  23.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XVI.     1876.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories.     For  half-year  ending  31st  Oct.,  1875. 

Testimony  of  certifying  surgeon: 

No  doubt  height  is  not  so  much  affected  as  physique,  although  con- 
trasted with  an  agricultural  population,  height  is  perceptibly  less  in  the 
factory  population.  The  physical  strength  and  appearance  suffer  much 
in  factories  from  confined  heated  atmospheres,  loaded  with  fine  cotton 
fibres,  fine  flinty  sand,  and  cutaneous  exhalations.     The  number  of  gas- 


RACE    DEGENERATION  279 

lights,  each  light  destroying  oxygen  equal  to  one  man,  and  transitions  great 
from  the  mills  and  their  temperatures  to  their  dwellings.  Diet  and  drinks 
adapted  to  a  heated  employment  and  stimulants  to  sooth  an  excited  nerv- 
ous tension.  In  short  the  skin  secretes  the  quantity  of  an  Indian  climate. 
Vision  is  always  on  the  move.  Perception  and  volition,  from  the  nature 
of  their  work,  always  in  action.  The  weight  of  liquid  thrown  off  from  the 
skin  is  compensated  by  drinks  of  tea,  coffee,  and  water.  The  very  tension 
caused  by  their  work  is  best  allayed  after  hours  of  labour  by  resources 
always  at  hand.  But  unfortunately,  drink  stimulants  and  mental  excite- 
ment are  resorted  to,  and  want,  improvidence,  the  poorest  houses,  and 
bad  food  tell  against  healthy  offspring.     (Page  103.) 

Transactions  of  the  National  Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Social  Science. 
1857.  Vol.  I.  The  Early  Closing  Movement.  John  Lilwall. 
London,  John  Parker,  1858. 

Mr.  Stevens,  of  St.  Luke's  Lunatic  Asylum,  observes:  It  may  be  stated 
with  great  confidence  that  a  prolific  cause  for  the  rapid  and  extensive 
increase  of  insanity  in  this  country  is  to  be  found  in  the  unceasing  toil  and 
anxiety  to  which  the  working  classes  are  subjected.  This  cause  develop- 
ing the  disease  in  the  existing  generation,  or  what  is  quite  as  frequently 
the  case,  transmitting  to  the  offspring  idiocy,  insanity,  or  some  imper- 
fectly developed  sensorium  or  nervous  system.  The  agitated,  over- 
worked, and  harassed  parent  is  not  in  a  condition  to  transmit  a  healthy 
brain  to  his  child.     (Pages  554-555.) 


A  Shorter  Working  Day.     R.  A.  Hadfield  of  Hadjield's  Steel  Foundry  Co., 
Sheffield,  and  H.  de  B.  Gibbins,  M.A.    London,  Methuen,  1892. 

Those  who  have  studied  the  history  of  the  Factory  Acts  are  simply 
aghast  at  the  fearful  conditions  of  labor  therein  disclosed  and  at  the  same 
time  amazed  at  the  endurance  of  which  the  workers  of  that  day  were 
capable.  The  penalty  has  been  paid  by  their  descendants,  as  those  who 
live  in  the  factory  districts  can  testify.     (Page  88.) 

The  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts.     Edited  by  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.     London, 
Richard,  1901. 

It  may  be  enough  for  the  individual  employer  if  his  workpeople  re- 
main alive  during  the  period  for  which  he  hires  them.  But  for  the  con- 
tinued efficiency  of  the  nation's  industry,  it  is  indispensable  that  its 


28o 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


citizens  should  not  merely  continue  to  exist  for  a  few  months  or  years,  but 
should  be  well  brought  up  as  children,  and  maintained  for  their  full 
normal  life  unimpaired  in  health,  strength,  and  character.  The  human 
beings  of  a  community  form  as  truly  a  portion  of  its  working  capital  as  its 
land,  its  machinery,  or  its  cattle.  If  the  employers  in  a  particular  trade 
are  able  to  take  such  advantage  of  the  necessities  of  their  workpeople  as 
to  hire  them  for  wages  actually  insufficient  to  provide  enough  food,  cloth- 
ing, and  shelter  to  maintain  them  and  their  children  in  health;  if  they  are 
able  to  work  them  for  hours  so  long  as  to  deprive  them  of  adequate  rest 
and  recreation;  or  if  they  subject  them  to  conditions  so  dangerous  or  in- 
sanitary as  positively  to  shorten  their  lives,  that  trade  is  clearly  using  up 
and  destroying  a  part  of  the  nation's  working  capital.     (Pages  20-21.) 

.  .  .  Industries  yielding  only  a  bare  minimum  of  momentary  sub- 
sistence are  therefore  not  really  self-supporting.  In  deteriorating  the 
physique,  intelligence,  and  character  of  their  operatives,  they  are  drawing 
on  the  capital  stock  of  the  nation.  And  even  if  the  using  up  is  not  actually 
so  rapid  as  to  prevent  the  "sweated"  workers  from  producing  a  new  gen- 
eration to  replace  them,  the  trade  is  none  the  less  parasitic.  In  persist- 
ently deteriorating  the  stock  it  employs,  it  is  subtly  draining  away  the 
vital  energy  of  the  community.  It  is  taking  from  these  workers,  week  by 
week,  more  than  its  wages  can  restore  to  them.  A  whole  community 
might  conceivably  thus  become  parasitic  on  itself,  or,  rather,  upon  its 
future.     (Page  22.) 


FRANCE  Debats   et   Documents   Parlementaires,   Chambre  des   Deputes,   23'  Mars, 

1881.  [Parliamentary  Debates  and  Documents.  {French)  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  Mar.  23,  1881.]  Suite  de  la  discussion  des  propositions  de 
loi  concernant  la  duree  des  heures  de  travail  dans  les  usines  et  les  manu- 
factures. [Discussion  of  the  sections  of  the  law  relating  to  the  length  of 
hours  of  work  in  workshops  and  factories.} 

Senator  Waddington  (quoting  M.  Vanzuppe,  a  cotton-spinner,  who 
said): 

What  is  the  inevitable  result  of  the  silence  of  the  law  as  to  a  generally 
efificacious  restrictive  regulation  of  the  hours  of  labor,  settled  in  accordance 
with  human  strength? 

It  is:  higher  mortality;  decreased  birthrate;  physical  and  moral 
degeneration  of  the  industrial  masses; 

It  is:  in  the  last  analysis,  the  loss  of  many  whose  intelligence  and 
whose  robust  arms  might  have  well  served  the  state. 

An  industrial  population  tends  to  destroy  itself,  and  the  immigrant 


RACE    DEGENERATION  201 

must  be  looked  to  to  fill  the  vacant  places  created  b\-  our  industrial   france 
system. 

The  foundation  of  free  citizenship  is  education,  but  by  a  bitter  irony 
the  workers  are  deprived  of  the  facilities  for  obtaining  it.  Exhausted  by 
excessive  labor,  can  they  read,  or  study?     (Page  618.) 

Tenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Paris,  1900. 
In  one  vol.  Legislation  et  Reglementation  du  Travail  an  point  de  Vue 
de  I'Hygihie.  [Labor  Legislation  and  Restriction  from  the  Standpoint 
of  Hygiene.]  M.  Edouard  Vaillant,  M.  R.  C.  S.  Engl.  Paris, 
Masson  et  Cie,  1900. 

The  insufficiency  of  labor  legislation  is  plain  before  our  eyes:  at  40  or 
45  years  the  laborer,  used  up  by  overwork,  is  unfit  for  the  shop.  He  went 
to  work  too  soon;  his  growth  was  checked;  his  organism  was  enfeebled, 
and  he  is  replaced  in  his  work  by  his  puny  children,  destined  to  a  fate  like 
his  own. 

Misery  and  degeneration  of  a  modern  type  appear  with  modern  ma- 
chines of  industry  and  with  the  employment  of  women  and  children. 
The  different  industrial  countries,  feeling  their  strength  sapped  at  its 
sources,  have  sought  counsel  from  hygiene.  This  is  the  origin  of  the 
earliest  protective  laws  for  children,  then  those  for  the  adolescent  and  the 
woman. 

In  less  than  a  half  century  the  evil  has  made  frightful  progress. 

Lack  of  health,  depression,  and  degeneracy  have  followed  upon 
physiological  poverty  resulting  from  overwork  and  under  nutrition. 

Since  the  end  of  the  last  century  the  testimony  of  historians,  travel- 
lers .  .  .  and  medico-hygienists  has  been  uniform  on  this  question. 
With  the  introduction  of  machinery  and  of  the  factory,  displacing  hand- 
work, methods  of  work  have  been  transformed.  Daylight  no  longer 
limits  the  working  day.  Artificial  light  allows  the  longest  possible  use  of 
motor  devices,  and  these  are  attended  by  an  army  of  women  and  children. 
(Page  503.) 


Verhandlungen  des  Deutschen  Reichstags.  103.  Sit-ung,  18.  April.  1891. 
[Proceedings  of  the  German  Reichstag.  103rd  Session.  April  18th, 
1891.] 

Representative  Bebel: 

The  vast  change  in  social  and  family  life  which  is  portended  b\-  the 
increasing  pressure  of  women  into  industry  has  been  strongly  emphasized 


GERMANY 


282  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  ,  .  .  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  physique  of  the  woman  is  not  adapted 
to  the  same  degree  of  muscular  exertion  and  development  as  the  man's. 
That  the  sound  and  healthy  development  of  the  race  depends  in  large 
measure  upon  the  strength  and  health  of  the  mother  is  acknowledged,  and 
no  one  can  deny  that  the  health  of  women  to-day  is  seriously  endangered 
by  factory  work.  The  one  fact  alone,  that  the  military  recruiting  offices 
all  over  Germany  have  found  that  from  decade  to  decade  the  number  of 
physically  fit  recruits  in  factory  and  manufacturing  districts  is  diminishing 
to  an  appalling  extent,  so  that  it  is  necessary  to  draw  more  and  more 
heavily  upon  the  country  regions — shows  clear  and  plainly  what  kind  of 
process  is  at  work  upon  the  development  of  the  national  physique,  and 
the  more  extensive  our  industry  becomes,  and  the  more  it  invades  the 
country  regions,  the  more  and  more  certainly  will  it  exhaust  those  sources 
of  strength  which  are  now  the  only  sources  to  look  to  for  military  defence. 
For  these  reasons  it  is  absolutely  essential  that  the  laws  should  promptly 
provide  ample  means  for  overcoming  this  tendency  to  deterioration  of 
race  in  every  way.     (Pages  2419-2420.) 

Amtliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerle-AufsicUs- 
heamien.  1897.  [Official  Information  from  Reports  of  the  {German) 
Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,  Bruer,  1898. 

It  is  repeatedly  shown  in  the  reports  that  in  certain  branches  of  in- 
dustry in  specific  regions  the  working  classes  deteriorate  in  health  from 
one  generation  to  another,  as  they  become  hereditarily  more  predisposed 
to  fall  victims  to  the  special  injuries  induced  by  their  calling.  Certain 
work  is  regarded  as  an  inherited  occupation,  even  though  its  unwhole- 
some effect  is  known  and  though  the  bad  health  of  whole  families  engaged 
therein  becomes  ever  more  clearly  evident.     (Page  208.) 

Of  first  importance  is  it  to  shorten  the  hours  of  work.  (Inspector  in 
Potsdam.)     (Page  210.) 

Die  Sociale  Reform  als  Gebot  des  fVirthschaftlichen  Fortschrittes.  [Social 
Reform  as  a  Condition  of  Socio-Political  Progress.]  Dr.  Heinrich 
Herkner.     Leipzig,  Duncker,  1891. 

The  results  of  excessive  work,  insufficient  wages  and  deficient  nutrition 
appear  with  a  distinctness  that  cannot  be  ignored  in  the  reports  of  the 
recruiting  statistics.  A  military  examining  physician  of  the  empire 
(German)  reported  from  a  factory  region:  "In  the  factory  villages,  where 
every  one  works  from  youth  up  in  the  factories,  almost  all  recruits  were 


RACE    DEGENERATION  283 

unfit  for  service,  and  I  believe  that,  if  this  goes  on,  it  will  be  useless  to  send   GERMANY 
recruiting  commissions  to  these  communities."     (Page  4.)     (Quoted  from 
Archiv  fiir  offentliche  Gesundheitspflege  in  Elsass-Lothringen,  \'II,  107.) 

Hours  and  Wages  in  Relation  to  Production.  Liijo  Brentano.  Translated 
hy  Mrs.  William  Arnold.     London,  Sonnenschein,  1894. 

It  was  said — that  machiner}'  had  made  labour  easy  which  had  been 
arduous;  that  it  even  rendered  possible  the  employment  of  little  children 
where  formerly  grown-up  people  had  been  indispensable;  and  that  as  the 
work  was  no  longer  arduous,  a  prolongation  of  working  da_\'s  could  do  no 
harm.  The  actual  consequence  of  this  easier  but  longer  labour  was  a 
complete  deterioration  of  the  working  classes,  physically,  mentally,  and 
morally — especially  of  the  women  and  children  whose  labour  replaced 
that  of  male  adults.  "And  so  it  came  to  pass,"  to  use  the  words  of  the 
first  Sir  Robert  Peel,  "that  that  great  achievement  of  British  ingenuity, 
by  means  of  which  factory  machinery  attained  to  such  perfection,  became, 
instead  of  a  blessing  to  the  nation,  its  bitterest  curse."     (Pages  21-22.) 

Jahrhuch  fiir  Gesetigehuyig,  Verwaltung,  und  Volksivirihschaft  im  Deutschen 
Reich.  Vol.  25^-  ^.  1901.  Die  Wehrfdhigkeit  der  Idndlichen  und 
stddtischen  Bevolkerung.  [The  Arms-Bearing  Capacity  of  Country  and 
City  Populations.]     Dr.  George  Bindewald. 

It  is  certain,  according  to  medical  testimony,  that  factory  work  for 
women,  and  work  behind  the  counter  in  shop  and  store,  takes  vengeance 
upon  the  young  working  woman  when  she  becomes  a  mother;  and  not 
only  upon  her,  but  even  more  upon  her  offspring. 

This  is  just  as  certain  as  that  healthy,  vigorous  mothers  who  have 
not  been  subjected  to  the  strain  of  a  struggle  for  existence,  bequeath 
health  to  their  posterity.     (Page  188.) 

It  is  unquestionable  that  industr>-  cannot  be  entirely  deprived  of 
women's  work,  but,  for  the  sake  of  a  sturdy  race,  it  appears  to  be  a  strin- 
gent necessity  to  restrict  such  labor  to  its  minimum.     (Page  191.) 

The  work  of  women  in  industry  should  be  limited:  this  may  be  done 
chiefly  by  reducing  the  length  of  the  working  hours,  and  also  by  lengthen- 
ing the  periods  of  rest  at  the  time  of  childbirth.     (Page  192.) 

Handworterbuch  der  Staatswissenschaften.  Bd.  I.  Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 
[Compendium  of  Political  Science,  Vol.  I.]  Edited  hy  Drs.  J.  Conr.\d, 
Professor  of  Political  Science  in  Halle;   L.  Elster,  Oher  Reg.  Rath  in 


284  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  Berlin;  W.  Lexis,  Professor  of  Political  Science  in  GoUingen,  and  Edg. 

LoENiNG,  Professor  of  Law  in  Halle.     Arheitsieit.     [Hours  of  Work.] 
Dr.  H.  Herkner,  Berlin. 

The  state  approaches  the  question  of  working  time  from  another  stand- 
point than  does  the  church.  The  state  is  above  all  the  organ  of  perception 
of  national  interests.  The  bedrock  of  national  strength  is  an  able,  loyal, 
intelligent  people.  It  is  therefore  important  for  the  state  to  see  that  this 
foundation  is  not  shattered  by  the  prolongation  of  working  hours.  First 
of  all,  the  fatal  influence  of  excessive  hours  of  work  came  to  light  in  the 
inferior  military  fitness  of  the  factory  population.  After  that  it  was  only 
in  obedience  to  the  most  elementary  law  of  self-preservation  that  states 
regulated  the  hours  of  work  of  the  least  resistant  classes,  the  children, 
young  people,  and  women.  According  as  the  proportion  of  the  industrial 
classes  to  the  whole  community  is  larger,  so  much  more  urgently  necessary 
does  it  become  to  lessen  the  serious  dangers  to  health  which  inhere  in 
industrial  as  opposed  to  agricultural  occupations,  by  a  wise  limitation 
of  the  hours  of  work. 

The  state  needs  not  only  soldiers,  but  citizens  capable  and  ready  to 
share  in  public  life.  Wage-earning  must  leave  some  time  free  for  such 
duties.     (Page  1206.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Massachusetts  House  Documents, 
limitation  of  hours  of  work. 


No.  153.     1850.     Minority   report    re 


They  fully  believe  and  think  that  nearly  all  intelligent  persons,  who 
have  thought  upon  the  subject,  will  admit  that  the  present  hours  of  labor 
in  the  manufactories  of  this  State,  are  too  many,  for  the  moral  welfare  and 
physical  health  of  the  operatives,  and  that  this  system  of  labor  is  a  great 
evil,  which,  not  only  immediately  affects  the  laborers  themselves,  but  is 
diffused  into  society,  and  will  entail  serious  effects  upon  posterity,   (Page  6.) 


Evidence  Submitted  to  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  in  Favor  of  the  Enact- 
ment of  a  Ten-Hour  Law.     Lawrence,  1870. 

I  have  observed  with  regret  the  premature  decay  of  the  youth  of  our 
city,  who  are  confined,  long  hours,  in  an  unhealthy  atmosphere  in  our 
mills,  and  believe  that  disease  is  being  nourished  in  our  organisms  for  an 
ultimate  weakened  and  miserable  race.  I  believe  the  cause  of  humanity 
demands  redress  in  the  matter  of  time, — the  young  and  female  portion 
of  the  community,  at  least,  are  to  be  confined  in  our  mills,  if  we  desire  a 
healthy  and  happy  community.     Isaac  Smith,  Jr.,  M.D.     (Page  18.) 


RACE    DEGENERATION  285 

Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  1871.  united 

STATES 

14.  Progressive  physical  deterioration  produced  by  family  labor  in 
factories.  It  is  well  known  that  like  begets  like,  and  if  the  parents  are 
feeble  in  constitution,  the  children  must  also  inevitably  be  feeble.  Hence, 
among  that  class  of  people,  you  find  many  puny,  sickly,  partly  developed 
children;  every  generation  growing  more  and  more  so. 

15.  Connection  between  continuous  factory  labor  and  premature  old 
age.  It  is  a  fact,  patent  to  every  one,  that  premature  old  age  is  fully 
developed,  in  consequence  of  long  hours  of  labor  and  close  confinement. 
Very  few  live  to  be  old  that  work  in  a  factory.     (Page  507.) 

Massachusetts  Senate  Documents.     No.  33.     1874. 

The  Committee  on  the  Labor  Question  to  whom  was  referred  so  much 
of  the  Governor's  address  as  relates  to  Labor  Reform,  having  considered 
so  much  thereof  as  pertains  to  the  enactment  of  a  ten-hour  law,  and  having 
also  considered  the  petition  of  Wendell  Phillips  and  others  for  the  passage 
of  such  a  law.  Report:  That  the  advocates  of  a  reduction  of  the  present 
hours  of  labor  in  textile  manufactories  claim,  and  produce  evidence  to 
show,  that  ten  hours  is  as  long  as  females  or  children  should  be  required, 
or  allowed,  to  work  in  the  close  confinement  of  the  mills,  if  the  Common- 
wealth has  any  interest  in  insuring  a  healthy  and  intelligent  posterity. 
(Page  1.) 

Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission,  Final  Report.     Vol. 
XIX,  1902. 

Factory  life  brings  incidentally  new  and  depressing  effects,  which  those 
whose  experience  has  been  wholly  agricultural  do  not  appreciate.  But 
the  experience  of  States  which  have  pushed  their  way  from  agricultural 
to  manufacturing  industries,  and  have  found  that  their  delay  in  protecting 
their  factory  employees  has  weakened  the  physical  and  moral  strength  of 
the  new  generation  of  working  people,  would  seem  to  be  an  experience 
which  the  citizens  of  new  manufacturing  States  should  hope  to  avoid. 
(Page  788.) 

Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.     1903- 
1904. 

In  certain  fields  of  industry,  like  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods  or 
hosiery  and  knit  goods,  we  may  find  the  establishments  paying  the  lowest 


286  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  wages,  working  their  employees  the  longest  hours,  and  under  the  worst 

STATES  sanitary  conditions,  temporarily  driving  out  of  the  field  of  competition 

those  establishments  paying  the  best  wages,  working  their  employees  a 
reasonable  length  of  time  surrounded  by  the  best  sanitary  conditions; 
but  if  the  process  is  allowed  to  continue,  the  nation  tolerating  it  will 
certainly  revert  to  a  state  of  discontent,  poverty,  and  crime,  which  no 
agency  or  force  can  overcome  so  well  as  wise  factory  legislation  strictly 
and  judiciously  enforced.     (Page  137.) 

Besides  this  many  eminent  students  of  social  conditions  maintain  that 
in  countries  where  industries  have  been  allowed  to  run  for  centuries 
without  any  form  of  regulation,  pauperism  and  crime  are  more  prevalent 
than  in  those  countries  where  regulation  exists.  Also,  in  countries  where 
regulations  have  been  imposed  and  withdrawn,  misery  and  want  have 
risen  and  fallen  in  almost  direct  proportion  to  the  imposition  and  with- 
drawal of  such  regulation,  and  poor  relief  has  ebbed  and  flowed  in  almost 
the  same  proportion.     (Pages  140-141.) 

Popular  Science  Monthly.  Vol.  XXIV.  1884.  New  York,  Appleion, 
1884.  Female  Education  from  a  Medical  Point  of  View.  Lecture 
delivered  at  the  Philosophical  Institution  of  Edinburgh.  J.  S.  Clous- 
ton,  M.D. 

There  is  another  vital  fact  in  the  constitution  of  human  nature  that 
needs  to  be  taken  into  account.  ...  It  is  this,  that  one  generation  may, 
by  living  at  high  pressure,  or  under  specially  unfavorable  conditions, 
exhaust  and  use  up  more  than  its  share  of  energy.  That  is,  one  may 
draw  a  bill  on  posterity  and  transmit  to  the  next  generation  not  enough 
to  pay  for  it.  I  believe  many  of  us  are  having  the  benefit  of  the  calm, 
unexciting,  lazy  lives  of  our  forefathers  of  the  last  generation.  They 
stored  up  energy  for  us;  now  we  are  using  it.  The  question  is,  can  we 
begin  at  adolescence,  work  at  high  pressure,  keep  this  up  during  our  lives 
(which  in  that  case  will  be  on  an  average  rather  short),  and  yet  transmit 
to  our  posterity  enough  vital  energy  for  their  needs?     (Page  218.) 


11.     BENEFITS  OF  SHORT  HOURS 

A.     Good  Effect  on  Morals:     Growth  of  Temperance 

The  good  effect  of  shorter  working  hours  on  the  use  of 
leisure  is  conspicuously  shown  in  the  growth  of  temperance 


BENEFITS    OF    SHORT    HOURS    TO    MORALS  287 

where  working  hours  have  been  reduced.  With  better  health 
and  a  higher  moral  tone  due  to  the  shorter  working  day, 
temperance  in  the  use  of  stimulants  results  automatically. 

United  States  Congress,  House  Report  No.  1793  (4405).     Hours  of  Laborers  'united 
on  Public  JVorks  of  the  U.  S.     Report  from  the  Committee  on  Labor, 
57th  Congress,  1st  Session,  1901-1902. 

It  is  contended  b\-  the  advocates  of  the  shorter  da>-  that  the  additional 
leisure  given  to  labor  in  every  instance  of  the  shortening  of  the  work  dav, 
as  it  has  been  shortened  step  b}'  step  from  sixteen  hours  to  fourteen,  twelve, 
eleven,  ten,  nine,  and  in  many  instances  eight,  has  resulted  in  a  decrease 
of  intemperance  among  laborers,  the  acquirement  of  better  taste  and 
new  and  better  desires,  resulting  in  better  homes,  greater  domestic 
felicity,  and  higher  degree  of  intelligence  with  an  increase  of  laudable 
pride  as  to  the  clothing  of  themselves  and  those  dependent  upon  them. 
In  a  word,  has  increased  their  interests  in  home  and  better  social  relations, 
raising  their  moral  status,  and  has  made  them  much  better  consumers  of 
the  products  of  labor,  and  hence  resulted  in  increased  production. 

The  proposition  that  without  variation  the  elimination  of  intem- 
perance, poverty,  pauperism,  ignorance,  crime  and  their  accompanying 
evils  move  parallel  with  and  proportionate  to  the  increase  of  the  social 
opportunities  of  the  laboring  class  stands  without  impeachment  of  its 
historical  accuracy.     (Page  8.) 

National  Civic  Federation  Review.  Vol.  I,  No.  7.  Sept.,  1904.  Will 
Labor  Make  Concessions  for  a  Shorter  Work-Day?  Answers  to  Ques- 
tion: Do  you  believe  that  a  shorter  work-day  lessens  prodtcciion  or  in- 
creases the  labor  cost  of  production? 

Thomas  M.  Nolan,  Editor  of  the  Union  Label  .Magazine,  Boston: 
.  .  .  Another  important  pomt  is  that  the  general  morale  of  the  craft 
has  advanced  as  the  hours  have  decreased.     Temperance,  morality,  and  a 
general  uplifting  tendency  has  been  observed  to  a  greater  extent  among 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  printing  crafts.     (Page  7.) 

The  National  Civic  Federation  Review.  Vol.  II,  No.  8.  Jan.-Feb.,  1906. 
The  first  annual  meeting  of  the  New  Efigland  Civic  Federation,  Boston, 
Jan.  11,  1906. 

James  Duncan,  of  Quincy,  General  Secretary  of  the  Granite  Cutters' 
International  Union: 


288 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


UNITED 
STATES 


You  may  take  any  locality  in  this  or  any  other  country  where  the  hours 
of  labor  have  changed  from  ten  to  nine,  or  nine  to  eight,  and  1  say  that 
temperance  has  increased  in  accordance  with  that  reduction.  1  had  the 
honor  to  speak  in  a  meeting  in  Georgia  a  short  time  ago,  where  the  mayor 
of  the  town  was  the  presiding  officer,  and  he  told  me  when  he  first  became 
a  municipal  officer  a  great  part  of  the  revenue  of  the  town  came  from  fines 
for  drunkenness  and  disorderly  conduct  of  the  working  people  of  the  vi- 
cinity. The  granite  industry,  with  which  I  am  proud  to  be  connected, 
became  busy  in  that  locality,  and  we  began  the  agitation  for  the  shorter 
work  day.  The  mayor  told  me  that  after  we  had  introduced  the  eight- 
hour  day — and  we  were  successful,  and  the  other  trades  working  nine 
hours  were  afterwards  reduced  to  eight — disorderly  conduct  and  intem- 
perance became  so  little  known  in  the  community  that  the  town  had  to 
look  for  taxation  in  other  directions  than  the  saloons  in  order  to  meet  its 
necessary  expenses.     (Page  9.) 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  LXXIV.     1844. 

Lord  Ashley: 

Your  own  inspectors  have  told  you  that  without  such  a  limitation  of 
the  hours  of  toil  there  can  be  no  hopes  of  the  social  or  moral  improvement 
of  the  working  classes.     (Page  912.) 


British  Sessional  Papers. 
Factories. 


Vol.  XXV.     1845.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 


All  the  Sub-Inspectors  in  my  district  concur  with  me  in  bearing  testi- 
mony to  the  important  fact  that  the  reduction  in  the  hours  of  labour, 
both  of  women  and  children,  has  commended  itself  to  many  who  had 
previously  entertained  doubts  as  to  its  expediency  and  practicability. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  too  highly  the  moral  and  social  advantages 
which  result  from  these  two  amendments  of  the  law;  and  none  but  those 
who  have  witnessed  the  proceedings  to  which  the  former  license  to  employ 
women  long  hours  and  all  night  gave  rise  .  .  .  can  fully  appreciate  the 
simple  provisions  that  now  protect  both  classes.     (Page  40.) 


British  Sessional  Papers, 
of  Factories. 


Vol.  XXVI.     1847-8.     Reports  of  Inspectors 


It  has,  on  many  occasions,  been  stated  to  me  by  masters,  that  they 
consider  12  hours'  work  more  than  is  consistent  with  the  welfare  and  a 


BENEFITS    OF    SHORT    HOURS   TO    MORALS 


289 


desirable  social  condition  of  their  people;  that  a  reduction  of  1  hour  a  day  great 
would  have  effected  a  great  improvement;  and  that  although  it  would  ^^^ 
have  occasioned  a  reduction  of  income  both  to  the  employers  and  the 
employed,  it  v/ould  not  have  been  to  such  an  amount  as  to  be  felt  to  be 
too  great  a  sacrifice  for  the  object  by  either  party.  ...  I  have  recently 
had  a  letter  from  the  proprietor  of  one  of  the  largest  cotton  mills  in  my 
district  ...  in  which  he  says,  "1  think  that  there  are  evident  general 
indications  that  the  shortening  of  the  hours  of  labour  in  factories  will 
prove  to  be  a  great  moral  benefit  to  our  laboring  classes."     (Pages  3-4.) 

The  Case  of  the  Journeymen  Bakers.  Evils  of  Night-work  and  Long  Hours 
of  Work.  William  Augustus  Guy,  M.B.,  Fellow  of  the  Royal  College 
of  Physicians,  Professor  of  Forensic  Medicine,  King's  College;  Physi- 
cian to  King's  College  Hospital,  etc.     London,  Renshaw,  1848. 

Health  on  the  other  hand,  like  cleanliness,  is  an  ally  of  virtue  and 
sobriety.  It  is  favourable  to  self-control,  and  to  quiet  and  rational  en- 
joyments. It  has  the  same  effect  on  the  mind  as  it  has  on  the  palate;  it 
enables  it  to  relish  plain  and  homely  fare,  and  to  dispense  with  unwhole- 
some stimulants.  By  abolishing  nightwork,  and  shortening  your  hours 
of  labour,  you  would  be  placed  in  possession,  not  merely  of  new  faculties 
of  enjoyment,  but  of  time  to  use  them.     (Pages  12-13.) 


Eight  Hours  for  JVork.     John  Rae.     London,  Macmillan,  1894. 

(West  Cumberland  blast  furnaces,  experiment  tried.)  There  seems 
to  be  every  reason  to  expect  better  results  next  year,  because  the  men 
were  showing  decisive  signs  of  both  physical  and  moral  improvement. 
Their  temperance  societies  had  increased  in  membership  50  per  cent  during 
the  year,  and  the  provident  and  trade  societies  had  spent  20  or  25  per  cent 
less  on  sick  allowances,  both  results  being  attributed  to  the  relief  from  the 
undue  fatigue  from  which  all  had  suffered  before.     (Page  92.) 


Archives  Generales  de  Medecine. 
[The  Eight  Hour  Day.]     Dr. 


/.     1906.     La  Journee  de  Huit  Heures.   FRANCE 
P.  CoRNEiLLE.     Paris,  1906. 


Data  obtainable  in  West  Cumberland,  England,  as  to  the  results  of 
the  8  hour  day  show  that  temperance  has  gained  50  per  cent  and  that 
mutual  aid  societies  spent  from  20  to  25  per  cent  less  in  sick  pay. 

The  gasworks  in  London  say: 
.9* 


290 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

.  The  workingmen  are  sober  since 


FRANCE  Drunkenness  used  to  be  the  rule.  . 

we  have  the  8  hour  day. 

The  same  reports  come  from  Konigsberg,  in  Germany,  and  from  May 
ence.     (Page  1199.) 


B.     Good  Effect  on  General  Welfare 
(1)  General  Benefit  to  Society 

History,  which  has  illustrated  the  deterioration  due  to 
long  hours,  bears  witness  no  less  clearly  to  the  regeneration 
due  to  the  shorter  working  day.  To  the  individual  and 
society  alike,  shorter  hours  have  been  a  benefit  wherever 
introduced.  Wherever  sufficient  time  has  elapsed  since  the 
establishment  of  the  shorter  working  day,  the  succeeding 
generation  has  shown  extraordinary  improvement  in  phy- 
sique and  morals. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXXIV.     1860.     Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories.     For  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1859. 

I  think  I  can  show  that  the  Factory  Acts  have  put  an  end  to  the  prema- 
ture decrepitude  of  the  former  long-hour  workers,  that  they  have  enlarged 
their  social  and  intellectual  privileges,  that  by  making  them  masters  of 
their  own  time  they  have  given  them  a  moral  energy  which  is  directing 
them  to  the  eventual  possession  of  political  power,  and  that  they  have 
lifted  them  up  high  in  the  scale  of  rational  beings,  compared  with  that 
which  they  had  attained  in  1833,  moreover  1  think  I  can  further  prove 
that  all  this  has  been  accomplished  without  any  prejudice  whatever  to  our 
commercial  prosperity,  as  it  was  asserted  there  would  be;  that  wages  have 
not  been  diminished.     (Page  47.) 

There  were  in  1833  at  least  200,000  females  employed  within  the 
factories  of  the  limited  kingdom.  "They  were,"  says  Mr.  Smith,  the 
eminent  surgeon  of  Leeds,  writing  on  this  subject  in  August  last,  "a  poor, 
emaciated  and  down-hearted  looking  race,  with  angular  shoulders  and 
stooping  heads,  and  altogether  destitute  of  the  rounded  form  of  healthy 
women."  There  are  now  400,000,  and  they  are  "fair  and  florid,  stout  and 
muscular,  cheerful  and  happy,  and  all  the  outlines  are  admirable."  Such 
is  the  concurrent  testimony  of  nine  of  the  certifying  surgeons  who  certify 


GENERAL    BENEFIT   TO    SOCIETY  29I 

for  mills  which  employ  70,000  persons  in  the  various  branches  of  textile   great 

BRITAIN 

labor,  of  whom  40,000  are  women  and  children.     (Pages  48-49.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XIV.     1868-1869.     Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories.     For  Half-year  ending  31st  Oct.,  1868. 

The  physical  condition  of  the  operative  classes  has,  from  the  shortening 
of  the  hours  of  labour,  and  from  other  causes,  been  greatly  ameliorated, 
(Page  30.) 

Undoubtedly  the  Textile  Factory  Acts  embodied  in  the  Act  of  1867, 
notwithstanding  their  previous  success  in  the  textile  districts,  have  been 
put  upon  their  trial;  nor  can  we  be  surprised  that  a  question  should  have 
arisen  in  many  minds  whether  Acts  originally  for  textile  works  only  would 
be  found  adequate  for  every  trade,  so  as  to  bring  all  under  one  form  of 
discipline  ...  it  was  scarcely  possible  but  that  fictile  and  metallurgic 
trades  should  possess  constitutional  elements  widely  different  from  those 
of  textile  trades;  the  habits  of  the  people  being  also  different,  their  in- 
dulgences different,  their  expenditure  different,  themselves  not  yet  accus- 
tomed to  compulsion  of  any  kind,  and  open  only  to  the  slowest  and  most 
careful  approaches. 

That  it  has  met  and  conquered  most  of  these  and  many  such  obstacles 
so  remarkably  ...  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  soundness  of  this  kind  of 
legislation.  .  .  .  Take,  for  example,  the  thousand  and  one  trades  carried 
on  in  such  a  place  as  Birmingham,  where  the  domestic  habits  of  the  work- 
ers in  respect  of  their  employments,  their  general  arrangements  and 
associations,  their  laissez  aller,  had  all  been  uncontrolled  by  any  legal 
discipline  down  to  the  1st  of  January,  1868,  .  .  .  where  so  many  married 
women  were  and  are  yet  employed  away  from  their  homes  and  families, 
and  where  the  custom  of  leaving  all  social  comforts  to  chance  or  oppor- 
tunity had  become  perpetual  rather  than  accidental,  and  the  difficulty  of 
entering  on  a  contest  with  such  habits,  or  of  attempting  to  persuade  all 
the  persons  whose  feelings  and  interests  were  to  be  affected  by  that  change 
that  it  would  be  far  better  for  their  physical  and  moral  health  than  here- 
tofore, and  that  their  longevity,  as  well  as  their  social  comforts,  depended 
on  a  regard  to  sanitary  laws  which  had  never  hitherto  been  respected  by 
them,  may  be  imagined.  What  prejudices  to  overcome!  .  .  .  And  yet, 
I  have  little  doubt  but  time  will  show  .  .  .  masters  as  well  as  workers 
wondering  how  they  ever  formerly  submitted  to  long  hours,  now  that  they 
can  rejoice  in  earlier  ones,  which  have  given  them  the  glorious  fresh  air  in 
the  summer  evenings,  and  the  additional  glory  of  intellect  advanced  in 
the  scientific  institutions  of  the  winter.     (Pages  83-84.) 


292  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XV.     1870.     Reports   of  Inspectors   of 

Factories.     For  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1870. 

There  is  a  generous  feeling  springing  up  on  the  part  of  many  employers 
that  the  act  (i.  e.  1867)  is  a  proper  one;  that  its  enactments  are  salutary; 
that  though  it  binds  them  to  certain  provisions,  they  are  provisions  that 
are  useful  both  in  a  social  and  business  point  of  view;  that  long  hours 
never  produce  the  best  work  .  .  .  there  is  a  general  improvement  in  our 
work  people,  and  their  habits  of  life  are  changed.  There  are  fewer  hours 
in  the  factory,  and  they  have  more  time  at  home;  besides  which,  when 
in  the  factory  they  are  obliged  to  be  clean,  quiet,  and  industrious,  and 
these  habits  tend  beneficially  on  their  home  life.  They  are  more  intelli- 
gent, and  it  is  remarkable  that  while  they  work  fewer  hours  they  earn 
more  money.  We  have  found  that  longer  hours  mean  listlessness  and  loss 
of  power.     (Pages  44-45.) 


British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XXIX-XXX.     1876.     Factories    and 
IVorkshops  Acts  Commission.     Vol.  XXIX.     Report. 

Mr.  Roberts  .  .  .  shows  that  in  the  last  40  years  there  has  been  a 
general  improvement  in  the  physical  development  of  factory  children,  so 
that  at  each  period  of  employment  they  measure  1  inch  more  round  the 
chest  than  children  of  the  same  age  did  40  years  since.  .  .  .  We  hope  that 
.  .  .  the  shortened  hours  which  now  prevail  in  almost  every  industry 
will  show  in  the  course  of  another  generation  results  as  progressive  and 
satisfactory  as  those  which  have  already  followed  upon  the  regulation  of 
women  and  employment  of  children  in  factories  and  workshops.  (Page 
Ixxii.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XX.     1878.     Reports  of  the  Inspectors  of 
Factories  and  IVorkshops. 

Ten  years  ago,  when  I  made  the  first  effort  to  introduce  the  Factory 
Acts  in  London,  I  was  frequently  met  with  the  statement  on  the  part  of 
employers  that  the  tendency  of  the  Act  would  be  to  encourage  prostitu- 
tion, because  by  giving  the  women  an  enforced  leisure  they  would  be 
exposed  to  additional  temptation.  I  was  loath  to  believe  any  such  theory, 
and  I  am  glad  to  say  that,  so  far  as  my  experience  during  the  last  ten  years 
goes,  the  fears  thus  expressed  have  never  been  realized.  There  has  been 
quite  a  revolution  during  that  period  in  the  conditions  on  which  seamstress 
work  is  carried  on  in  the  metropolis.     The  employment  of  them  in  work- 


GENERAL    BENEFIT   TO    SOCIETY  293 

shops  and  factories  has  increased  enormously,  but  1  can  find  no  employer   great 
willing  to  commit  himself  to  the  opinion  that  in  their  respective  classes   ^^^"^^^^ 
there  has  been  any  deterioration  in  the  character  and  the  conduct  of  the 
workpeople.     All  the  evidence,  indeed,  which  I  have  obtained  goes  to 
establish  the  contrary.     (Page  15.) 

British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XVII I.     1882.     Report    of   Chief   In- 
spector of  Factories. 

All  our  experience  goes  to  show  that  employers  prefer  moderate  hours 
under  reasonable  restrictions  to  unlimited  labor.  Very  few  employers  of 
any  class  are  to  be  found  in  occupations  under  the  operation  of  the  Fac- 
tory Act  prepared  to  say  they  would  willingly  return  to  the  old  system 
.  .  ,  those  who  prophesied  the  dismissal  of  young  persons  from  their 
occupation  and  the  substitution  of  male  adult  labor  acknowledge  that 
they  were  mistaken,  and  are  loud  in  their  acknowledgment  of  the  ad- 
vantages to  themselves,  as  well  as  their  employees,  of  moderate  hours  of 
work.     (Page  41.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XII.     1886.     Report  from  Select  Com- 
mittee on  Shop  Hours'  Regulation  Bill. 

Witness,  W.  Cooke-Taylor,  Inspector  of  Factories: 

3897.  What  is  the  result  of  your  observations  of  the  working  gen- 
erally now  of  the  F"actories  as  to  the  health  of  the  young  persons  and 
women? — I  think  there  is  very  little  doubt  the  effect  of  the  Acts  has  been 
to  improve  the  health  of  young  persons  and  women,  and  to  make  their 
lives  very  much  happier. 

3898.  And  without  any  corresponding  disadvantage  to  those  who 
employ  them? — I  think  that  all  statistics  on  the  subject  and  all  experience 
show  that  the  corresponding  disadvantage  has  not  occurred  to  all;  it 
was  supposed  that  it  would  occur,  but  experience  has  proved  that  it  has 
not.     (Page  183.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXI.     1894.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

In  factory  legislation  there  has  been  steady  progress,  and  whilst  Royal 
Commissions  and  Trade  Congresses  have  commended  what  has  been 
accomplished  and  the  mode  of  administration  of  the  Factory  Acts,  they 
have  always  pointed  to  further  reforms.     Bills  have  been  passed  which 


294  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  could  not  have  been  introduced  had  not  manufacturers,  who  were  formerly 

BRITAIN  "^ 

opponents  of  such  legislation,  been  convinced  of  its  benefits  by  the  results. 
(Page  5.) 

The  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts.     Edited  hy  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.     London, 
Richard,  1901. 

The  two  great  industries  which,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  were  conspicuous  for  the  worst  horrors  of  sweating  were  the  tex- 
tile manufactures  and  coal-mining.  Between  1830  and  1850  the  parlia- 
mentary inquiries  into  these  trades  disclosed  sickening  details  of  starvation 
wages,  incredibly  long  hours,  and  conditions  of  work  degrading  to  decency 
and  health.  The  remedy  applied  was  the  substitution,  for  individual 
bargaining  between  employer  and  operative,  of  a  compulsory  minimum 
set  forth  in  common  rules  prescribing  standard  conditions  of  employment. 
(Page  36.) 

.  .  .  What  was  the  result?  Fortunately,  there  is  no  dispute.  Every 
one  who  knows  these  great  industries  agrees  in  declaring  that  the  horrors 
which  used  to  prevail  under  individual  bargaining  have  been  brought  to 
an  end.  The  terms  "cotton-operative"  and  "coal-miner,"  instead  of 
denoting  typically  degraded  workers,  as  they  did  in  1830,  are  now  used  to 
designate  the  very  aristocracy  of  our  labor.  And  when,  to-day,  those  who 
are  interested  in  the  industrial  progress  of  women  need  an  example  of  a 
free  and  self-reliant  class  of  female  wage-earners,  earning  full  subsistence, 
enjoying  adequate  leisure,  and  capable  of  effective  organization,  they  are 
compelled  to  turn  to  the  great  body  of  Lancashire  cotton-weavers,  now 
for  half  a  century  "restricted"  in  every  feature  of  their  contract.  (Page 
37.) 

History  of  Factory  Legislation.     B.  L.   Hutchins  and  Amy  Harrison. 
Westminster,  King,  1903. 

In  1861  the  president  of  the  Economic  Section  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion could  say  in  his  address  that  the  results  of  that  bill  (ten-hour  bill) 
were  "something  of  which  all  parties  might  well  be  proud.  There  is  in 
truth  a  general  assent  that  if  there  has  been  one  change  which  more  than 
another  has  strengthened  and  consolidated  the  social  fabric  in  this  part 
of  the  island,  has  cleared  away  a  mass  of  depravity  and  discontent,  has 
placed  the  manufacturing  enterprise  of  the  country  on  a  safe  basis,  and 
has  conferred  upon  us  resources  against  the  effects  of  foreign  competitions 
which  can  scarcely  be  overvalued,  it  is  precisely  the  changes  which  have 


GENERAL    BENEFIT   TO    SOCIETY  295 

been  brought  about  by  the  sagacious  and  persevering  and  successful    great 
efforts  to  establish  in  manufacturing  occupations  a  sound  system  of  legal 
interference  with  the  hours  of  labor."     (Page  122.) 


BRITAIN 


Handbuch    der    Hygiene.     Bd.    8\     [Handbook  of    Hygiene.     Vol.    8^.]    GERMANY 
Edited  by   Dr.   Theodore  Weyl.     Allgemeine  Gewerbehygiene  und 
Fabrikgesetigebung.     [General  Industrial  Hygiene  and  Factory  Legis- 
lation.]    Dr.  Emil  Roth.     Jena,  1894. 

As  the  experience  of  every  country  daily  confirms  the  fact  that  the 
reduction  of  working  hours  neither  lessens  nor  deteriorates  the  working 
efficiency,  nor  lowers  wages  necessarily,  there  has  been  in  all  the  civilized 
countries  of  Europe  during  the  last  ten  years  a  steady  tendency  to  shorten 
working  hours, — a  tendency  which  cannot  be  too  emphatically  encouraged 
in  behalf  of  racial  health.     (Pages  26-27.) 

Royaume  de  Belgique,  Conseil  Superieur  du   Travail,  9^  Session,  1907.   BELGIUM 
[Higher  Council  of  Labor,  Belgium,  9th  Session,  1907.]     Reglementation 
de  la  Duree  du  Travail  des  Adultes.     [Regidation  of  Hours  of  IVork 
for  Adults.]     Brussels,  1907. 

M.  G.  Helleputte: 

To  assure  the  workman  his  weekly  rest:  to  prevent  his  being  .  .  . 
subjected  to  excessive  daily  hours  of  work  which  injure  his  health  and 
prematurely  lessen  his  working  capacity, — often  his  only  wealth;  to 
secure  a  robust,  vigorous,  and  prosperous  population, — this  is  an  attractive 
ideal.  From  the  physical  or  moral  or  intellectual  view-point  alike  the 
reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  can  have  none  but  excellent  results.  (Page 
3.) 


Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1870.  united 

STATES 

The  influence  of  the  ten-hour  law  in  England  was  to  raise  the  educa- 
tional condition  of  the  laborers,  as  was  at  once  shown  in  their  increased 
attendance  on  public  lectures,  public  meetings,  mechanics'  institutes, 
in  the  establishment  of  agricultural  and  horticultural  shows,  where  were 
exhibited  products  raised  on  grounds  hired  and  worked  during  the  time 
thus  gained.  .  .  .  No  greater  boon  was  ever  given  to  a  people  than  this 
ten-hour  law,  and  could  a  laborer  of  20  years  before  it  have  come  back  to 
England,  he  would  be  amazed  at  the  improved  condition  of  the  working 
people.     (Pages  113-114.) 


296  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1872. 

STATES 

The  testimony  of  those  who  have  adopted  the  shorter  time  is  almost 
unanimous  in  its  favor.  Many  reported  an  improved  condition  of  the 
employees.  No  instance  is  given  of  decreased  wages,  though  many  re- 
port an  increase,  not  only  in  wages,  but  in  production.  All  of  the  argu- 
ments against  reduction  made  by  those  working  eleven  hours  and  over  are 
answered  by  those  who  have  adopted  the  shorter  time,  and  worked  under 
that  system  for  years.  The  advocates  of  eleven  hours  have  utterly  failed 
to  sustain  themselves  in  their  continued  adhesion  to  a  system  that  Eng- 
land outgrew  twenty-two  years  ago, — a  system  unworthy  of  our  State 
and  nation,  and  one  that  would  not  last  a  month  if  the  victims  of  it 
were  men  instead  of  women  and  children,  as  most  of  them  are.  (Page 
240.) 


Repari  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     On  Results  of 
Ten-hour  Labor  Law  in  England.     1873. 

Lord  Ashley  said:  "Upon  the  good  moral  and  social  influence  of  the 
change,  the  testimony  is  most  favorable  from  the  clergymen  and  school 
teachers  throughout  Yorkshire  and  Lancaster.  How  have  the  women 
used  their  time?  Hundreds  of  them  are  attending  evening  school, — 
learning  to  read  and  write  and  to  knit  and  sew,  things  that  they  could  not 
have  learned  under  the  twelve-hour  system. 

"A  burial  society  testifies  to  the  diminution  of  burial  although  the 
cholera  was  upon  the  town,  and  that  the  diminution  was  among  children 
under  five  years  of  age,  and  he  assumes  as  a  reason  that  mothers  can  get 
home  earlier  and  give  that  attention  to  children  which  no  hired  nurse  can 
ensure. 

"The  Catholic  priests  at  Stockport  and  Bolton  testify  that  the  number 
of  factory  workers  attending  schools  has  more  than  doubled,  and  that 
there  was  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  moral,  social,  and  physical  con- 
dition of  the  people  had  improved."     (Page  492.) 


Report  of  the  Nebraska  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1887-1888. 

The  reduction  of  the  number  of  hours  required  for  a  week's  work  has 
proved  to  be  quite  as  beneficial  to  the  men  and  women  employed  in  this 
establishment  as  was  expected.  This  change  .  .  .  "is  worth  all  the 
time,  expense,  and  labor  involved  in  the  controversy."     (Page  122.) 


GENERAL    BENEFIT   TO    SOCIETY  297 

Retort  of  the  Connecticut  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1888.  united 

STATES 

.  .  .  Their  main  argument  (for  10  hours)  is  .  .  .  that  the  interests 
of  society  justify  and  require  the  adoption  of  such  regulations  as  will 
promote  the  moral,  physical,  and  intellectual  development  of  the  laboring 
people,  and  that  the  hours  of  labor  of  mothers,  daughters,  sisters,  and  of 
children  generally  have  a  vital  bearing  on  this  subject  of  such  deep  interest 
to  our  entire  people,  and  ought  to  be  legally  restricted.     (Pages  26-27.) 

Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Chief  of  the  District  Police.     1889. 

The  good  results  of  shortening  the  hours  of  labor  were  soon  apparent, 
in  the  substantial  disappearance  of  discontent  among  those  affected 
thereby;  in  the  maintenance  of  the  standard  of  factory  productions,  both 
as  to  quantity  and  quality;  and  in  placing  Massachusetts  in  the  lead, 
where,  by  her  history  and  her  aspiration,  she  rightfully  belonged. 

...  If  experience  has  shown  anything  in  this  matter,  it  has  been  the 
wisdom  and  statesmanship  of  the  body  of  laws  in  our  Public  Statutes  and 
additions  thereto,  which  are  known  as  industrial  legislation.  It  is  sixteen 
years  since  the  ten-hour  law  was  enacted;  and  it  is  entirely  safe  to  say 
that,  if  it  were  stricken  from  the  statutes  to-day,  not  an  influential  voice 
would  be  raised  within  our  borders  in  favor  of  the  restoration  of  the  order 
of  things  which  that  law  changed.  The  increase  of  public  interest  in 
matters  of  this  kind  is  a  very  significant  fact.     (Page  7.) 

Report  of  the  New  Jersey  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1890. 

The  agitation  for  shorter  hours  of  labor,  for  improvement  in  the  sani- 
tary condition  of  factories  and  workshops,  the  restriction  of  child  and 
women's  labor  are  evidence  of  a  tendency  to  improve  their  surroundings 
and  to  mitigate  some  of  the  evils  which  have  grown  up  under  our  changing 
methods  of  production.     (Page  364.) 

The  utility  of  State  interference  is  well  shown  in  the  operation  of  the 
laws  to  restrict  the  employment  of  children  and  to  regulate  the  work  hours 
of  women  and  young  persons  in  factories  and  workshops,  now  in  operation 
in  nearly  every  State  and  industrial  country  in  the  world,  and  very  gen- 
erally regarded  as  among  the  wisest  and  most  humane  acts  of  modern 
legislation.     (Page  366.) 

Report  of  the  Illinois  Factory  Inspectors.     1895. 

In  France,  Germany,  and  every  other  continental  country,  and  in  the 
more  progressive  States  of  this  country,  legislative  regulation  of  the  hours 
of  labor  has  been  found  an  effective  measure  for  the  protection  of  the 


298  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  health  of  the  women  and  children  emplo\'ed  in  factories  and  workshops. 

STATES  ,„  .  , 

(Page  3.) 

In  England  the  principle  of  the  regulation  of  the  hours  of  work  of  women 
and  children  has  been  established  for  more  than  a  generation;  and  the 
regeneration  of  the  working  class  in  that  country,  from  the  degradation 
in  which  it  was  sunk  in  1844,  is  attributed  to  the  Factory  Acts,  and  es- 
pecially to  this  essential  feature  of  them.     (Page  5.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1900. 

But  the  good  accomplished  by  each  successive  factory  law  was  so 
clearly  apparent,  that  even  capitalistic  Parliament  could  not  refuse  to 
continue  the  polic\'  of  labor  protection.  The  evidence  that  this  policy 
wrought  a  revolutionar\'  change  in  the  amount  of  crime,  pauperism,  and 
misery  is  superabundant;  but  it  is  too  familiar  to  warrant  repetition  now. 
(Page  49.) 

The  best  evidence  of  the  overwhelming  success  of  the  short-hour  law 
from  all  points  of  view  is  afforded  b}'  the  complete  conversion  of  its  oppo- 
nents. Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  in  1860,  when  a  bill  was  introduced  to 
extend  the  ten-hour  law  to  other  branches  of  the  textile  industry,  J.  A. 
Roebuck,  who  had  originally  opposed  with  bitterness  this  kind  of  legis- 
lation, made  the  following  recantation: 

"I  am  about  to  speak  on  this  question  under  somewhat  peculiar  cir- 
cumstances. Very  early  in  my  parliamentary  career  Lord  Ashley,  now 
the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  introduced  a  bill  of  this  description.  I,  being 
an  ardent  political  economist,  as  I  am  now,  opposed  the  measure,  .  .  . 
and  was  very  much  influenced  in  m}"  opposition  by  what  the  gentlemen  of 
Lancashire  said.  They  declared  that  it  was  the  last  half-hour  of  the  work 
performed  by  their  operatives  which  made  all  their  profits,  and  that  if  we 
took  away  that  last  half-hour  we  should  ruin  the  manufacturers  of  Eng- 
land. I  listened  to  that  statement  and  trembled  for  the  manufacturers 
of  England  [a  laugh];  but  Lord  Ashley  persevered.  Parliament  passed 
the  bill  which  he  brought  in.  From  that  time  down  to  the  present  the 
factories  of  this  country  have  been  under  State  control,  and  I  appeal  to 
this  House  whether  the  manufacturers  of  England  have  suffered  by  this 
legislation."     (Page  50.) 

Sir  James  Graham,  another  persistent  antagonist  of  the  short-hour 
laws,  followed  Mr.  Roebuck  with  a  similar  recantation: 

"  I  am  sorry  once  more  to  be  involved  in  a  short-time  discussion.  I 
have,  however,  a  confession  to  make  to  the  House.  .  .  .  Experience  has 
shown  to  my  satisfaction  that  many  of  the  predictions  formerly  made 


GENERAL   BENEFIT  TO   SOCIETY  299 

against  the  factory  bill  have  not  been  verified  by  the  result,  as,  on  the  united 

•  STATES 

whole,  that  great  measure  of  relief  for  women  and  children  has  contributed 
to  the  well-being  and  comfort  of  the  working  classes,  while  it  has  not  in- 
jured their  masters.  The  enactment  of  the  present  bill  ought  to  approach 
as  nearly  as  possible  the  Factory  Act.  ...  By  the  vote  I  shall  give  to- 
night, I  will  endeavor  to  make  some  amends  for  the  course  I  pursued  in 
earlier  life  in  opposing  the  factory  bill."     (Page  51.) 

All  travellers  unite  in  testifying  to  the  wonderful  energy  displayed  in 
their  work  by  the  wage-earners  of  Australia.  Such  energy  is  a  product 
not  so  much  of  the  stimulating  climate  as  the  high  standard  of  comfort 
made  possible  by  the  short  working-day.  Considerable  evidence  might 
be  adduced  in  support  of  the  following  enthusiastic  opinion  of  John  Rae 
("Eight  Hours  for  Work,"  page  312.) 

"The  more  we  examine  the  subject  the  more  irresistibly  is  the  im- 
pression borne  in  from  all  sides  that  there  is  growing  up  in  Australia,  and 
very  largely  in  consequence  of  the  eight-hour  day,  a  working  class  who  for 
general  morale,  intelligence,  and  industrial  efficiency  is  probably  already 
superior  to  that  of  any  other  branch  of  our  Anglo-Saxon  race,  and  for 
happiness,  cheerfulness,  and  all-around  comfort  of  life  has  never  had  its 
equal  in  the  world  before."     (Page  59.) 

Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission.     Vol.  XIX.     1902. 

Lessening  of  hours  leaves  more  opportunity  and  more  vigor  for  the 
betterment  of  character,  the  improvement  of  the  home.  .  .  .  For  these 
reasons  the  short  work-day  for  working  people  brings  an  advantage  to 
the  entire  community.     (Page  773.) 

Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1903-1904. 

No  private  individual  has  any  more  moral  right  to  exhaust  the  working 
energy  and  working  capital  of  a  nation  without  giving  "value  received" 
than  he  has  to  take  the  life  of  an  employee  outright.  The  only  difference 
is  that  one  is  a  slower  criminal  process  than  the  other.  It  is  not  enough 
that  workmen  should  obtain  barely  enough  for  their  labor  to  enable  them 
to  live,  but  they  should  receive  a  competency.  They  should  receive  as 
much  energy  from  their  employers  in  food,  clothing,  homes,  and  furnish- 
ings amid  healthful  surroundings  as  they  give  to  their  employers  in  the 
articles  they  produce. 

The  stronger,  healthier,  and  more  intelligent  a  laborer  is,  the  more 
wealth  he  represents.    The  laborers  of  a  nation  represent  its  working 


3CX)  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  capital  just  as  the  hands  of  the  farmer,  his  horse,  or  his  ox  represent  his 

^^^  working  capital.     And  the  stronger  and  healthier  either  may  be,  the  more 

capital  it  represents.  The  more  efficient  this  capital  becomes,  the  more 
wealth  will  be  produced.  Machinery  operators  represent  the  working 
capital  of  the  manufacturer,  and  he  owes  it  to  the  nation  which  protects 
him  in  his  business  to  do  everything  in  his  power  to  increase  this  working 
capital  and  keep  it  in  the  highest  possible  state  of  efficiency.  (Page  130.) 
The  regulation  of  factories  either  by  law  or  by  special  agreement  worked 
marvellous  changes  in  England.  In  the  course  of  half  a  century  the 
"sweated"  laborers  of  this  great  country  whose  course  of  life  seemed 
almost  run  became  energetic,  self-reliant,  intelligent,  and  efficient  workers, 
owning  their  own  homes,  amid  wholesome  surroundings,  and  working  a 
reasonable  number  of  hours  for  a  day's  work. 

Not  only  is  factory  legislation  sound  in  principle,  but  wherever  put 
to  the  test  it  has  been  found  sound  in  practice  as  well.     (Page  138.) 

Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Annual  Conventions  of  the  International  Associa- 
tion of  Factory  Inspectors  of  America.  Indianapolis,  1900.  Niagara 
Falls,  1901.  {Bound  in  New  York  Department  of  Labor  Report,  1901.) 
Problems  of  Factory  Inspection.  The  Social  Interest  of  Statistics  of 
Factory  Inspection.  A.  F.  Weber,  Chief  Statistician,  New  York 
State  Department  of  Labor. 

Scarcely  any  upward  movement  of  the  century  overshadows  in  its 
importance  to  the  moral  and  material  welfare  of  human  society,  the  pro- 
gressive shortening  of  man's  working  time.  If  one  country  be  compared 
with  another,  it  will  be  found  that  with  hardly  an  exception  the  rule  holds 
that  the  shorter  the  hours  of  labor,  the  higher  the  civilization.  (Page 
519.) 

Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor.  No.  80.  January,  1909. 
Woman  and  Child  IVage-Earners  in  Great  Britain.  Victor  S.  Clark, 
Ph.D. 

Because  the  modern  factory  system  began  in  Great  Britain  and, 
together  with  material  blessings,  brought  social  evils,  the  first  factory 
laws  were  enacted  in  that  country.  Since  then  constant  conflict  has 
continued  between  the  destructive  forces  of  untrammelled  industr>-, 
sacrificing  its  servants  to  its  dominant  end,  production,  and  the  protective 
intervention  of  society,  staying  those  forces  in  the  interest  of  humanity. 
This  conflict  has  resulted  in  a  highly  developed  system  of  factory  legisla- 


GENERAL    BENEFIT    TO    SOCIETY  3OI 

tion,  based  on  over  a  centurv  of  experience.     But  man\'  evils  still  afflict    united 

STATES 

workers  for  which  remedies  remain  to  be  discovered.     (Page  1.) 

In  Great  Britain  there  is  now  no  such  opposition  to  factory  legislation 
as  still  evidences  itself  in  some  parts  of  America.  No  employer  or  repre- 
sentative of  employers  was  heard  to  criticise  the  act  as  a  whole,  and  there 
was  but  mild  objection  to  any  of  its  details.  Undoubtedh'  among  smaller 
works  and  in  the  sweatshop  districts  one  might  encounter  struggling  pro- 
prietors competing  with  large  manufacturers  under  the  disadvantage  of 
insufficient  capital  and  amid  uneconomic  conditions,  who  see  in  the  de- 
mands for  modern  sanitation  and  regulated  employment  extortions  that 
foreshadow  their  own  ruin.  But  these  people  are  few  and  growing  fewer, 
and  do  not  make  public  opinion  outside  their  class.  The  great  main 
current  of  thought  and  sympathy  among  the  mass  of  the  nation,  including 
both  emplo\'ers  and  workers,  not  only  favours  present  regulations  but  is 
not  averse  to  extending  them.     (Page  11.) 

Apart  from  wages  and  hours  of  work,  both  of  which  fundamental 
conditions  of  workers'  welfare  have  improved  while  the  factory  acts  have 
been  in  force,  and  partly  on  account  of  them,  some  less  direct  and  more 
general  effects  can  be  traced  to  these  statutes.     (Pages  71-72.) 

Employers  and  Employees.  Full  Text  of  the  Addresses  before  the  National 
Convention  of  Employers  atid  Employees.  Minneapolis,  Minn. 
September  22-25,  1902.  The  Economic  Effects  of  the  Eight-Hours' 
Day.  Frank  L.  McVey,  Professor  of  Political  Economy  in  the 
University  of  Minnesota. 

The  whole  tendency  of  modern  industry,  even  with  the  shortening  of 
hours,  is  in  the  direction  of  increased  exertion.  The  essential  element  in 
the  machine  organization  is  the  human  one,  the  most  precious  and  the 
most  difficult  to  replace.  The  energy  of  a  worker  in  any  industry  should 
always  be  equal  to  that  of  the  day  before.  If  the  pains  of  labor  are  heavy 
the  tone  of  the  workman  is  lowered  and  his  surplus  energ>'  disappears, 
while  he  tends  to  become  a  mere  automaton  valuable  to  society  for  the 
net  surplus  he  creates  for  others.  The  round  of  production  of  energ>-  into 
goods,  goods  into  utilities,  and  utilities  into  energy,  is  broken  down  by 
any  such  heavy  burden.  We  must  therefore  hail,  certainly  from  the  view- 
point of  the  community,  any  movement  likely  to  increase  its  working 
power.     (Page  194.) 

The  community  desires  the  highest  good  and  greatest  energies  of  its 
workers  through  long  periods  of  time.  This  can  be  accomplished  in 
most  industries  without  an_\-  accompanying  loss  of  productive  power,  by 


UNITED 
STATES 


302 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


shorter  hours  of  work,  as  has  been  proven  in  the  experience  of  many 
industries. 

...  In  some  industries  where  labor  is  not  employed  continuously, 
but  periodically  and  gathered  from  any  and  all  sources,  the  employer 
finds  it  to  his  advantage  to  push  the  hours  of  work  to  the  longest  possible 
limit.  Human  energies  can  stand  a  pace  of  this  kind  for  a  time,  and  as 
the  employer  does  not  worry  about  a  future  supply  of  workers  he  expects 
to  win  an  increased  profit  by  such  a  policy.  These  industries  have  come 
to  be  called  parasitic.     (Page  194.) 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


(2)  Benefit  of  Leisure  and  Recreation 

After  continuous  work,  a  certain  amount  of  leisure  and 
recreation  is  a  physiological  necessity.  While  the  over- 
taxed worker  is  left  stupefied  or  inclined  only  to  coarse 
pleasures  after  excessive  labor,  the  worker  who  has  not 
exhausted  all  energies  by  overexertion  turns  instinctively 
to  a  better  use  of  leisure  and  recreation.  License  is  re- 
placed by  ambition  for  self-improvement  or  the  enjoyment 
of  legitimate  pleasures  which  react  favorably  upon  the 
entire  organism.  Introduction  of  the  shorter  working 
day,  therefore,  raises  the  standards  of  the  individual  and 
the  community. 

The  Eight-Hours'  Movement.     Tom  Mann.     London,  IVilliam  Reeves,  1889. 

Clearly,  then,  what  is  required  is  to  develop  the  mental  powers  of  the 
workers,  and  to  give  them  leisure  and  capacity  to  assimilate  knowledge. 
Stupidly  slaving  away  like  cattle  will  not  give  our  country  any  chance  in 
the  competition  with  others.  In  that  struggle,  as  long  as  it  lasts,  the 
victory  will  be  with  the  nation  that  has  the  most  energetic,  intelligent, 
and  capable  workers — those,  in  fact,  who  work  the  shortest  hours  and 
have  the  highest  standard  of  comfort.     (Page  12.) 


The  Problem  of  the  Unemployed. 
1896. 


John  A.  Hobson.     London,  Methuen, 


The  indirect  effects  of  a  shorter  working-day  are  not  less  important. 
Provided  the  increased  leisure  is  not  purchased  by  an  injurious  overstrain 


BENEFIT   OF    LEISURE    AND    RECREATION  303 

in  the  shorter  working-day  the  increased  opportunities  it  will  afford  for   great 

•  •  BRITAIN 

the  cultivation  of  unused  faculties  and  the  satisfaction  of  new  tastes, 
will  furnish  an  ever  growing  stimulus  towards  an  elevation  of  the  standard 
of  life.  By  yielding  a  continuous  demand  for  the  satisfaction  of  new, 
strong  desires  it  will  supply  the  moral  force  which,  allied  with  improved 
intelligence  and  the  more  effective  means  of  organization  which  modern 
conditions  of  industry  and  of  life  afford,  makes  powerfully  and  persistently 
for  enforcing  the  claims  of  the  working  classes  to  a  larger  share  of  the  ag- 
gregate consuming  power  of  the  community.     (Pages  109-110.) 

Diseases  of  Occupation  from  the  Legislative,  Social,  and  Medical  Points  of 
View.  Thomas  Oliver,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  Medical  Expert  on 
the  White  Lead,  Dangerous  Trades,  Pottery,  and  Lucifer  Match  Com- 
mittees of  the  British  Home  Office.     New  York,  Dutton,  1908. 

...  It  is  held  that  no  employer  has  the  right  to  utilize  the  whole  of 
the  working  part  of  a  man's  day,  and  thus  deprive  him  of  the  leisure  to 
which  he  as  a  human  being  is  entitled.  Since  his  whole  nature  has  to  be 
developed,  it  is  claimed  that  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  physical  powers 
of  man  cannot  be  developed  if  the  hours  of  employment  are  too  long,  the 
work  too  hard  and  of  a  grinding  nature.     (Page  xi.) 

Jahresherichte  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichtsheamten  im  Konigreich  JViirttemberg 
fur  das  Jahr  1902.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Wiirttemherg  for  1902.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1903. 

A  reduction  of  working  hours  appears  to  be  also  needed  on  moral  and 
spiritual  grounds.  A  widespread  craving  for  improved  education  has  in 
recent  years  developed  in  the  masses  of  workers  and  demands  satisfaction. 
Likewise  the  desire  for  family  life  has  become  stronger.     (Page  209.) 

The  Relation  of  Labor  to  the  Law  of  To-day.  Translated  from  the  German 
by  Porter  Sherman.     Lujo  Brentano.     New  York,  Putnam,  1891. 

Why  then  does  an  increase  in  wages  and  a  decrease  in  the  time  of  work 
in  general  lead  to  a  greater  capability  for  work?  Because  higher  wages 
and  a  shorter  day's  work  make  it  possible  for  labourers  to  increase  and 
satisfy  their  physical  and  spiritual  needs;  because  better  food,  more 
careful  fostering,  greater  and  more  moral  recreation  increase  the  power  to 
work,  and  because  they  increase  the  pleasure  in  labor.  ...  In  other 
words,  an  increase  in  wages  and  a  decrease  in  the  time  of  work  lead  to  a 


GERMANY 


304 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  greater  performance,  because  they  elevate  the  standard  of  living  of  the 
laborer,  a  higher  standard  of  living  necessarily  spurs  to  greater  intensity 
of  labor,  and  at  the  same  time  makes  the  same  possible.     (Pages  233,  234.) 

Handbuch  der  Arheiterwohlfahrt.  Bd.  II.  [Handbook  of  the  General 
IVelfare  of  the  Working  Classes,  Vol.  //.]  Edited  by  Dr.  Otto  Dam- 
MER.  Arbeiterschuti.  [The  Protection  of  Working  People.]  Dr. 
AscHER.    Stuttgart,  Enke,  1903. 

It  is  natural  that  a  workman,  in  the  broad  sense  of  the  word,  who  has 
only  a  short  rest  period  at  his  command,  should  chiefly  use  that  in  sleep, 
to  restore  his  exhausted  physical  energy;  also  natural,  that,  if  he  has  a 
little  free  time  to  spare,  as  on  Sunday,  holidays,  he  should  spend  it  in 
coarse  pleasures.  Thus  results  the  weariness  of  Monday,  physical  and 
brain  fatigue.  ...  If  the  workman  had,  instead,  enough  free  time  in  the 
week  to  be  able  to  come  home  to  his  family  without  being  tired  out — to 
read,  to  hear  lectures,  work  in  a  garden,  and  so  rebuild  and  restore  bodily 
energy,  he  would  not  so  misuse  the  leisure  of  Sunday.     (Page  69.) 

Handworterbuch  der  Staatswissenschaft.  Bd.  I .  [Compendium  of  Political 
Science.  Vol.  /.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of  Political 
Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin;  W.  Lexis, 
Professor  of  Political  Science  in  Gottingen;  and  Edg.  Loening,  Pro- 
fessor of  Law  in  Halle.  Arbeitsieit.  [Hours  of  Work.]  Dr.  H. 
Herkner,  Berlin.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

3.  The  workman  perceives  that  high  wages  can  bring  him  real  family 
life,  a  greater  share  in  the  gifts  of  civilization  only  when  reduced  working 
hours  shall  have  enabled  him  to  command  some  leisure  and  to  retain  a 
certain  amount  of  mental  buoyancy.  For  married  working  women  es- 
pecially a  moderate  working  day  offers  the  sine  qua  non  for  useful  activity 
at  home.     (Page  1204.) 

5.  The  shorter  the  hours  of  work,  the  more  time  there  is  for  other 
opportunities,  such  as  participation  in  public  life,  general  or  technical 
educational  courses,  and  such  opportunities  are  of  the  greatest  value  in 
the  social  position  of  the  worker.     (Page  1204.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Evidence  Submitted  to  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  in  Favor  of  the  Enact- 
ment of  a  Ten-Hour  Law.     Lawrence,  1870. 

The  workpeople  of  this  State  as  a  body  have  no  desire  to  disturb  in- 
dustrial operations.     Their  lot  is  labor;   but  in  toiling  for  bodily  suste- 


BENEFIT   OF    LEISURE    AND    RECREATION  3O5 

nance  they  desire  leisure  to  feed  the  mind.  The  evidence  of  mill-operatives  united 
is  confirmatory  of  the  truth  that,  in  their  case,  physical  exhaustion  renders  ^"^^"^^^ 
impossible  diligent  application  to  mental  improvement.     (Pages  4-5.) 

Report  of  Pennsylvania  Bureau  of  Industrial  Statistics  {being  Vol.  Ill  of 
Pennsylvania  Internal  Affairs).     1880-1881. 

The  agitation  of  the  ten-hour  system  among  the  working  people  of 
this  State  began  as  far  back  as  1834  and  1835,  extending  through  many 
years.  The  custom  of  working  twelve  and  thirteen  hours  per  day  be- 
came exceedingly  obnoxious  to  the  working  classes,  and  great  efforts  were 
made  to  prevail  upon  proprietors  to  reduce  the  number  of  hours  to  ten 
per  day.  .  .  .  Injury  to  health,  no  time  for  leisure,  recreation,  or  study, 
a  total  deprivation  of  social  and  innocent  pleasure,  by  an  all-work  and 
bed  system,  was  the  great  plea  of  the  laborer,  while  the  stereotyped  ob- 
jection of  the  employer  was,  that  a  reduction  of  the  hours  would  curtail 
production,  and  thus  render  them  unable  to  compete  with  like  establish- 
ments in  other  sections  of  the  country.     (Page  100.) 

That  ten  hours  per  day  is  fully  as  much  as  should  be  exacted  from  the 
employees  we  think  cannot  be  gainsaid,  and  such  is  the  spirit  of  the  law, 
as  well  as  the  sentiments  of  all  who  take  an  interest  in  promoting  the  wel- 
fare of  mankind  in  general  and  of  labor  in  particular.  The  justice  of 
both  law  and  sentiment  becomes  more  apparent  when  we  contemplate 
the  class  of  labor  employed  in  factories  and  their  relation  to  future  gen- 
erations. To  the  strong  and  sturdy  male  adult  the  task  of  being  com- 
pelled to  labor  more  than  ten  hours  per  day  might  not  seem  arduous,  more 
especially  where  the  work  assigned  to  him  is  not  of  such  a  character  as  to  . 
be  a  drain  upon  his  physical  constitution;  but,  while  this  exception  may 
possibly  be  granted,  its  compulsory  exaction  from  the  large  number  of 
women,  girls,  and  young  children  employed  admits  of  no  excuse.  In  the 
returns  received  by  the  Bureau,  the  number  of  women  and  girls  over 
fifteen  years  of  age  employed  are  23,076;  boys  under  sixteen,  4,183,  and 
3,548  girls  under  fifteen.  .  .  . 

These  figures,  without  special  analysis,  we  presume  are  sufficient  to 
convince  the  most  sceptical  of  the  wisdom  of  a  systematic  enforcement  of 
the  ten-hour  law  by  proper  legislation,  to  the  end  that  youth  be  protected, 
the  condition  of  life  be  ameliorated,  and  the  future  of  our  State  be  pro- 
moted. Nor  should  the  law  be  confined  to  factories  alone,  but  extended 
to  all  industries  where  women  and  children  are  in  any  manner  apt  to  be 
employed  to  the  detriment  of  life  and  health.  (Page  104.) 
20* 


306  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission  on  the  Relations  and  Con- 


STATES 


ditions  of  Capital  and  Labor  employed  in  Manufactures  and  General 
Business.     Vol.  VII.     1900. 

Testimony  of  Mr.  Rufus  R.  Wade,  Chief  of  District  Police,  Massachu- 
setts: 

The  question  may  well  be  asked,  what  has  been  the  effect  upon  those 
operatives  whose  hours  of  labor  have  been  lessened  and  to  the  children 
obliged  to  work  in  factories  whose  school  privileges  have  been  secured? 
The  benefit  to  adults,  comprising  the  laboring  classes,  by  the  reduction 
of  the  hours  of  labor  has  been  to  lift  them  up  in  the  level  of  their  manhood 
to  thoughts  of  better  things  and  to  an  organized  demand  for  the  same. 
It  has  given  needed  time  for  leisure  to  the  operative,  it  has  encouraged 
self-culture,  it  has  afforded  additional  opportunity  for  recreation,  and  has 
given  the  debating  school,  lecture  room,  and  library  an  impetus  in  every 
city  and  manufacturing  town  in  Massachusetts.  The  large  circulation 
which  the  daily  papers  have  obtained,  in  my  opinion,  is  due  in  part  to  the 
fact  that  the  laboring  people  are  considering  the  questions  of  public  move- 
ment. 

From  an  experience  which  has  extended  many  years,  not  only  through 
the  medium  of  official  duty  but  from  personal  observation,  I  would  say, 
with  much  confidence,  that  there  has  been  a  gradual  yet  steady  change  in 
the  conditions  once  existing,  which  has  operated  to  the  benefit  and  well- 
being  of  the  laboring  classes  in  the  opportunities  for  mental  and  social 
culture.     (Pages  79-80.) 

United  States  Congress.  House  Report.  No.  1793  {4405).  Hours  of 
Laborers  on  Public  Works  of  the  United  States.  Report  from  the  Com- 
mittee on  Labor.     57th  Congress,  1st  Session.     1901-1902. 

No  recognized  authority  to-day  combats  the  proposition  that  the  con- 
dition of  the  laborer  has  improved  with  every  reduction  in  the  hours  of 
daily  service  that  has  up  to  this  time  been  made.  Nobody  is  disputing 
that  he  has  become  a  better  consumer  with  each  reduction.  .  .  . 

Economists  contend  with  great  plausibility  that  the  shorter  day  results 
in  an  increase  of  wages  without  an  increase  of  price,  as  consumption  en- 
larges production,  and  the  larger  the  scale  of  production  the  cheaper  the 
given  article  is  produced;  that  the  laborer,  when  he  has  the  leisure  result- 
ing from  the  shorter  hours,  has  new  aspirations,  ambitions,  and  a  greater 
personal  self-respect,  and,  as  before  stated,  wants  a  better  house,  better 
furniture,  better  clothes,  better  food,  and  becomes  a  great  deal  better 
consumer.     (Pages  8-9.) 


BENEFIT   OF    LEISURE    AND    RECREATION  307 

United  States  Congress.  Senate  Report  2321.  The  Eight-Hour  Law:  united 
Report  from  the  Committee  on  Education  and  Labor.  Fifty- seventh  states 
Congress.     Second  Session.     1902-1903. 

Commissioner  Carroll  D.  Wright  well  says: 

The  policy  of  this  class  of  legislation  has  therefore  been  settled  by  Con- 
gress, and  I  need  not  discuss  this  phase  of  the  question.  All  such  laws 
are  enacted  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  laboring  man  from  the  in- 
jurious consequences  of  prolonged  physical  effort,  giving  him  more  time 
for  his  personal  affairs  and  more  time  and  energy  to  devote  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  his  moral  and  mental  powers.  It  has  always  been  expected  that 
they  would  aid  him  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  thus  tending  to  make 
him  a  better  and  more  contented  citizen.  This  policy  must  be  admitted 
by  all  to  be  a  good  one.  .  .  .  The  Federal  government  has  long  been  com- 
mitted to  this  policy.     (Page  2.) 

Report  of  the  Michigan  Bureau  of  Labor.     1907. 

I  would  again  most  heartily  recommend  that  we  do  something  toward 
obtaining  a  shorter  day  for  the  working  girls  of  our  State.  .  .  .  When  a 
girl  works  from  8  a.  m.  until  8.30  or  9  p.  m.  she  is  missing  the  best  part  of 
her  life,  that  part  that  stands  for  self-culture,  education,  and  recreation. 
(Pages  4-5.) 

Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.  1907- 
1908.  Part  VII.  Women  Workers  in  Milwaukee  Tanneries.  Irene 
Osgood,  Special  Agent. 

Another  group  much  larger  ...  is  made  up  of  girls  who  have  held  on 
to  the  good  but  who  have  been  crushed  and  deadened  by  their  burdens. 
The  routine  of  factory  work,  the  home  cares  that  fall  to  them  after  work, 
and  the  crowded  and  unhealthful  living  conditions  have  dissipated  the 
natural  and  healthful  cravings  which  stir  and  arouse  bodily  and  natural 
activities. 

They  live  a  machine-like  existence  and  indifferently  perform  the  func- 
tions of  labor.  They  have  no  leisure  for  the  interests  and  stimulating 
activities  which  they  as  human  beings  have  a  right  to  enjoy.  In  no  way 
do  they  get  connected  up  with  the  life  of  the  community.  Their  own  home 
is  crowded  and  offers  no  place  for  the  entertainment  of  friends.  This  is 
the  class  of  girls  that  most  arouses  one's  sympathy.  They  have  retained 
the  fundamental  virtues.  But  they  and  the  community  are  heavy  losers 
because  of  this  dead-level  and  joyless  existence.     Either  their  few  years 


308  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  in  school  failed  to  make  them  aware  of  the  stimulation  of  social  and  com- 

STATES 

mercial  life,  or,  more  likely,  it  is  the  after  years  that  have  robbed  them  of 
all  spirit.  Their  only  hope  is  for  more  leisure,  less  wearying  work  in 
the  shop,  fewer  home  cares,  and  an  opportunity  for  recreation.  They 
need  to  be  re-created,  to  enjoy  the  pleasures,  and  to  share  in  the  broader 
intelligence  of  the  church,  the  school,  and  the  settlement.     (Page  1107.) 

The  Economic  and  Social  I mportance  of  the  Eight-Hour  Movement.  George 
GuNTON.     New  York,  Amer.  Federation  of  Labor,  1889. 

It  is  one  of  the  characteristic  features  of  modern  industrial  life  that 
by  its  division  and  specialization  of  labor,  it  tends  to  increase  the  intensity 
of  the  strain  upon  the  nervous  energies  of  the  laborer.  In  no  country  in 
the  world  is  this  fact  more  prevalent  than  in  America.  The  persistency 
with  which  industrial  energies  are  intensified  in  this  country  have  come 
to  be  almost  regarded  as  a  national  characteristic.  It  has  become  a 
recognized  fact  by  medical  science  that  the  first  step  toward  remedying 
this  condition  is  more  leisure,  more  physical  and  mental  repose,  more  and 
longer  periods  of  relief  from  the  strain  which  the  specialized  industrial 
life  imposes.  This  has  become  absolutely  necessary  for  both  physical 
and  social  reasons.  For  physical  reasons,  because  it  makes  wholesome 
living  and  normal  physical  health  possible,  and  socially  because  without 
it  frequent  social  contact  is  prevented  or  the  susceptibility  to  the  socializing 
influence  is  destroyed.  The  great  mass  of  laborers  are  compelled  to  work 
all  the  year  round  under  the  same  monotonous  condition.  This  is  made 
indispensable  by  the  very  nature  of  modern  methods  in  industry.  Under 
the  factory  system  the  laborers  become  mere  wheels  in  a  colossal  machine, 
in  which  the  presence  of  all  is  necessary  to  the  efficient  labor  of  any. 
(Pages  12-13.) 

Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics.  Vol.  II.  Francis  A.  Walker, 
Ph.D.,  LL.D.  The  Eight-Hour  Law  Agitation.  New  York,  Holt, 
1899. 

...  I  have  small  sympathy  with  the  views  so  frequently,  and  it  seems 
to  me  brutally,  expressed,  that  the  working  classes  have  no  need  for 
leisure,  beyond  the  bare  necessities  of  physical  rest  and  repose,  to  get 
ready  for  the  morrow's  work;  that  they  do  not  know  what  to  do  with 
vacant  hours;  and  that  a  shortening  of  the  term  of  labor  would,  in  the 
great  majority  of  cases,  lead  to  an  increase  of  dissipation  and  drunken- 
ness.    Is  it  our  fellow-beings,  our  own  countrymen,  of  whom  we  are 


BENEFIT   OF    LEISURE    AND    RECREATION  3O9 

speaking?     It  seems  to  me  this  talk  ...  is  the  poorest  sort  of  pessimistic  united 

•  STATES 

nonsense.  It  is  closely  akin  to  what  we  used  to  hear  about  slavery  being 
a  humane  and  beneficent  institution.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  We  may  well  desire  that  somewhat  more,  and  much  more,  of 
leisure  and  of  recreation  should  mingle  with  the  daily  life  of  our  fellows 
than  is  now  known  to  most  of  them.  It  is  a  pity,  it  is  a  great  pity,  that 
working  men  should  not  see  more  of  their  families  by  daylight;  should 
not  have  more  time  for  friendly  converse  or  for  distinct  amusements; 
should  not  have  larger  opportunities  for  social  and  public  affairs.  Doubt- 
less many  would  always,  and  still  more  would  at  first,  put  the  newly  ac- 
quired leisure  to  uses  that  were  lower  than  the  best,  .  .  .  were  even,  in 
instances,  mischievous  and  injurious. 

But  the  larger  part  of  this  would  be  due  to  the  fact,  not  that  the  time 
now  granted  was  too  great,  but  that  the  time  previously  granted  had  been 
too  small.  .  .  .  But  such  men,  who  might,  it  is  conceded,  become  even 
worse  men  with  more  leisure,  are  not  to  furnish  the  rule  for  the  great 
majority,  who  are  decent,  sober,  and  careful,  fearing  God,  and  loving  their 
families.     (Pages  383-385.) 

Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Annual  Conventions  of  the  International  Associa- 
tion of  Factory  Inspectors  of  America.  Indianapolis,  1900.  Niagara 
Falls,  1901.  {Bound  in  New  York  Department  of  Labor  Report,  1901.) 
The  Shorter  Workday  in  its  Effect  upon  the  Personal  Character  of  the 
Worker.     John  Holbrook,  Deputy  Commissioner  of  Labor,  Michigan. 

.  .  .  Quality  of  product  may  be  improved  by  a  shorter  day,  and  by 
this  improvement  in  quality  of  the  product  has  come  to  be  considered 
the  improvement  of  the  quality  of  the  laborer  himself.  The  greatest 
capital  invested  in  any  enterprise,  commercial  or  industrial,  is  not  of 
buildings,  machinery,  and  plants,  but  in  the  character  of  the  men  and 
women  employed,  and  on  this  later  capital  stock  there  is  no  return  possible 
of  large  profits  without  improvement  of  personal  character. 

.  .  .  We  reached  the  second  stage  of  this  agitation  when  the  privilege 
was  asked  to  have  opportunities  for  leisure,  for  the  enlargement  of  mental 
grasp,  for  the  cultivation  of  the  home  and  home  life,  and  for  freedom  for 
self-culture.     (Pages  562-563.) 

A  reduction  in  the  hours  of  labor  means  for  the  hand-workers  leisure 
for  self-culture  and  the  arts,  moralities  and  the  refinements  of  life.  Many 
causes  have  contributed  toward  the  elevation  of  the  lot  of  labor,  but  one 
great  concurrent  cause  has  been  the  shortening  of  the  hours.  .  .  . 

It  has  not  been  shown  that  the  workers'  use  of  leisure  has  been  less 


310 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


UNITED 
STATES 


wise  and  moral  than  the  use  of  leisure  by  the  so-called  leisured  classes. 
They  have  learned  to  use  their  leisure  hours  just  as  rationally  and  bene- 
ficially as  have  the  wealthier  classes,  and  it  would  astonish  an  old-time 
advocate  of  constant  work  for  labor,  lest  Satan  should  find  mischief  for 
idle  hands  to  do,  how  wisely  and  well  these  very  classes  have  used  their 
spare  hours;  they  have  come  to  be  constant  and  intelligent  readers  of 
scientific  and  mechanical  journals.  They  have  formed  a  disposition  to 
read  the  best  books  and  literature,  and  as  a  rule  the  working  people  are 
reading  more  serious  and  thoughtful  books  than  any  other  class  of  society. 
(Pages  563-564.) 


The  National  Civic  Federation  Review.  Vol.  II,  No.  8.  Jan.-Feh.,  1906. 
The  first  Annual  meeting  of  the  New  England  Civic  Federation,  Boston, 
Jan.  11,  1906. 

Marcus  M.  Marks,  President,  National  Association  of  Clothing  Manu- 
facturers: 

There  is  another  consideration  which  prompts  the  demand  on  the  part  of 
labor  for  a  shorter  work-day;  it  is  the  greater  desire  for  self-improvement. 

This  has  been  encouraged  by  the  advance  in  the  public  school  of  the 
system  which  affects  our  younger  workmen  in  particular;  also  by  the 
multiplication  of  popular  free  lectures,  public  libraries,  cheap  books  and 
newspapers,  etc.,  that  have  awakened  in  the  workmen's  minds  the  am- 
bition to  lead  a  better  life,  possible  only  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  reasonable 
amount  of  leisure.     (Page  8.) 

(3)  Special  Benefit  of  Evening  Leisure  for  Family  Life, 
Education,  etc. 

In  all  communities  where  the  regular  working  day  of 
reasonable  length  has  been  established  the  workers  have 
benefited  particularly  by  the  regular  evening  leisure  af- 
forded. Leisure  in  the  evenings,  after  the  day's  work, 
affords  the  only  opportunity  for  necessary  home-life,  edu- 
cation, and  recreation. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


British    Sessional    Papers, 
spectors  of  Factories. 


Vol.    XXVI.     1847-1848.     Reports    of   In- 


Mr.  Fishwick  (Mill-owner),  on  this  occasion,  voluntarily  bore  testimony 
to  the  good  effects  which  have  been  produced  by  the  legislative  protection. 


BENEFIT   TO    FAMILY    LIFE,    EDUCATION,    ETC.  3 II 

He  mentioned  another  fact  which,   although  an  isolated  case,    I    great 


cannot  consider  otherwise  than  as  a  proof,  and  one  very  early  shown,  of 
the  improvement  in  the  social  state  of  the  women  employed  in  factories, 
which  may  fairly  be  expected  from  their  being  saved  from  that  excess 
of  daily  labour,  which  cut  them  oflf  from  the  duties  and  enjoyments  of 
domestic  life,  and  by  an  entire  absorption  of  their  time,  rendered  their 
lives  a  mere  alternation  of  work  and  sleep.  Mr.  Fishwick  stated  to  me 
that  a  young  woman  who  had  resided  some  years  in  the  village,  following 
the  trade  of  a  dress-maker,  lately  came  to  him  and  told  him  that  she  was 
going  to  remove;  and  on  his  asking  the  reason  of  her  so  doing,  she  replied, 
that  her  employment  had  fallen  off  since  the  hours  in  the  factory  had  been 
reduced  to  11,  for  the  young  women,  in  place  of  getting  dresses  made  by 
her,  now  make  them  themselves  at  home.     (Page  9.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXII.     1849.      Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1848. 

The  object  of  those  who  wish  to  be  allowed  to  work  with  relays  of 
young  persons  and  women  is  to  extend  the  working  of  the  mill  beyond  10 
hours,  and  if  they  worked  by  relays  the  same  number  of  hours  as  some  are 
now  doing  with  adult  males,  one  set  of  the  young  persons  and  women 
might  be  employed  as  late  as  half-past  8  in  the  evening.  All  such  young 
persons  and  women,  even  if  they  were  honestly  limited  to  10  hours  a  day, 
would  therefore  be  deprived  of  that  which  is  generally  held  to  be  one  of 
the  greatest  boons  to  the  factory  operatives  in  the  Ten  Hours'  Act,  viz., 
the  cessation  from  work  at  an  early  hour  in  the  evening.  It  is  vain  to 
say  that  they  would  have  the  same  amount  of  leisure  at  their  disposal  at 
other  times  of  the  day;  2  hours  before  breakfast,  or  in  the  middle  of  the 
day,  might  certainly  be  employed  by  some  of  the  women  in  domestic 
matters,  but  to  the  young  men  and  most  of  the  young  women  they  would 
be  worse  than  useless.  When  their  day's  work  is  over  at  an  early  hour  in 
the  evening,  and  they  have  3  hours  at  their  disposal  before  it  is  time  to  go 
to  bed,  the  factory  workers  then  feel  the  full  value  of  the  shortened  hours 
of  labour;  they  can  then  take  advantage  of  evening  schools  or  other 
places  of  instruction,  and  turn  their  leisure  to  good  account  in  many  ways, 
both  for  moral  improvement  and  for  social  and  domestic  comfort.     (Page 

7.)      _ 

Opinions  of  the  Factory  Operatives  respecting  the  Ten  Hours'  Act: 
It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  there  has  been  more  than  2  years 
of  great  suffering  among  the  factory  operatives,  from  many  mills  having 
worked  short  time,  and  many  being  altogether  closed.     A  considerable 


BRITAIN 


312  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  number  of  the  operatives  must  therefore  be  in  very  narrow  circumstances, 

many,  it  is  to  be  feared,  in  debt;  so  that  it  might  fairly  have  been  presumed 
that  at  the  present  time  they  would  prefer  working  the  longer  time,  in 
order  to  make  up  for  past  losses.  ...  I  have  been  very  much  surprised 
to  find  so  large  a  proportion  of  those  receiving  very  moderate  wages,  and 
still  more  of  those  receiving  very  scanty  wages,  preferring  to  work  10  hours. 
The  reason  for  their  preference  assigned  by  so  many  young  persons  and 
even  adults,  that  it  enabled  them  to  attend  evening  schools,  is  a  gratifying 
circumstance,  as  affording  a  good  sign  of  the  character  of  the  factory 
population.     (Pages  16-17.) 

Under  the  present  mode  of  working  the  10  hours,  according  to  which 
the  working  day  of  young  persons  and  women,  and  of  the  greater  portion 
of  adults  also,  is  brought  to  a  close  at  half-past  5  in  the  afternoon,  the 
employed  may  derive  the  greatest  benefit  from  the  curtailment  of  their 
labour  in  the  evening;  for  they  are  then  enabled  not  only  to  cultivate  the 
domestic  affections,  to  learn  domestic  habits  and  so  to  elevate  the  char- 
acter of  the  working  classes,  but  to  avail  themselves  of  those  opportunities 
of  mental  culture.     (Page  99.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXII.  1849.  Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1849.  Appendix.  Evi- 
dence of  the  Opinions  of  Persons  Employed  in  Factories  Respecting  the 
Ten  Hours'  Act,  Collected  in  September,  October,  and  November,  1848. 

Letter  from  Messrs.  Sidgwick,  Mill-owners:  We  consider  the  plan 
most  conducive  to  the  comfort  and  advantage  of  the  people  employed  in 
factories,  is  such  an  arrangement  of  the  working  time,  in  which  they  have 
to  earn  a  livelihood,  as  will  leave  to  them  the  longest  possible  space  of 
disengaged  time,  between  ceasing  work  in  an  evening  and  resuming  it  a 
morning  for  recreation,  improvement,  or  their  private  business.  (Page 
14.) 

To  the  elder  females  no  portion  of  the  day  can  be  more  valuable  for 
recreation  or  attendance  to  domestic  duties  than  the  regular  and  contin- 
uous period  this  plan  {i.  e.,  closing  mill  at  end  of  10  hours'  work)  gives 
them,  at  the  end  of  their  daily  factory  labour.     (Page  29.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXIII.  1850.  Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1849. 

Among  those  who  have  carefully  watched  the  operation  of  each  suc- 
cessive restriction,  the  number,  I  am  satisfied,  is  now  large,  who  would 


BENEFIT   TO    FAMILY    LIFE,    EDUCATION,    ETC.  313 

declare  themselves  content  to  work  only  10  hours  a  day,  .  .  .  and  this   great 
I  believe  to  be  especially  the  case  among  mill-occupiers  and  managers 
who  can  from  their  own  experience  compare  the  state  and  condition  of  the 
operative  class  under  the  present  factory  system  with  their  state  and  condi- 
tion under  the  hours  of  work  during  which  they  laboured  20  years  ago. 

I  am  assured,  that  the  attendance  of  young  persons  at  night-schools, 
and  the  demand  for  garden  allotments,  bear  powerful  testimony  to  the 
advantages  of  a  reduction  in  the  number  of  working  hours,  and  to  the 
readiness  with  which  the  best  disposed  are  willing  to  make  a  beneficial 
use  of  the  additional  hours,  the  present  restriction  leaves  them  for  recrea- 
tion and  improvement.     (Page  41.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXIII.     1850.     Reports  of  Inspectors  0} 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1849. 

It  is  an  early  stopping  in  the  evening  that  the  work  people  chiefly 
value;  and  if  the  free  evening  hours  from  6  to  9  be  secured  the  great  object 
sought  for  by  the  Ten  Hours'  Act  will  be  attained;  for  then  the  factory 
workers  will  be  in  what  may  be  called  the  normal  state  of  the  operatives 
in  the  generality  of  trades,  and  will,  like  them,  have  leisure  for  domestic 
arrangements,  for  improving  themselves  by  attending  evening  schools, 
with  opportunities  for  healthful  and  reasonable  recreations.  .  .  .  Where 
the  law  is  fully  carried  out,  according  to  its  true  intention,  the  work  people  , 

appear  to  value  the  limitation  more  and  more  in  proportion  as  they  have 
longer  experience  of  its  effects;  and  the  masters  appear  to  be  getting  daily 
better  reconciled  to  it;  partly  by  finding  that,  by  the  increased  alertness 
of  their  work  people,  by  the  closer  application  they  are  now  enabled  to 
give,  together  with  some  additional  speeding  of  the  machinery  not  before 
tried,  the  produce  is  much  nearer  to  that  of  12  hours  than  it  was*conceived 
possible  it  could  be  brought  to,  but  partly  also  by  the  marked  change  for 
the  better  which  they  see  in  the  health,  appearance,  and  contentment  of 
their  work  people.     (Page  5.) 

In  one  of  the  letters  sent  to  me  the  following  interesting  statement  was 
given,  representing,  as  I  believe  correctly,  a  picture  of  domestic  life  almost 
unknown  in  the  manufacturing  district,  especially  of  a  large  town  like 
Bradford,  until  the  hours  of  labor  were  reduced  and  regulated  by  the 
Legislature.  The  comfort  and  feelings  here  described,  though  naturally 
of  slow  growth,  are  I  hope  daily  extending  their  influence,  and  may  be 
either  much  encouraged  or  much  retarded,  according  as  the  Government 
and  Legislature  of  the  Country  exercise  a  paternal  care  for  the  different 
classes  who  look  up  to  them  for  protection: 


314  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  ...  "I  called  in  to  see  an  old  factory  weaver;  it  was  very  interesting 

and  delightful  to  behold  the  old  man  sitting  with  his  youngest  son;  they 
had  a  basket  of  potatoes  for  sets,  and  both  seemed  at  a  loss,  being  new 
gardeners,  but  were  very  glad  to  have  an  opportunity  of  learning;  he 
had  3  daughters,  and  2  young  women  lodgers,  very  busy  sewing  and  knit- 
ting, and  all  teaching  each  other.  ...  I  asked  the  old  mother  how  she 
liked  the  Ten  Hour  Bill.  She  said  very  well,  she  did  not  know  how  she 
must  do  if  the  girls  worked  any  longer,  they  assisted  her  all  they  could, 
and  were  learning  to  do  household  work,  and  could  sew  and  knit  better 
than  she  could,  and  could  read  very  nicely  too;  they  could  not  do  with 
any  more  than  ten  hours.  The  old  father  said  it  was  a  grand  thing,  the 
Ten  Hours  Bill;  he  was  learning  to  be  a  gardener,  and  would  not  like  to 
give  it  up,  which  he  would  have  to  do  if  they  worked  any  more  hours." 
(Pages  48-49.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XVI.     1867.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1867. 

No  exigency  of  trade  can  offer  any  compensation  whatever,  for  the 
evils  of  long  hours  of  work,  for  the  wives  of  the  industrial  classes.  I 
mention  this  feeling  of  the  bleachers  and  dyers,  not  as  their  advocate  for 
uniform  working  hours  with  factory  workers,  but  as  a  sincere  advocate 
for  uniformity  of  time  for  all  labour  limited  by  legal  restrictions;  and  from 
a  conviction  that,  all  efforts  at  night  school  instruction  for  adolescents  and 
adults,  for  their  social  improvement,  and  all  attempts  at  closing  public 
houses  and  beer  houses  after  reasonable  hours  must  be  abortive,  so  long 
as  the  great  bulk  of  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  working  men  are  un- 
able, from  sheer  ignorance,  to  render  their  homes  attractive  by  domestic 
qualifications;  and  by  a  higher  standard  of  moral  feeling,  to  appreciate 
the  value  of  virtue  and  self-respect,  of  which,  I  am  afraid,  they  are  so 
commonly  ignorant.  If  all  labour  in  factories  and  workshops  had  been 
restricted  in  future  to  6  o'clock  at  night  and  to  2  o'clock  on  Saturdays, 
the  next  generation  would  have  repaid  the  present  by  a  morality  which 
the  past  has  never  dreamt  of.     (Pages  25-26.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XIV.     1868-1869.     Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1868. 

Nevertheless,  the  Act  has  shown  itself,  as  initiating  a  moral  obligation 
at  least  upon  the  employers  of  juvenile  and  female  labour,  in  rendering  it 
uniform  in  its  hours;    and  thus  bringing  within  the  ordinary  reach  of 


BENEFIT    TO    FAMILY    LIFE,    EDUCATION,    ETC.  315 

those  who  have  alread\'  made  some  advances  in  elementan'  knowledge,   great 

.....  BRITAIN 

either  independently  of  factory  labour  or  m  connection  with  it,  various 
institutions  for  intellectual  purposes,  hitherto  languishing  for  want  of 
pupils,  in  consequence  of  their  hours  of  work  preventing  them  from,  or 
unfitting  them  for,  enjoying  the  privileges  such  institutions  were  intended 
to  afford.     (Page  83.) 

Assuredly  the  usefulness  of  the  first  hours  of  rational  freedom  from 
late  employment  has  not  been  overrated.  The  power  which  the  working 
classes  now  possess  of  making  arrangements  for  out-door  enjoyments  in 
the  summer,  and  for  intellectual  advancement  of  ever\'  kind  during  the 
winter  months,  is  fully  appreciated,  and  would  be  most  reluctantly  parted 
with.  It  is  indeed  spoken  of  as  a  boon  which  they  longed  to  possess  years 
ago,  and  is  most  thankfull\-  acknowledged.     (Page  277.) 

British    Sessional   Papers.     Vol.    XIII.     1874.     Report   of  Inspector   of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1874. 

It  is  for  the  public  good  that  our  girls  and  women  shall  not  be  over- 
worked and  shall  have  some  leisure  in  the  evening,  without  which  this 
work  would  degenerate  into  slavery,  pernicious  to  mind  and  body.  (Page 
58.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XVI.     1875.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1875. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  year,  many  manufacturers,  on  considera- 
tion of  the  health  of  women,  were  determined  to  begin  work  half  an  hour 
later  in  the  morning  than  they  had  previously  been  accustomed  to.  .  .  . 
But  it  soon  became  apparent  that  the  employed,  as  a  rule,  were  opposed 
to  the  alteration  and  dissatisfied;  and  preferred  the  additional  half-hour's 
relaxation  in  the  evening  .  .  .  the  half  hour  at  night  increased  the  oppor- 
tunities for  recreation,  improvement  and  social  or  domestic  duties. 
(Pages  63-65.) 

British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XII.     1895.     Report  from    the    Select 
Committee  on  Shops  {Early  Closing)  Bill. 

Witness.     T.  Flint,  Rep.  Scottish  Shopkeepers'  Association: 
1178.     Do  you  think  a  part  of  the  necessity  for  early  closing  is  based 
on  the  fact  that  later  hours  in  shops  mean  degeneration  in  the  health  of 
the  shop  assistants?  ...  It  certainly  affects  their  life  as  a  whole.     They 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


316 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


do  not  enjoy  the  same  privileges  that  other  people  enjoy,  they  have  not 
the  same  time  for  improving  their  mental  condition,  or  enjoying  the  other 
different  phases  of  life  that  other  people  have  who  are  off  duty  earlier  in 
the  day.     (Page  50.) 

Witness.     J.  Jamieson,  Rep.  Scottish  Shopkeepers'  Union: 
3183.  I  approve  of  it  (the  bill)  chiefly  in  the  direction  of  earlier  hours 
in  the  evening;    1  think  there  would  be  greater  mental  and  physical  bene- 
fits from  that  than  from  anything  else.     (Page  131.) 


The  Economic  journal.  Vol.  XIV.     London's  Tailoresses.     Clementina 
Black.     London,  Macmillan,  1904. 

This  prevalence  of  long-  and  late-working  hours  virtually  cuts  off 
the  young  tailoress  from  the  advantages  of  any  technical  training  that 
might  be  carried  on  in  evening  hours.  She,  like  other  working  people — 
may  I  not  say  like  other  human  beings? — is  not  disposed  after  a  ten-hour's 
working  day  for  further  exertion  either  of  brain  or  hand.     (Page  566.) 

GERMANY  AmtUche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichts- 
heamten.  XVIII.  1893.  [Official  Information  from  Annual  Reports 
of  the  (German)  Factory  Inspectors,  1893.]     Berlin,  1894. 

Leipzig: 

There  can  be  no  doubt  whatever,  that  the  shortening  of  the  daily  toil 
of  women  in  factories  has  a  most  beneficial  effect  upon  the  workers.  They 
can  attend  better  to  their  homes,  cultivate  their  housekeeping  and  home- 
making  powers.     (Page  148.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  the  New  Jersey  Inspector  of  Factories  and  Workshops.     1893. 

In  conformity  with  the  principle  of  regulation  the  legislature  has  sought 
to  promote  the  safety,  health,  happiness  and  welfare  of  the  persons  desig- 
nated, by  regulating  their  employment  in  this  State,  and  in  accordance 
with  an  enlightened  and  humane  policy,  especially  towards  young  persons 
and  females. 

It  says  to  the  employer,  whether  a  person  or  a  corporation:  "you  may 
take  all  you  can  fairly  get  of  the  labor,  skill  and  industry  of  your  employes, 
within  ten  hours  of  every  day  and  for  five  hours  every  Saturday.  Beyond 
that  you  shall  not  go.  The  remainder  of  the  day  and  night,  and  the  Satur- 
day half-holiday,  belong  to  your  employer  himself,  his  family  and  the 
community.     He  may  use  that  time  for  leisure,  rest,  recreation,  reading, 


LIGHTEST   WORK    INJURIOUS    IF    TOO    PROLONGED  317 

Study,  travel,  or  in  any  lawful  manner  whatever  that  he  pleases,  or  in   united 

,    .  ^,  •  ^     II  ..  STATES 

doing  nothing  at  all. 

Report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1900. 

The  family  furnishes  the  really  fundam.ental  education  of  the  growing 
generation — the  education  of  character;  and  the  family  life  thus  really 
determines  the  quality  of  the  rising  generation  as  efficient  or  non-efficient 
wealth  producers.  When  one  or  both  parents  are  away  from  home  for 
twelve  or  thirteen  hours  (the  necessary  period  for  those  who  work  ten 
hours)  a  day,  the  children  receive  comparatively  little  attention.  What 
was  said  in  the  opening  paragraph  of  this  section  in  discussing  the  im- 
portance of  a  good  family  life  in  the  training  of  character  needs  repeated 
emphasis,  for  it  is  the  fundamental  argument  for  a  shorter  working  day. 
(Pages  70-73.) 

United  States  Congress  Senate  Document,  No.  141.  Eight  hours  for  laborers 
on  government  work.  Hearings  before  the  Committee  on  education  and 
labor  of  the  United  States  Senate,  1st  session,  57th  Congress.  1901- 
1902. 

Argument  of  James  O'Connell,  President  of  International  Association 
of  Machinists: 

The  history  of  the  movement  in  this  country  where  the  hours  of  labor 
have  been  reduced  show  a  higher  standard  of  manhood  and  a  higher 
standard  of  intelligence  and  of  excellency  in  work  and  in  life,  a  higher  and 
a  better  home,  a  happier  and  better  family  life,  and  a  more  comfortable 
and  better  home.  In  every  trade  and  industry  where  the  hours  of  labor 
have  been  reduced  there  has  been  no  reduction  of  the  output.     (Page  522.) 


III.     SHORTER  HOURS  THE  ONLY   POSSIBLE 
PROTECTION 

A.     Overlong  Hours  make  Lightest  Work  Injurious 

The  length  of  working  hours,  irrespective  of  the  kind 
of  occupation,  is  in  itself,  a  menace  to  health.  Even  the 
lightest  work  becomes  totally  exhausting  when  carried  on 
for  an  excessive  length  of  time. 


3l8  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

^??T=\^ivr  British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol  XV.     1831-1832.     Report  from  the  Select 

Committee  on  the  "Bill  to  regulate  the  Labour  of  Children  in  the  Mills 
and  Factories  of  the  United  Kingdom."  Thomas  Young,  Esq., 
M.D.,  Physician  at  Bolton.     18th  July,  1832. 

10572.  This  work  in  factories  is  now  and  then  attempted  to  be  justified 
by  being  denominated  "light  and  easy";  will  you  state  whether  it  would 
obviate  those  eflFects  even  if  the  work  were  proved  to  be,  as  it  is  denomi- 
nated, "light  and  easy"? — I  think  not.  The  employment  cannot  be  con- 
sidered a  laborious  one  in  itself  or  for  a  short  period;  but  it  is  one  which 
requires  constant  attention,  it  is  irksome  and  fatiguing  from  its  uniform- 
ity, the  length  of  time  it  is  followed,  and  the  postures  of  the  body  required; 
it  may  rather  be  denominated  fatiguing  than  laborious;  it  is  not  hard 
labour.  To  illustrate  it,  let  us  suppose  a  female  doomed  to  thread  needles 
as  fast  as  possible,  in  constant  succession  and  incessantly  for  twelve  hours 
a  day;  to  thread  a  needle  is  by  no  means  laborious  operation,  but  the  con- 
tinued and  unvaried  employment  would  be  irksome  and  fatiguing  in  the 
extreme.     (Page  520.) 

10573.  Would  it  not  in  some  measure  exhaust  the  nervous  energies 
or  at  least  fatigue  the  mind  as  well  as  the  body,  and  occasion  consequently 
as  pernicious  an  effect  upon  the  health,  and  sometime  more  so,  than  if  the 
labour  were  more  strenuous,  and  at  the  same  time  more  varied? — It  cer- 
tainly would.     (Page  520.) 

Sir  Anthony  Carlisle,  F.R.S.,  Surgeon  in  the  Westminster  Hospital: 

11049.  Is  not  that  employment  which  has  been  sometimes  denomi- 
nated "light  and  easy,"  but  being  one  of  uniform  and  tedious,  though  not 
very  strenuous  exertion,  but  still  producing  great  fatigue  of  mind  as  well 
as  body,  more  exhausting  and  injurious  to  the  constitution  than  change- 
able locomotive  exercise,  when  endured  only  for  a  moderate  length  of 
time,  with  due  intermission? — I  am  convinced  of  that;  because  the  sen- 
sorial powers  being  exhausted  by  an  uninterrupted  succession  of  muscular 
actions,  must  necessarily  weaken  or  exhaust  the  powers  of  life;  and  there- 
fore such  exertions  cannot  be  followed  without  a  violation  of  the  laws  of 
animal  nature. 

11050.  So  you  would  not  consider  it  a  sufficient  apology  for  this  ex- 
ceedingly long  continued  labour,  if  it  were  alleged  truly,  that  abstractly 
considered,  it  demanded  very  little  muscular  exertion? — No,  I  would  say, 
in  such  instances,  it  would  still  be  a  violation  of  the  powers  of  nature. 
(Page  559.) 

Sir  William  Blizard,  F.R.S.,  Surgeon  to  the  London  Hospital  and  lec- 
turer on  surger}',  anatomy,  and  physiology: 


LIGHTEST   WORK    INJURIOUS    IF   TOO    PROLONGED  319 

11199.  Is  not  the  employment  in  question,  though  it  may,  if  con-  great 
templated  for  a  moment,  seem  light  or  easy,  yet  when  continued  for  such 
a  length  of  time  as  to  induce  much  fatigue  to  mind  and  body,  as  it  is 
asserted  it  does,  likely  to  be  more  prejudicial  than  even  more  strenuous 
labour  pursued  for  a  moderate  length  of  time,  and  with  due  intervals  for 
rest  and  refreshment? — I  am  clearly  of  that  opinion;  however  light  it 
may  be,  yet  extended  as  it  has  been  described,  the  consequences  must  in 
my  opinion  be  as  stated.     (Page  572.) 

John  Elliottson,  Esq.,  M.D.,  F.R.S.,  Physician  to  St.  Thomas's  Hos- 
pital: 

11258.  Should  you  not  conceive  that  labour,  sometimes  denominated 
"light  and  easy"  considered  in  itself,  and  apparently  demanding  but 
little  muscular  exertion,  but  continued  for  so  great  a  length  of  time  as  to 
produce  much  fatigue  of  mind  and  body,  and  ultimately  great  exhaustion, 
is  more  injurious  than  a  still  greater  exertion  endured  for  a  less  length  of 
time,  and  with  longer  intermission? — Certainly.     (Page  577.) 

Charles  Aston  Key,  Esq.,  Surgeon  at  Guy's  Hospital: 

11418.  It  is  alleged  by  the  witnesses,  that  the  labour  in  question  is 
very  fatiguing  and  exhausting;  it  is  nevertheless  stated  by  some  who 
apologize  for  this  length  of  labour,  that  it  is  "light  and  easy";  may  I 
ask  you,  whether  an  employment  which  demands  such  constant  and 
excessive  attention  for  so  long  a  period  of  time,  and  mainly  in  an  erect 
position  of  the  body,  has  not  a  more  prejudicial  eflfect  than  more  natural 
exertions,  pursued  for  a  moderate  length  of  time,  and  with  due  inter- 
missions?— I  should  consider  it  matters  not  of  what  nature  the  labour  may 
be,  if  it  is  persisted  in  under  an  extreme  state  of  exhaustion  and  fatigue  of 
mind  and  body;  if  it  be  so  persisted  in,  in  an  erect  position,  I  consider  it 
to  be  exceedingly  injurious  to  the  growth  and  development  of  the  powers 
of  the  body.     (Page  591.) 

British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XII.     1895.     Report  from    the    Select 
Committee  on  Shops  {Early  Closing)  Bill. 

Witness,  Dr.  Percy  Kidd,  M.D.,  of  University  of  Oxford,  Fellow  of 
College  of  Physicians  and  Member  of  the  College  of  Surgeons.  Attached 
to  London  Hospital  and  Brompton  Hospital. 

5352.  Would  this  be  a  fair  way  of  putting  it:  it  is  not  the  actual  work 
of  people  in  shops,  but  having  to  be  there  and  standing  about  and  sitting 
about  in  bad  air;  it  is  the  long  hours  which  is  the  injurious  part  of  it? — 
Quite  so,  the  prolonged  tension.     (Page  218.) 


320 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  VI.     1901.     Report  from  the  Select  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Lords  on  Early  Closing  of  Shops. 

IVitness,  Sir  William  S.  Church,  President  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians: 

2306.  .  .  .  The  evils  which  arise,  I  think,  in  these  cases  are  those 
which  arise  rather  from  the  long  hours  of  attendance  than  from  the  sever- 
ity of  the  labour.     (Page  108.) 

Evils  of  the  Factory  System.     Demonstrated  by  Parliamentary  Evidence. 
Charles  Wing.     London,  Saunders  and  Otley,  1837. 

We  must  judge  of  the  nature  of  any  employment  by  its  effects.  Many 
employments  require  considerable  exertion  of  strength,  and  yet,  from  being 
less  monotonous,  from  requiring  less  of  continued  attentiveness,  and  from 
being  carried  on  in  daylight  and  in  the  open  air,  may  be  much  less  in- 
jurious than  factory  labour.  But,  however  light,  however  easy,  however 
healthy  an  employment  may  be  it  may  be  so  protracted  as  to  become 
neither  light,  nor  easy,  nor  healthy,  and  that  this  has  been  the  case  with 
the  factory  labour  no  one  who  reads  the  evidence  brought  before  the  several 
committees  that  have  from  time  to  time  been  appointed  can  for  a  moment 
doubt.     (Pages  xxix-xxx.) 

The  Eight  Hours  Day.    Sidney  Webb,  D.B.,  and  Harold  Cox,   B.A. 
London,  Walter  Scott,  1891. 

The  human  body  needs  frequent  change  of  surroundings,  change  of 
exercise,  to  keep  it  in  perfect  condition.  A  man,  and  still  more  a  woman, 
will  suffer  from  protracted  occupation  at  one  particular  task,  even  if  that 
task  in  itself  is  healthy  enough.  And  of  all  the  manual  work  done  in  an 
advanced  industrial  community  to-day,  how  much  is  healthy  in  its  nature 
or  done  under  healthy  conditions?     (Pages  6-7.) 


GERMANY        Verhandlungen  des  Reichstags,  101.  Sit^ung,  16.  April,  1891.     [Proceed- 
ings of  the  {German)  Reichstag,  101st  Session,  April  16, 1891.] 

Representative  Grillenberger: 

If  I  am  told  that  the  laws  already  protect  men  from  over-long  hours 
in  dangerous  employments  or  those  which  injure  the  health  of  the  em- 
ployee, 1  reply  that  therein  is  a  proof  of  our  correctness  in  demanding  a 
general  legal  working  day.  The  health  of  the  worker  is  bound  to  be  in- 
jured by  over-long  hours  in  any  line  of  work,  no  matter  what  it  is,  and  if 
the  Bundesrath  wishes  to  be  logical,  then  it  must  take  the  position  that 


LIGHTEST   WORK    INJURIOUS    IF   TOO    PROLONGED  32 1 

the  principle  already  acknowledged  in  that  section  of  the  law  must  be   GERMANY 
extended  uniformly.     It  will  be  more  rational  to  regulate  conditions  with 
foresight,  by  the  law,  than  to  leave  them  to  work  themselves  out  by  slower 
methods.     (Page  2364.) 

Jahresberichie  der  Gewerhe-AiifsicUsheamten  und  Bergbehorden  fiir  das 
Jahr  1907.  Bd.  III.  [Reports  of  the  {German)  Factory  and  Mine 
Inspectors  for  1907.     Vol.  Ill]     Berlin,  Decker,  1908. 

Bremen. 

Women  and  young  workers  often  fail  to  obtain  the  care  and  considera- 
tion for  their  physical  well-being  and  working  powers  that  should  be  given 
them  by  their  employers,  the  reason  being,  in  general,  that  the  work  they 
do  is  regarded  as  "light  work,"  and  therefore  not  harmful. 

While  it  is  quite  true  that  in  most  cases  their  work  is,  by  itself,  not 
unreasonable  in  its  demands  upon  their  strength,  yet  when  even  easy 
tasks  are  performed  in  connection  with  highly  perfected,  rapidly  speeded 
machinery,  and  are  continued  for  hours  and  repeated  thousands  of  times, 
they  then  constitute  work  that  makes  very  great  demands  not  only  upon 
the  physical  endurance,  but  also  upon  the  nervous  system.    (Pages  24,  '  .) 

Die  Krankheiten  der  Arheiier.  Bd.  2.  [The  Diseases  of  Working  People. 
Vol.  2.]     Dr.  LuDWiG  Hirt.     Leipzig,  1878. 

In  the  second  place  the  working  time  must  be  considered,  because  in 
this  factor  of  work  lies  the  greatest  possibility  of  exhausting  the  strength 
by  forced  exertion.     (Page  266.) 

No  attitude  of  the  body  is  harmful  in  itself;  only  in  prolonging  it  until 
it  produces  harmful  results;  .all  the  well-known  disturbances,  such  as 
varicose  veins,  etc.,  etc.,  arise,  not  through  sitting  or  standing,  but 
through  excessively  prolonged  sitting  or  standing.     (Page  268.) 

Handbuch  der  Hygiene.  Bd.  8^.  [Handbook  of  Hygiene.  Vol.  8^.] 
Edited  by  Dr.  Theodore  Weyl.  Allgemeine  Gewerbehygiene  und 
Fabrikgesetigebung.  [General  Industrial  Hygiene  and  Factory  Legis- 
lation.]    Dr.  Emil  Roth.     Jena,  1894. 

When  we  take  up  the  question  of  the  effect  of  special  trades  upon 
morbidity  and  mortality,  it  must  be  premised  that  the  idea  of  industrial 
diseases  or  occupation  diseases  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term  is  in- 
accurate, for  the  specific  so-called  dangers  of  trades  as  such  are  not  in- 
separably bound  up  with  those  trades,  as  the  special  hygiene  of  the  factory 
21* 


322 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIEN'CY 


GERMANY  proves  daily.  Onl\-  in  so  far  as  the  length  of  working  time,  and  seventy 
of  ph>sical  or  mental  labor  are  concerned  in  the  various  trades,  or  the 
necessarily  close  crowding  in  closed  rooms  in  one  or  another  occupation, 
can  we  spreak  of  the  different  effects  of  diflferent  kinds  of  occupation  upon 
the  organism.     (Page  8.) 


ITALY 


UNITED 

STATES 


Proceedings  of  ike  Fifth  Meeting  of  the  International  Association  for  Labor 
Legislation.     Lucerne,  1908.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

Factory  Inspector  Furst: 

A  celebrated  hygienist  of  Germany,  Prof.  Sommerfeld,  says:  "Over- 
strain may  be  either  the  result  of  unreasonably  hard  work,  or 
of  hours  of  work  that  are  too  long  even  though  the  processes  of  work  do 
not  make  special  demands  upon  muscular  strength.  In  both  cases  the 
same  results  appear  in  course  of  time,  sooner,  in  proportion  as  other  dan- 
gers are  involved  in  the  occupation,  or  the  organism  of  the  worker  is  younger 
and  less  resistant,  or  the  social  conditions  of  the  workers  more  wretched. 
(Pages  124-125.) 

Revue  Internationale  de  Sociologie,  Nov.-Dec,  1895.  Le  Travail  Humain 
et  ses  Lois.  [The  Laus  of  Human  JVork.]  Francesco  S.  Nitti, 
University  of  Naples.     Paris,  Giard  et  Briere,  1895. 

But,  says  Lagrange,  it  is  not  solely  the  occupation  demanding  great 
muscular  exertion  that  produces  exhaustion,  but  it  is  often,  and,  in  in- 
dustrial life,  almost  always,  the  occupation  requiring  a  great  number  of 
hours  of  work.  In  such  cases,  combustion  is  not  very  active  and  its  wastes 
have  time  to  be  eliminated;  the  products  of  disassimilation  do  not  neces- 
sarily accumulate  in  the  organism  and  there  is  no  auto-intoxication,  but 
what  does  happen  is  that  much  organic  material  is  used  up  and  the  organ- 
ism suffers  extensive  losses.     (Page  1034.) 

Report  of  the  Illinois  Factory  Inspectors.     1893. 

The  lightest  occupations  are  rendered  injurious  bv  long  hours  of  labor. 
(Page  8.) 


Journal  of  Social  Science,  containing  the  Transactions  of  the  American 
Association.  No.  XXV,  Dec,  1888.  The  JVorking  fVomen  of  New 
York.     Elizabeth  Stowe  Brown,  M.D.     Boston,  Damrell,  1888. 

It  must  be  remembered,  also,  that  a  comparatively  harmless  industry  may 
be  carried  to  a  degree  that  is  alarmingl\-  injurious.  .  .  .  Eight  or  ten  hours 
should  be  the  limit  of  a  woman's  day  of  steady  application.     (Page  86.) 


THE  remedy:    shorter  hours  323 

Charities  and  the  Commons,  March  6,  1909.     Vol.  XXI .     No.  23.     New  united 
York.     Factory  Inspection  in  Pittsburgh.     Florence  Kelley,  Secre-  ^'^^'^^^ 
tary  National  Consumers'   League;  Former  Chief  Factory  Inspector, 
Illinois. 

Injurious  conditions  of  work. 

Industries  may  be  injurious  by  reason  of  the  nature  of  the  machinery 
or  of  the  material  used  (lead,  sulphur,  acid,  etc.)  or  of  dust  produced  in 
the  process  (steel,  brass,  cork,  etc.)  or  of  strain  due  to  heat,  cold,  glare, 
darkness,  or  speed.  Finally,  an  industry  not  intrinsically  injurious  may 
become  so  in  a  high  degree  by  sheer  lengthening  of  working  hours,  particu- 
larly when  the  workers  are  required  to  stand.     (Page  1112.) 

Even  where  the  .  .  .  work  was  as  simple  as  wrapping  caramels  or 
packing  crackers,  the  long  hours  combined  with  enforced  standing  made 
a  harmless  process  highly  injurious.     (Page  1115.) 


B.     The  Remedy:    Shorter  Hours 

A  decrease  of  the  intensity  of  exertion  in  industry  is  not 
feasible.  The  needed  protection  to  working  women,  there- 
fore, can  be  afforded  only  through  shortening  the  hours 
of  labor. 

New  South  JVales.     Legislative  Assembly.     Report  of  the  Working  of  the  Australia 
Factories'  and  Shops'  Act.     1904. 

That  factory  life  is  on  the  whole,  distinctly  inimical  to  the  physical 
and  nervous  well-being  of  women  seems  to  me  very  probable,  if  not  cer- 
tain; but  as  it  appears  to  be  an  inevitable  condition  of  life  in  highly  pop- 
ulated cities,  .  .  .  and  as  it  is  unlikely  that  we  can  ever  escape  from  the 
system,  in  view  of  the  increasing  difficulty  of  making  a  living,  the  only 
remedy  seems  to  be  to  minimize  as  far  as  possible  the  evils  which  the 
factory  system  brings  in  its  train.     (Page  13.) 

Amtliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichts-  GERMANY 
heamten.     XIV.     1889.      [Official   Information  from   Reports   of  the 
{German)  Factory  Inspectors.     1889.]     Berlin,  1890. 

As  to  the  efforts  being  made  in  some  directions  to  abolish  factory  work 
entirely  for  women,  it  has  not  been  found  that  the  workers  themselves. 


324  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMAmr  even  the  married  ones  wish  for  complete  restriction,  but  they  wish  for 
reasonable  limitations  for  the  abolition  of  night  work  and  Sunday  work, 
and  for  a  working  day  of  not  more  than  10  hours.     (Page  93.) 

Verhmidlungen  des  Reichstags,  103.  Sit^uug.  18.  April,  1891.  [Proceed- 
ings of  the  {German)  Reichstag,  103rd  Session,  April  18,  1891. \ 

Representative  Rebel: 

Such  facts  (growth  of  infant  mortalit\')  speak  for  themselves  of  the 
fundamental  need  of  legal  protection  to  put  a  stop  to  these  evils.  .  .  . 
That  we  should  take  women  out  of  industry  is  impossible  ...  it  would 
also  be  a  catastrophe  .  .  .  but,  that  we  are  called  upon  to  provide  that 
industry  shall  not,  in  its  use  of  the  labor  of  its  working  women,  overstep 
those  bounds  which  must  be  preserved  if  the  physical  development  of 
women  is  not  to  be  injured  to  the  utmost  limit,  is,  in  my  opinion,  self- 
evident.     (Page  2420.) 

There  is  this  to  be  remembered,  that  we  owe  it  to  our  women  and 
young  girls,  remembering  their  inestimable  importance  to  the  ph>'sical 
and  spiritual  progress  of  the  race,  as  the  mothers  and  teachers  of  children, 
to  establish  laws  which  shall  afford  them  ample  protection  for  their  own 
physical  and  intellectual  health  and  development.     (Page  2423.) 

Die  jahres-Berichte  der  k.  hayerischen  Fabrik-  und  Gewerhe-Inspektoren 
fiir  das  Jahr  1899.  [Report  of  the  Royal  Bavarian  Factory  Inspectors 
for  1899.]     Munich,  1900. 

Factory  work  for  women  seems  to  be,  under  our  present  social  organ- 
ization, an  industrial  necessity,  and  it  is  only  possible,  at  present,  b\' 
passing  specific  protective  measures,  to  ward  off  from  working  women 
those  special  dangers  to  health  and  morals  which  they  would  otherwise 
encounter.     (Page  24.     Preface.) 

Die  Beschaftigung  Verheiratheter  Frauen  in  Fahriken.  Nach  den  Jahres- 
herichten  der  Gewerheaufsichtsheamten  fiir  das  Jahr  1899  bearbeitet  im 
Reichsamt  des  Innern.  [The  Employment  of  Married  IVomen  in  Fac- 
tories. From  Reports  of  the  {German)  Factory  Inspectors  for  1899, 
compiled  in  the  Imperial  Home  Office.]     Berlin,  1901. 

"And  yet"  (wrote  one  inspector)  "the  limitation  of  working  hours 
appears  to  be  the  only  solution  for  securing  to  ivomen  enough  time  to  care  for 
their  families  and  for  preventing  the  premature  exhaustion  of  their  physical 


THE  remedy:    shorter  hours  325 

strength.     It  is  also  to  be  hoped  that  the  great  usefulness  of  women  in   GERMANY 
factory  work  will  not  permit  of  their  general  dismissal."     (Page  174.) 

Jahresherichte  des  Gewerhe-Aufsichtsheamten  im  Konigreich  JVurttemberg 
fiir  das  Jahr  1902.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  IViirttemherg  for  1902.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1903. 

.  .  .  Reduction  of  hours  does  not  keep  pace  with  advances  in  technique 
.  .  .  where  there  is  an  obvious  tendency  to  make  use  of  human  power  to 
the  fullest  possible  extent.  This  is  especially  true  in  the  textile  mills, 
where  certain  older  processes  are  modified  by  new  contrivances.  The 
result  now  is  that,  while  the  wages  of  skilled  spinners  (women)  have  risen 
about  12  or  13  per  cent,  the  number  of  spindles  on  which  they  must  con- 
centrate attention  for  11  hours  has  been  raised  from  500  to  750,  an  in- 
crease of  50  per  cent.  This  is  not  quite  the  same  as  saying  that  the  strain 
upon  the  spinners  is  50  per  cent  greater,  since  a  certain  number  of  helpers 
are  provided.  Nevertheless  the  attention  and  skill  demanded  are  much 
greater  than  was  formerly  the  case.  Such  examples  make  it  plain  that, 
with  this  increasing  intensity  of  strain  in  work,  the  hours  of  work  must 
be  correspondingly  shortened  if  the  people  are  to  be  protected  from  ruin 
of  their  health.     (Pages  74-5.) 

jahresherichte  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichtsheamten  im  Konigreich  IViirttemherg 
fiir  das  Jahr  1903.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  IViirttemherg,  1903.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1904. 

This  uncontested  fact  of  rising  claims  upon  the  physical  and  mental 
capacity  of  the  workman,  which  is  more  or  less  strikingly  evident  in  every 
department  of  labor,  has  in  recent  years  brought  the  question  of  shorter 
hours  to  the  front.  The  necessity  of  compensation  through  shorter  hours 
is  not  only  recognized  by  the  inspectors,  but  by  many  employers  as  well. 
(Page  96.) 

Handhuch    der   Arheiterwohlfahrt.     Bd.    II.  [Handbook    of   the    General 

Welfare  of  the   Working  Classes.     Vol.  II.]     Edited   by   Dr.   Otto 

Dammer.     Arbeiterschui^.      [Protection  of   Working    People.]      Dr. 
AscHER.    Stuttgart,  Enke,  1902. 

The  long  working  hours  also  explain  the  well-known  fact  that  waiters 
and  waitresses  are  "used  up"  at  a  comparatively  early  age.  .  .  .  The 
effect  of  work  carried  on  during  long  hours  in  badly  ventilated  places  is 


GERMANY 


326 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


also  important.  .  .  .  It  is  clear  that  many  of  these  evils  can  be  remedied 
only  by  shortening  the  working  hours.     (Page  70.) 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


Gesammelte  Ahhandlungen.  Bd.  III.  {Complete  Works.  Vol.  III.] 
Die  Volkswirthschaftliche  Bedeutung  der  Verkuriung  des  Industriellen 
Arheitstages.  [The  Economic  Significance  of  a  Shorter  IVorking  Day.] 
Ernst  Abbe.  Paper  read  before  the  Political  Society  at  Jena  in  1901. 
Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 

On  the  one  hand,  it  must  be  admitted  that  daily  monotonous  labor  has 
a  stupefying  influence;  on  the  other,  that  technical  and  scientific  demands 
create  a  continuous  strain  upon  intelligence;  hence  there  is  only  one  way 
to  restore  a  balance: — by  giving  some  opportunity  for  natural  intelligence 
to  develop,  by  concentrating  daily  toil  into  the  shortest  possible  time  and 
leaving  the  longest  possible  time  for  rest  and  intellectual  stimulus,  that 
people  may  not  be  made  stupid,  but,  in  spite  of  the  monotony  of  their 
daily  tasks,  may  retain  the  capacity  for  interest  in  other  things.  (Pages 
237-238.) 

Sixth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography,  Vienna,  1887. 
Part  XIV.  Vol.  I.  Fabrikhygiene  und  Geset^gebung.  [Factory 
Hygiene  and  Legislation.]  Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Swiss  Factory 
Inspector.     Vienna,  1887. 

The  late  evening  hours  of  work  running  into  the  night  are  bitterly 
complained  of.  .  .  .  But  however  desirable,  exclusion  of  women  from 
factories  is  impossible.  .  .  .  One  thing,  however,  is  certain, — the  need  of 
special  protection  for  women,  as  well  as  for  children,  becomes  more  and 
more  pressing.     (Pages  29-30.) 


Untersuchungen  iiber  die  Gesundheitsverhdltnisse  der  Fabrikbevolkerung 
der  Schweii.  [Investigations  into  the  Conditions  of  Health  of  the  Swiss 
Factory  IVorkers.]  Dr.  Fridolin  Schuler,  Swiss  Factory  Inspector, 
and  Dr.  A.  E.  Burckhardt,  Professor  of  Hygiene,  Basle.  Aarau, 
Sauerldnder ,  1889. 

There  are  quite  definite  types  of  illness  which  are  prominent  in  women 
workers.  First  of  all  are  to  be  mentioned  constitutional  ailments,  anaemia, 
chlorosis,  general  weakness.  They  are  especially  characteristic  of  working 
women  under  30  years  and  are  frequent  also  in  later  years,  giving  an  aver- 
age of  10  per  cent  to  17  per  cent  of  all  disabilities.     It  is  true  that  the 


THE  remedy:  shorter  hours  327 

physique  of  woman  predisposes  her  more  readily  to  these  disorders,  but    switzer- 

besides  that,  her  generally  inferior  power  of  resistance  to  unhealthy  in-   ^^^^ 

fluences  must  not  be  overlooked.     When  it  is  remembered  how  long  may 

be  the  duration  of  constitutional  disease,  it  almost  seems  as  if  women 

should  be  excluded  from  mills  and  factories,  or  at  least  their  entrance  to 

them  made  more  difficult.     As  to  shut  them  out  is  a  social  impossibility, 

it  follows  that  their  conditions  must  be  improved,  and  they  themselves 

must  be  protected,  whether  this  shall  be  done  by  raising  the  working  age, 

or  by  lowering  the  maximum  hours  per  day,  or  by  earlier  Saturday  closing 

is  not  to  be  superficially  decided.     (Page  170.) 

Massachusetts  Senate  Documents.     No.  33.     1874.  united 

STATES 

The  Committee  on  the  Labor  Question,  to  whom  was  referred  so  much 
of  the  Governor's  address  as  relates  to  Labor  Reform,  having  considered 
so  much  thereof  as  pertains  to  the  enactment  of  a  ten  hour  law,  and 
having  also  considered  the  petition  of  Wendell  Phillips  and  others  for 
the  passage  of  such  a  law,  Report: 

That  the  advocates  of  a  reduction  of  the  present  hours  of  labor  in 
textile  manufactories  claim,  and  produce  evidence  to  show,  that  ten  hours 
is  as  long  as  females  or  children  should  be  required,  or  allowed,  to  work 
in  the  close  confinement  of  the  mills,  if  the  Commonwealth  has  any  interest 
in  insuring  a  healthy  and  intelligent  posterity;  that  working  eleven  and 
twelve  hours  a  day  in  these  factories  saps  the  energies  and  produces  a 
depression  of  spirits  that  find  relief  only  in  the  indulgence  of  intoxi- 
cants. 

They  claim  that  the  only  remedy  for  these  evils  is  to  diminish  the  hours 
of  labor.     (Page  \.) 

Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission.     Final  Report.     Vol. 
XIX.     1902. 

It  is  certain  that  any  programme  for  reducing  this  intensity  of  exertion 
must  fail.  The  entire  tendency  of  industry  is  in  the  direction  of  an  in- 
creased exertion.  Any  restrictions  on  output  must  work  to  the  disad- 
vantage of  American  industry,  and  the  employers  are  often  right  in  their 
demand,  usually  successful,  that  such  restrictions  be  abandoned.  This 
being  true,  there  is  but  one  alternative  if  the  working  population  is  to  be 
protected  in  its  health  and  trade  longevity,  namely,  a  reduction  of  the 
hours  of  labor.     (Page  764.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


328 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


IVealth  and  Progress.     George  Gunton.     New  York,  Appleton,  1887. 

In  proportion  as  the  use  of  improved  machinery  is  extended,  and  the 
specialization  of  labor  is  increased,  does  this  labor  become  physically 
and  nervously  more  exhausting;  and  in  proportion  as  this  pressure  in- 
creases, unless  the  working  time  is  correspondingly  reduced,  the  laborer's 
susceptibility  to  the  refining  and  elevating  influences  of  his  social  environ- 
ment is  lessened  and  his  leisure  moments  find  him  dull  and  indifferent  to 
all  moral  and  political  influences.     (Page  359.) 


Industrial  Conference  under  the  Auspices  of  the  National  Civic  Federation. 
New  York,  1902.  The  Eight-hour  Day.  Prof.  George  Gunton,  In- 
stitute of  Social  Economics.     New  York,  The  IVinthrop  Press,  1903. 

The  factory  system  makes  this  (shortening  hours)  more  and  more 
necessary  in  proportion  as  it  is  perfected  in  its  mechanism.  It  becomes 
all  the  time  more  and  more  exacting.  The  greater  the  perfection  of  the 
machinery  or  the  method,  the  more  attention  is  required.     (Page  173.) 

The  remedy  for  this  cannot  be  found  in  slackening  up  on  the  demands 
for  economic  output  and  effectiveness  in  the  machinery.  .  .  .  The  remedy 
for  that  must  come  on  the  other  side,  shortening  the  day,  not  slackening 
the  effort.  The  tension  may  not  be  lessened,  but  the  hours  may  be  re- 
duced. The  exhaustion  on  the  laborer  must  be  avoided,  but  it  cannot  be 
avoided  by  reducing  production  .  .  .  they  must  have  relief  by  lessening 
the  duration  of  the  pressure  every  day.     (Pages  174-175.) 


C.     The  Method:    Legislation 

Experience  has  shown  that  legislation  is  necessary  to 
protect  women  from  excessive  working  hours;  and  that 
such  legal  limitation  of  hours  is  the  most  direct,  most  effec- 
tive, and  most  satisfactory  method  of  protection,  for  all 
concerned. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


British   Sessional   Papers.     Vol.   XX.     1846.     Reports   of  Inspectors   of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1845. 

The  system  involved  in  these  two  alterations  (i.  e.  restriction  on  the 
labour  of  female  adults  and  on  children),  and  now  so  generally,  I  may  say 
universally  approved,  as  practically  beneficial  as  well  to  employers  as 


THE  method:    legislation  329 

employed  had  been  long  practised  by  a  large  and  influential  body  of  mill-  great 
occupiers;   nevertheless,  1  do  not  believe  there  is  a  single  individual  who  ^^"^^^ 
has  been  acquainted  with  the  proceedings  in  these  cases,  but  will  allow 
that  it  would  have  been  vain  to  hope  either  the  restriction  on  children  or 
on  women  would  have  become  general,  or  could  have  been  enforced,  with- 
out a  legislative  provision  on  the  subject.     (Page  24.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXII.     1849.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1848. 

No  one  doubts  that  the  longer  manufacturing  machinery  is  kept  in 
motion,  the  greater  will  be  the  produce;  and  if  it  could  be  kept  going  all 
the  24  hours  of  each  day,  without  compromising  the  physical  and  moral 
health  of  the  human  beings  by  which  it  is  worked,  no  one  would  dream  of 
interfering  with  it.  But  .  .  .  the  Legislature  has  decided  that  such 
persons  shall  be  protected  agamst  the  temptations  held  out  to  them  by  the 
capitalist  to  work  in  a  manner  that  is  inconsistent  with  a  sound  healthy 
state  of  the  population  morally  and  physically.  That  is  the  whole  ques- 
tion; it  is  a  legislative  interference  demanded  by  a  strong,  overruling 
moral  necessity,  superior  to  all  considerations  of  wealth.     (Page  7.) 

British   Sessional   Papers.     Vol.    XX.     1865.     Reports   of  Inspectors   of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1864. 

The  condition  of  the  persons  employed — shows  the  absolute  necessity 
for  supervision,  and  has  strengthened  my  opinion — that  free  labour  (if 
so  it  may  be  termed)  even  in  a  free  country,  requires  the  strong  arm  of  the 
law  to  protect  it  from  the  cupidity  and  ignorance  of  parents;  on  all  hands 
there  appears  the  evidence  that  most  of  the  workshops  of  this  great  com- 
mercial country  are  found  to  have  fallen  into  the  inevitable  track  of  com- 
petitive industry  when  unrestricted  by  law,  namely,  to  cheapen  prices  by 
the  employment  of  women  and  children  in  the  first  instance,  and  then  to 
increase  production  by  protracted  hours  of  work  without  much  regard  to 
age,  sex,  or  physical  capability,  or  to  the  need  of  social  requirements. 
(Page  34.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XII.     1886.     Report  from  Select  Com- 
mittee on  Shop  Hours  Regulation  Bill.     Special  Report. 

The  great  majority  of  witnesses  expressed  their  opinion  that  though 
voluntary  action  had  effected  much  improvement,  little  could  be  expected 


330  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  from  it  in  the  poorer  neighborhood  and  that  nothing  short  of  legislation 

BRITAIN  ij  u       fl-     .• 

would  be  effective.  .  .  . 

fVitness,  Thomas  Sutherst,  Chairman  of  the  Shop  Hours'  League: 

441.  Are  you  acquainted  with  the  Early  Closing  Association,  so  called? 
—Yes. 

442.  .  .  . — I  believe  that  that  Association  has  done  a  considerable 
deal  of  good;  but  why,  1  think,  their  efforts  are  inadequate  to  cope  with 
the  evil  is,  because  they  have  been  in  existence  for  40  years,  and  have  not 
called  in  the  aid  of  legislation,  and  the  hours  have  not  been  permanently 
curtailed  to  any  appreciable  extent,  whilst  in  the  case  of  the  artizans  and 
mechanics  whose  labour  has  directly  or  indirectly  been  influenced  by  legis- 
lation, their  hours  have  been  reduced  to  56  per  week.  Therefore  1  argue 
from  that,  that  with  the  best  intentions,  and  after  working  very  hard  the 
Early  Closing  Association  has  failed  to  effect  that  curtailment  of  the  hours 
which  is  necessary  to  meet  the  evils  resulting  from  them.  .  .  . 

The  Hygiene  Diseases,  and  Mortality  of  Occupation.     J.  T.  Arlidge,  M.D., 
A.B.,  F.R.C.P.     London,  Percival,  1892. 

.  .  .  When  labor  is  performed  in  factories  and  shops  with  over-heated 
and  impure  air,  where  the  workmen  are  subjected  to  excessive  heat,  to 
steam  and  noxious  vapors  and  gases,  to  abounding  dust,  to  industrial 
details  involving  strain  upon  the  attention  and  mental  wear,  then  what 
may  be  called  an  artificial  limit  to  the  duration  of  labour  is  called  for,  in- 
asmuch as  muscular  fatigue  has  conjoined  with  it  incidents  which  add  an 
intensity  to  it  as  a  health  factor.     (Pages  49-50.) 

Women  in  the  Printing  Trades.     Edited  hy  ].  R.  MacDonald.     London, 
King,  1904. 

Some  employers,  like  Mr.  Bell,  admit  candidly  enough  that  legislation 
enables  them  to  be  more  humane  (and  humanity  in  this  respect  pays) 
than  they  could  otherwise  afford  to  be.  The  Act  is  "a  great  relief,"  such 
an  employer  has  said.  "Legislation  is  an  excellent  thing;  existing  hours 
are  quite  long  enough.  If  a  person  has  not  done  her  work  by  the  time 
they  are  up,  she  never  will  do  it."  "The  Factory  Acts  are  a  very  good 
thing,"  another  has  said.  .  .  .  "Legislation  is  a  very  good  thing.  I 
don't  believe  in  long  hours.  Employers  are  often  shortsighted  and  think 
that  workers  are  like  machines — the  longer  you  work  them  the  more  they 
do;  but  this  is  not  really  the  case;  if  they  work  from  nine  to  seven  they 
have  done  as  much  as  they  are  good  for."  "  The  good  done  by  the  Factory 
Acts  has  quite  outweighed  any  evils  or  hardships."     (Page  82.) 


THE  method:    legislation  331 

Reports  of  the  Inspectors  of  Factories,  Ontario,  Canada.     1895.  CANADA 

.  .  .  There  is  nothing  so  eflfective  as  good  legislation.  It  is  through 
this  source  that  work  has  been  made  less  burdensome  for  the  laboring 
people.  It  is  not  only  occupation  that  is  needed  for  females,  but  employ- 
ment that  is  hedged  round  with  wise  laws,  so  that  the  least  possible  harm 
can  follow.     (Page  25.) 

Reports  of  the  Inspectors  of  Factories,  Ontario,  Canada.     1900. 

The  law  regulating  the  hours  of  labor  for  women  and  girls  requires  close 
attention,  if  under  existing  circumstances  women  and  girls  must  take  their 
places  as  laborers  in  factories  and  workshops,  their  health,  safety,  and 
comfort  must  not  be  left  to  chance.  Here,  if  anywhere,  the  shield  of  the 
law  must  be  invoked  against  all  preventable  causes  of  evil  and  danger 
incidental  to  such  employment.     (Page  21.) 

Annalen  des  Deutschen  Reich s.     Bd.  21.     1888.     [Annals  of  the  German   GERMANY 
Empire.     Vol.  21.]     Der  Internationale  Schuti  der  Arheiter.     [Inter- 
national Labor  Legislation.]     Dr.  George  Adler,  University  of  Frei- 
burg.    Munich  and  Leipsic,  Hirth,  1888. 

It  is  no  longer  necessary,  fortunately,  to  bring  forward  lengthy  proofs  of 
the  need  for  legal  protection  of  labor.  It  is  now  almost  universally  ad- 
mitted that  modern  conditions  of  industry  lead  to  lamentable  consequences 
for  the  workers  unless  the  state  interferes  for  their  protection.  In  the 
course  of  modern  industrial  development,  evils  arose  in  every  nation  which, 
for  millions  of  the  working  classes,  jeopardized  all  the  attainments  of 
civilization.     (Page  465.) 

Verhandlungen   des    Reichstags,    103.    Sitiung.     18.    April,   1891.     [Pro- 
ceedings of  the  {German)  Reichstag,  103rd  Session.    April  18,  1891.] 

Representative  Ulrich: 

The  right  of  organization  does  not  suffice.  .  .  .  England,  the  classic 
land  of  industry,  shows  most  plainly  that  the  struggle  between  capital 
and  labor  has  increased  in  intensity  and  that,  in  spite  of  the  right  of  com- 
bination little  has  been  gained  except  by  legislation.  Women  are  at 
present  far  less  in  position  to  protect  themselves  through  organization 
than  men,  and  consequently  we  re-double  our  efforts  to  obtain  legal  regu- 
lation of  their  labor  without  exception.  .  .  .  Female  labor  has  assumed 


332  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  enormoLis  dimensions,  and  it  should  be  the  duty  of  government  to  estab- 
lish a  normal  day,  wherewith  to  resist  an  increasing  exploitation  of  working 
women.     (Page  2411.) 

Amtliche  Mittheilungen  ans  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerhe-AufsicMs- 
heamten.  XXI .  1896.  [Official  Information  from  Reporh  of  the 
{German)   Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,   Bruer,  1897. 

The  disadvantages  resulting  from  the  fact  that  legal  protection  is  not 
extended  to  workers  outside  the  factory  are  constantly  becoming  more 
conspicuous  m  the  textile  and  clothing  trades.  It  is  becoming  obvious 
that  this  is  only  an  advantage  to  those  employers  and  middle  men  who  do 
nothing  for  the  benefit  of  their  employees,  and  it  will  be  most  unfortunate 
for  restrictive  legislation  in  this  field  to  be  so  long  delayed  that  the  present 
exploitation  of  women's  health  and  strength  shall  have  gained  the  upper 
hand  and  be  systematically  carried  on.     Diisseldorf.     (Page  265.) 

.  .  .  The  existing  conditions  call  urgently  for  protective  legislation  for 
all  young  persons  and  women  who  are  engaged  in  industry,  without  excep- 
tion.    Bayern.     (Page  265.) 

Die  Arheiterfrage.  [The  Labor  Question.]  Dr.  Heinrich  Herkner, 
Professor  of  Political  Economy  in  Karlsruhe.     Berlin,  Guttentag,  1894. 

If  it  is  concluded  that  it  be  urgent  to  reduce  the  hours  of  work  for  social, 
politico-economic,  and  moral  reasons,  then  it  is  obviously  most  effective 
to  bring  this  reduction  about  by  the  simpler  and  safer  method  of  state 
intervention.  True,  well  organized  workmen  are  able  to  win  favorable 
working  hours  for  themselves,  better  possibly  than  may  be  obtained  by 
legislation.  Yet,  because  it  is  unnecessary  to  resort  to  legislative  pro- 
tection for  a  highly  favored  elite  among  workers,  it  cannot  therefore  be 
held  as  justifiable  to  withhold  this  protection  from  that  incomparably 
larger  number  who  stand  in  much  more  urgent  need  of  protection.  A  legal 
reduction  of  hours  of  work  will  give  many  such  laborers  the  first  oppor- 
tunity they  have  ever  had  to  try  to  advance  themselves.  .  .  . 

Not  only  that  .  .  .  but  it  is  more  directly  conservative  of  public 
interests  that  reduction  of  hours  of  work  should  be  brought  about  by  legal 
enactment  than  by  the  bitter,  weary  and  destructive  method  of  industrial 
war.     (Pages  242-243.) 

Schriften  der  Gesellschaft  fUr  So^iale  Reform.  Heft  7-8.  [Publications  of 
the  Social  Reform  Society.  Nos.  7-8.]  Die  Herabset^ung  der  Arbeit- 
leit  fiir  Frauen  und  die  Erhohung  des  Schutialters  fiir  Jugendliche 


THE  method:    legislation  333 

Arheiter  in  Fahriken.     [The  Reduction  of  Women's  IVorking  Hours   GERMANY 
and  the  Raising  of  the  Legal  IVorking  Age  for  Young  Factory  Employees.] 
Dr.  August  Pieper  and  HelIne  Simon.      Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

Both  industry  and  workpeople  are  to-day,  in  Germany,  ready  for  a 
general  establishment  of  the  ten-hour  day;  but,  as  there  will  always  be 
short-sighted  and  unintelligent  employers,  the  limitation  of  working  hours 
should  not  be  left  to  them,  but,  in  consideration  of  its  vast  importance, 
first  for  the  worker  but  ultimately  for  industry  and  for  the  whole  nation, 
it  should  be  regarded  as  an  imperative  duty  of  the  state  to  end  all  con- 
troversy by  a  general  statute.     (Page  73.) 

Royaume   de   Belgique.     Commission   du    Travail.     Instituee   par  Arrete  BELGIUM 
Royal  du  15  Avril,  1886.     [Royal  Belgian  Labor  Commission,  1886] 
Reponses  au  Questionnaire  concernant  le  Travail  Industnel.     T.  /. 
[Questions  and  Answers  on  Industrial  Work.     Vol.  I.]     Brussels,  1887. 

Question  15.  As  to  length  of  hours  and  regulation  of  work  of  women 
and  children,  etc. 

Answer:  1194.  .  .  .  For  many  years  the  need  of  regulating  the  labor 
of  women,  children,  and  even  adult  men,  in  factories,  mills,  and  work- 
places, has  been  acknowledged.  .  .  .  Even  giving  full  weight  to  objections 
interposed  on  grounds  of  liberty  ...  1  believe  that  such  legislation  is 
becoming  more  indispensable  every  day.  .  .  ,  Without  interfering  with 
the  needs  of  industry,  could  we  not  advantageously  fix  intervals  of  rest 
for  adult  workers,  and  above  all  for  youthful  workers,  women  and  chil- 
dren. .  .  .  (The  Governor  of  West  Flanders.)     (Pages  153  and  154.) 

1195.     We  need  legal  restrictions.     Simple  justice  demands  it. 

Above  all  we  need  to  prevent  by  legislation  the  excess  of  work  to  which 
1  have  (previously)  alluded.  (Countess  de  Stainlein-Saalenstein.)  (Page 
154.) 


Royaume  de  Belgique.  Conseil  Superieur  du  Travail,  9^  Session.  1907. 
[Belgian  Higher  Council  of  Labor.  1907.]  Reglementation  de  la 
Duree  du  Travail  des  AduUes.  [Regulation  of  Hours  of  Work  for 
Adults.]     Brussels,  1907. 

M.  G.  Helleputte: 

Many  wish  that  private  initiative  should  effect  a  general  reduction  of 
hours.     We  shall  not  hesitate  to  contest  this.  .  .  . 

Private  initiative,  however  well  meaning,  is  not  sufficient  to  shorten 


334  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

BELoroM  hours  of  work.     For  isolated  efforts  are  naturally  powerless  to  act  suc- 

cessfully in  opposition  to  competing  interests  and  even  if  they  could  oppose 
the  majority  without  injury,  prejudices  and  timidity  often  prevent  them 
from  assuming  the  risk.  The  first  employer,  who,  merely  for  his  own 
profit,  compelled  his  workmen  to  work  at  night,  deprived  them  of  the 
weekly  day  of  rest  and  imposed  exhausting  hours  of  work  on  them,  was 
guilty  of  treason  to  humanity;  but  those  who  came  after  him  were  not 
always  free  to  do  otherwise  than  he  did.  .  .  .  Private  initiative  being 
powerless,  must  we  resign  ourselves  to  the  existence  of  social  wrongs: 
May  we  not  rather  appeal  to  the  social  power  whose  business  it  is  to  watch 
over  the  general  interests?     (Page  7.) 

The  academic  argument  concerning  the  liberty  of  the  individual  would 
have  much  strength  if  the  laboring  man  were  really  free  to  regulate  the 
length  of  his  working  hours  as  he  wished.  Such  liberty  may  be  enjoyed 
by  the  isolated  workman  working  for  himself,  but  wherever  men  work  in 
common,  and  above  all  where  they  work  at  different  parts  of  the  same 
product,  the  length  of  their  working  hours  is  regulated  by  the  length  of 
hours  of  their  comrades,  and  this  in  turn  by  competition.  .  .  . 

The  single  workman  then  has,  in  reality,  no  power  to  decide  as  to  the 
length  of  his  working  day.     (Page  10.) 

Les  Projcis  de  Limitation  de  la  Diiree  du  Travail  des  Adultes  en  Belgique. 
[Proposals  regarding  Limitation  of  Hours  of  IVork  for  Adults  in  Bel- 
gium.] Hector  Denis.  No.  X  of  the  publications  of  the  Belgian 
Section  of  the  International  Association  for  Labor  Legislation.  Liege, 
Benard,  1908. 

Agreement  (in  the  discussion  in  Parliament,  i896,  on  the  report  made 
by  M.  Van  Cauwenberg  on  labor  legislation)  was  unanimous  as  to  the 
principle  underlying  the  intervention  of  law  in  labor  agreements.  It  was 
recognized  as  legitimate  to  prevent  abuse  of  the  laborer's  strength.  (Page 
6.) 

It  was  recognized  that  the  individual  workman's  position  is  less  inde- 
pendent than  that  of  the  employer  .  .  .  that,  therefore,  contract  is  not 
entirely  free  ...  it  was  generally  admitted  that  organization  is  not  yet 
sufficiently  well  developed  to  equalize  the  workman's  freedom  in  contract 
and  no  one  wished  to  delay  (until  organization  should  become  so  devel- 
oped) a  reform  which  is  held  to  be  indispensable  to  the  conservation  of 
health  and  to  the  physical  and  moral  progress  of  the  working  population. 
(Page  6.) 


THE  method:    legislation  335 

Berichie  der  eidg.  Fabrik  und  Bergwerkinspektoren  iiher  ihre  Amtst'dtigheit  swiTZER- 
in    den    Jahren    1902-1903.     {Reports    of   the    {Swiss)    Factory  and 
Mine  Inspectors.     1902-3.]     Aaran,  Sauerldnder,  1904. 

Women  and  children  have  profited  least  from  the  rapidly  progressing 
voluntary  reduction  of  working  hours.  Here  it  seems  to  me,  is  a  sign 
pointing  plainly  in  the  direction  that  legislators  need  to  take  and  that  they 
must  take.     (Page  68.) 

Proceedings  of  the  Fifth  Meeting  of  the  International  Association  for  Labor 
Legislation.  Lucerne,  1908.  Proposition  of  the  Commission  on  the 
Maximum  Day.     Herr  Griesberts.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

2.  In  addition  to  the  gains  secured  or  likely  to  be  secured  by  organiza- 
tion, the  intervention  of  legislation  is  essential  in  order  to  make  possible 
the  general  establishment  of  a  maximum  working  day.     (Page  82.) 

Massachusetts   House   Document.     No.    185.     1852.     Minority   report   on  EI^ISS 
sundry  petitions  for  legislation  limiting  hours  of  labor. 

While  the  men,  employed  in  machine  shops,  have  political  power, 
which  makes  them  feared  and  enables  them  to  demand  justice,  the  women 
of  the  factories  have  none  of  this  influence,  and  consequently  are  at  the 
mercy  of  their  employers.  .  .  .  The  legislation  of  this  State  is  nobly  dis- 
tinguished for  the  regard  which  it  has  paid  to  the  infirm,  the  insane,  the 
idiotic,  and  the  criminal.  But  it  has  done  very  little  to  preserve  the 
health  and  strength  of  its  own  people.     (Page  9.) 

Massachusetts  House  Document.  No.  122.  1853.  Minority  report  on 
regulation  of  hours  of  labor  in  establishments  of  incorporated  corporations. 

The  vast  inequality  of  condition,  as  to  power  and  influence,  between 
the  corporate  employers  and  their  employees,  leaves  no  possible  ground 
for  hope  that  the  hours  of  labor  can  ever  be  reduced  by  the  efforts  of  the 
operative  classes,  unaided  by  the  legislature.     (Page  4.) 

In  considering  the  expediency  of  the  proposed  legislation,  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind,  that  the  corporations  are  creatures  of  the  legislature, — 
that  the  promotion  of  the  public  welfare  was  the  end  and  aim  of  their 
creation,  and  that  the  stockholders  have  by  no  means  an  exclusive  in- 
terest in  their  management  and  control.  The  power  that  created  cor- 
porations is  in  duty  bound  to  control  them,  and  put  them  under  such  regu- 
lations and  restrictions  as  will  best  promote  the  public  welfare.     (Page  5.) 


336  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Report  of  the  New  Jersey  Inspector  of  Factories  and  Workshops.     1885. 

STATES 

Regulation  of  Women's  Labor.  A  legal  regulation  of  the  employment 
of  women  in  manufactories  has  become  a  pressing  necessity  in  the  interest 
of  justice  and  humanity.     (Page  44.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  State  Factory  Inspector.     1887. 

.  .  .  .A.S  the  law  does  not  fortify  them  in  their  objections  to  overtime, 
they  dare  not  openly  protest.  We  think  that  an  investigation  would 
satisfy  any  one  that  ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  females  working  in  the 
State,  who  are  over  twenty-one  years  of  age,  favor  a  limitation,  by  law, 
of  their  hours  of  labor  to  sixty  a  week,  and  were  they  organized  that  would 
be  one  of  the  first  rules  they  would  adopt  and  enforce.     (Page  27.) 


New    Hampshire.     Governor's    Message,    1887.     Governor    Chas.     H. 
Sawyer. 

While  it  would  be  unwise  and  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  our  institutions 
for  the  State  to  make  laws  that  would  interfere  with  the  freedom  of  in- 
dividuals, in  the  transaction  of  a  lawful  business,  to  buy  or  sell  when  or 
where,  with  whom  and  upon  such  conditions  as  may  suit  their  own  will 
and  convenience,  yet  it  is  right  and  proper  to  establish  such  limitations 
by  general  and  practical  laws  and  regulations  as  will  serve  to  protect  the 
worker  from  undue  hardships,  which  often  result  from  business  competi- 
tion.    (Page  8.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Factory  Inspector.     1893. 

The  tendency  of  the  age  is  toward  a  shorter  work-day  for  all  classes  of 
workers.  The  employees  of  the  State  and  of  several  cities  in  the  State 
have  had  eight-hour  laws  passed  for  their  benefit,  and  the  trade  organiza- 
tions, composed  mainly  of  men,  are  agitating  for  the  establishment  of  an 
eight-hour  work-day,  and  some  of  them  have  already  succeeded  in  getting 
it.  The  others  will  no  doubt  succeed  in  time.  But  the  women,  who  are 
a  constantly  increasing  element  in  industrial  life,  and  the  children,  who 
are  certainly  entitled  to  all  the  legal  benefits  possible  to  bestow,  cannot 
organize  successfully  to  obtain  a  reduction  of  their  hours  of  labor,  although 
from  a  physical  standpoint,  at  least,  they  are  more  entitled  to  considera- 
tion in  this  direction  than  are  the  members  of  the  trades  unions  as  a  rule. 
An  illustration  of  the  need  of  legislative  assistance  to  obtain  for  women 


THE  method:    legislation  337 

and  children  an  equal  work-day  with  the  organized  members  of  the  same  united 
trades  is  seen  in  the  cigarmaking  business. 

The  Cigarmakers'  Union  has  for  a  number  of  \ears  enforced  an  eight- 
hour  work-day  among  its  membership,  which  comprises  a  vast  majority 
of  the  journeymen  of  that  trade.  The  women  and  children,  who  are 
employed  as  strippers,  however,  who  have  no  union,  and  who  are  the 
poorest  paid  workers  in  the  trade,  must  work  for  the  same  employers  two 
hours  longer  each  day.  Their  work  is  just  as  laborious  and  confining  as 
the  actual  making  of  cigars,  and,  to  them,  comparatively  more  unhealthy 
than  cigarmaking  is  to  cigarmakers. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  the  women  and  children  can  onl\-  look  to 
the  legislature  to  obtain  the  relief  which  nature  and  existing  industrial 
conditions  demand  for  them.     (Pages  25-26.) 

Report  of  Chief  of  Massachusetts  District  Police.     1894. 

While  great  reforms  have  been  made  in  legislation  in  the  last  few  years 
in  the  interest  of  women  emplo\'ed  as  operatives  and  in  similar  ways,  there 
are  special  reasons  wh}'  incessant  vigilance  must  be  exercised  to  secure 
for  them  adequate  protection  from  injustice,  and  the  best  attainable  sani- 
tary conditions.  If  any  considerable  number  of  men  so  employed  suffer 
from  preventable  evils,  arising  from  conditions  adverse  to  their  welfare 
in  any  respect,  they  have  the  means  of  immediate  and  sure  correction. 
They  may  alter,  amend,  or  make  laws  to  remove  their  grievances  and  better 
their  condition  as  workmen.  It  is  not  claimed  that  the  Commonwealth 
is  indifferent  to  the  welfare  of  women  employees, — the  legislation  in  pro- 
tection of  their  rights  as  workwomen  shows  the  contrary;  but  because  they 
cannot  by  direct  and  personal  effort  shape  the  laws  intended  to  protect 
wage-earners,  it  is  incumbent  upon  us  to  secure  the  best  possible  conditions 
of  employment  for  them.     (Pages  75-76.) 

Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission  on  the  Relations  and 
Conditions  of  Capital  and  Labor  Employed  in  Manufactures  and 
General  Business.  Vol.  VII.  1900.  Testimony  of  Mrs.  Fanny  B. 
Ames,  former  Factory  Inspector  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

We  may  find  that  it  is  desirable  in  time  to  do  by  law  what  a  few  persons 
are  doing  voluntarily.  It  is  in  that  way  that  the  original  ten-hour  law 
was  tried  tentatively  in  England;  a  few  manufacturers  tested  the  matter 
in  their  own  factories  and  found  that  their  people  could  do  as  much  in  ten 
hours  as  they  theretofore  had  been  doing  in  twelve  and  thirteen;  that 
made  the  law  seem  reasonable.     (Page  64.) 

22* 


338  FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  oj  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.     1907- 

STATES  ^ggg      p^^^  jjj      Jn(justrial  Hygiene  and  the  Police  Power.     Being 

a  Reprint  of  a  Paper  on  the  Legitimate  Exercise  of  the  Police  Power  for 
the  Protection  of  Health.     By  Henry  Baird  Favill,  M.D. 

Voluntary  effort  inadequate.  It  is  not  likely  that  mere  voluntary  and 
even  co-operative  regulation  is  the  best  solution.  Rules  applied  to  an 
industrial  establishment,  which  are  not  purely  related  to  the  immediate 
product  of  industry  are  difficult  of  enforcement  and  liable  to  controversy. 
There  is  no  prospect  of  such  general  development  of  intelligence  and  co- 
operative spirit  amongst  employers  as  will  ensure  sufficient  uniformity  of 
process.  There  is  no  way  to  ensure  the  acceptance  on  the  part  of  laborers 
of  conditions  which  may  be  to  them  distasteful,  except  through  authority 
backed  up  by  universal  custom.  There  is  no  reasonable  doubt  that  it  is 
in  the  interest  of  employers,  not  only  from  an  economic  standpoint,  but  in 
respect  to  the  practicability  of  instituting  reform,  that  these  measures  be 
mandatory  and  the  expression  of  a  very  radical  state  policy.     (Page  483.) 

Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor.  No.  80.  January,  1909. 
Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  Great  Britain.  Victor  S.  Clark, 
Ph.D. 

Even  where  hours  of  work  are  shorter  than  those  permitted  by  law  the 
factory  acts  applying  to  them  still  serve  a  purpose.  The  poor  economy 
of  excessive  factory  hours  is  now  understood;  but  it  is  a  truth  that  has  to 
be  learned  anew  by  so  many  employers,  and  there  are  so  many  particular 
and  temporary  exceptions  to  its  general  application  that  abuses,  though 
infrequent,  can  be  checked  only  by  statute.  Laundries  have  recently  been 
made  subject  to  factory  regulation.  Evidence  showed  that  prior  to  this 
women  were  obliged  to  work  in  them  beyond  normal  hours,  and  occasion- 
ally even  to  the  limit  of  physical  endurance.  And  while  legislation  is  not 
the  sole  cause  for  the  shorter  working-day  of  women  and  children,  and 
might  not  have  secured  this  end  without  other  assisting  influences,  it  has 
been  a  potent  cause,  and  without  this  legal  intervention  conditions  in  some 
industries  might  not  have  improved  materially  during  the  past  century. 
(Page  53.) 

Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics.  Vol.  II.  Francis  A.  Walker, 
Ph.D.,  LL.D.     The  Eight-hour  Law  Agitation.     New  York,  Holt,  1899. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  let  it  be  said  that  there  is  no  fatal  objection  to 
the  intervention  of  the  state  in  the  contract  for  labor.    The  traditional 


GENERAL    BENEFIT   TO    COMMERCIAL    PROSPERITY  339 

position  of  the  economists  in  antagonism  to  such  legislation  upon  prin-  united 

STATES 

ciple,  is  one  which  ought  never  to  have  been  taken,  and  which  cannot  be 
maintained.  The  factory  acts  of  England,  which  have  become  a  model  to 
the  world,  are  in  themselves  a  monument  of  prudent,  far-seeing,  truly  wise 
statesmanship,  which  employs  the  powers  of  the  State  to  defend  its  citi- 
zenship against  deep  and  irreparable  injuries,  and  truly  helps  the  people 
to  help  themselves.  .  .  . 

If  one  course  gives  a  man  a  legal  right  to  do  anything,  but  results  in 
his  being  so  helpless,  and  brings  him  into  such  miserable  straits  that  he 
can,  in  fact,  do  but  one  thing,  and  that  thing  which  is  most  distressing; 
while  another  course,  although  it  may  keep  a  man  somewhat  within 
bounds,  actually  conducts  him  to  a  position  where  he  has  a  real  choice 
among  many  and  good  things,  which  course  affords  the  larger  liberty? 

.  .  .  Theoretically,  he  will  not  work  in  any  mill  where  he  is  not  well 
treated,  where  the  sanitary  arrangements  are  not  at  least  tolerable, 
where  machinery  is  not  fenced  to  prevent  death  and  mutilation,  and  where 
the  hours  of  labor  are  not  kept  within  the  limits  of  health  and  strength. 
Certainly,  he  will  not  do  this  if  he  be  really  free.  Practically,  however, 
in  the  absence  of  factory  legislation,  the  operative  will  have  no  choice  but 
to  work  as  long  as  the  great  wheel  turns,  be  that  ten  hours,  as  so  generally 
now,  or  twelve  or  fourteen,  or  sixteen,  as  in  the  days  before  the  factory 
laws;  he  will  see  his  companions  bruised  and  mangled  by  unguarded 
machinery;  he  will  all  the  time  breathe  air  deeply  laden  with  poisonous 
particles  or  deadly  gases.     (Pages  380-382.) 


IV.     ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF  REGULATION 

A.     General  Benefit  to  Commercial  Prosperity 

The  experience  of  those  manufacturing  countries  which 
have  longest  had  legal  regulation  of  working  hours  for 
women  shows  that  commercial  prosperity  is  not  hampered 
by  such  regulation.  The  increased  efficiency  of  the  workers 
due  to  shorter  working  hours,  together  with  the  general 
improvement  of  industrial  communities  in  physique  and 
morals,  react  so  favorably  upon  output  that  commercial 
prosperity  is  heightened  rather  than  impaired  by  legal 
limitation  of  hours. 


340  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXV I.     1847-1848.     Reports  of  Inspec- 

tors of  Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1848. 

Many  occupiers  of  factories,  who  were  originally  adverse  to  legislative 
interference,  have,  again  and  again,  stated  to  me  that  they  had  seen  reason 
to  alter  their  opinions;  that  the  restriction  of  the  labor  of  young  persons 
and  women  has  had  a  very  beneficial  influence  upon  the  factory  popula- 
tion, and  the  vast  increase  in  the  number  and  extent  of  cotton  mills,  which 
has  taken  place  since  1834,  is  a  convincing  proof  that  it  could  not  have 
had  any  injurious  effects  upon  trade.     (Page  4.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXIII.     1850.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1850. 

I  am  happy  to  be  able  to  give  some  strong  proofs  that  the  Ten  Hours' 
Act  has  not  been  productive  of  those  ruinous  consequences  to  trade  which 
some  predicted  would  inevitably  follow,  and  that  it  has  not  had  the  effect 
of  deterring  persons  from  entering  into  the  business  and  investing  fresh 
capital  in  it,  whether  in  building  new  mills  or  in  extending  works  already 
existing,  from  an  apprehension  that  ten  hours'  work  could  not  yield  a 
remunerative  profit.  There  are  many  instances  of  additional  machinery 
where  there  was  previously  unemployed  power,  and  numerous  instances  of 
a  change  in  the  firm,  implying  also  new  investments  of  capital.  And  if 
we  take  into  account  the  vast  increase  since  1834,  not  only  of  cotton  mills, 
but  of  woolen,  worsted,  flax,  and  silk  factories,  it  may  be  confidently 
maintained  that  the  legislative  restrictions  imposed  in  that  year  and  since, 
while  they  have  vastly  improved  the  condition  of  the  operatives  employed 
in  them,  cannot  be  charged  with  having  thrown  impediments  in  the  way 
of  a  steadily  progressive  improvement  in  all  these  branches  of  trade. 
(Pages  5-6.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XL.     1852-1853.     Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories  for  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1853. 

If  those  who  in  1833  predicted  (and  there  were  some  of  great  authority 
among  our  political  economists  who  did  so)  the  ruin  of  our  manufacturers 
if  the  then  proposed  restrictions  on  factory  labour  were  adopted,  will  now 
fairly  and  candidly  look  at  the  results  of  this  great  practical  experiment 
in  legislation,  whether  in  relation  to  the  improved  condition  of  the  factory 
workers,  or  to  the  increase  of  mills  and  to  the  fortunes  since  made  in  every 
department  of  manufacture  subject  to  the  law,  they  must,  I  think,  admit 
that  they  have  seen  ground  to  make  them  pause  before  they  in  future  con- 


GENERAL    BENEFIT   TO   COMMERCIAL    PROSPERITY  34I 

demn  measures  for  elevating  the  moral  and  social  condition  of  the  hum-  great 
bier  classes  by  the  regulation  of  their  labour,  as  being  opposed  to  principle;     ^ 
for  the  factory  legislation  has  been  proved  to  be  in  entire  accordance  with 
principle,  even  with  that  of  the  production  of  wealth,  when  the  term  prin- 
ciple is  understood  in  an  enlarged  and  comprehensive  sense.     (Page  21.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVIII.     1856.     Report  oj  Inspector  of 
Factories  for  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1855. 

So  far  from  this  protection  to  children,  young  persons,  and  women 
having  done  injury  to  trade,  all  the  branches  subject  to  the  law  have 
prospered  and  as  regards  cotton  factories  to  an  extent  that  they  have  been 
multiplied  by  at  least  one-fourth  since  the  Act  of  1833  came  into  opera- 
tion. .  .  .  The  Factory  Act  of  1833  set  the  bold  example  to  other  nations 
of  a  great  manufacturing  country  limiting  in  the  face  of  formidable  com- 
petitors the  hours  of  labour  in  factories  for  the  manufacture  of  textile 
fabrics.  The  example  of  England  had  followers  on  the  continent.  Other 
countries  in  which  the  evils  of  unrestricted  and  excessive  labour  in  fac- 
tories had  become  apparent,  though  the  evils  had  become  apparent  to  the 
Governments  under  different  circumstances  from  those  which  excited 
attention  in  England,  acknowledged  that  the  limitation  of  the  hours  of 
labour  within  moderate  bounds  was  as  necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the 
population  as  it  had  proved  to  be  in  England,  and  might  be  carried  out 
with  as  little  risk  to  the  general  prosperity  of  the  manufacturer  as  it  had 
been  in  England.     (Page  57.) 

A  vast  number  of  the  employers  of  labour  assert  the  soundness  of  the 
principle  of  limiting  the  duration  of  labour  and  the  development  of  the 
principle  in  this  country  has  certainly  attracted  followers  rather  than 
created  opponents.  .  .  .  The  factory  laws  were  enacted  for  the  benefit 
of  the  employed,  but  under  the  full  persuasion  that  they  would  prove 
innocuous  to  the  interests  of  the  employers,  that  anticipation,  I  believe, 
has  in  the  main  been  verified;  and  in  referring  to  the  factory  laws  of 
France  and  their  operation,  I  speak  as  fully  persuaded  that  the  uniform 
application  of  the  principle  of  limited  interference  between  employer  and 
employed  is  advantageous  to  both,  and  certainly  not  mischievous  to  the 
former.     (Pages  76-77.) 

British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XII.     1859.     Report    of    Inspector    of 
Factories  for  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1858. 

It  is  most  satisfactory  to  reflect  that  the  experience  of  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  century  has  proved  the  wisdom  of  Parliament  in  this  humane  legis- 
lation; that  while  the  condition  of  persons  employed  in  factories  has  been 


342  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  greatly  improved  by  their  protection  from  excessive  labour,  the  restric- 

tions have  in  no  degree  interfered  with  the  prosperity  of  those  branches  of 
trade  to  which  the  Acts  apply,  as  I  shall  presently  show  by  the  clearest 
evidence.  ...  It  has  been  repeatedly  said  to  me  by  mill  owners  and  other 
persons  living  in  the  manufacturing  districts  that  the  Factory  Acts  have 
immensely  improved  the  character,  manners  and  general  condition  of  the 
operatives.  That  they  have  in  no  way  interfered  with  the  progress  and 
improvement  of  the  branches  of  trade  to  which  they  apply  is  demonstrated 
by  the  following  facts.  .  .  .  In  22  years  the  number  of  cotton  mills  is 
nearly  double  and  the  persons  employed  therein  more  than  doubled; 
that  the  number  of  woollen  and  worsted  mills  has  considerably  decreased, 
but  that  the  number  of  persons  employed  therein  has  more  than  doubled, 
showing  that  the  larger  mills  have  extinguished  a  considerable  proportion 
of  the  smaller  ones;  that  the  same  thing  may  be  observed,  although  in  a 
less  degree,  with  regard  to  the  flax  mills;  and  that  the  number  of  silk 
mills  has  been  doubled  and  the  number  of  persons  employed  in  them  nearly 
so.     (Pages  8-9.) 

British   Sessional   Papers.     Vol.   XXXIV.     1860.     Report  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories  for  Half-year  ending  October  31,  1859. 

The  experience  of  nearly  twenty-six  years,  extending  throughout  the 
whole  time  that  the  existing  law  has  been  in  operation,  convinces  me  that 
the  legislative  interference  for  the  regulation  of  the  labour  of  children, 
young  persons,  and  women  in  factories  is  now  viewed  by  a  great  majority 
of  the  occupiers  of  those  works  as  having  done,  and  as  continuing  to  do, 
a  great  amount  of  good  without  any  injurious  interference  with  the  pros- 
perity of  their  trade;  and  1  firmly  believe  that  if  it  were  proposed  to  repeal 
the  law  there  would  be  a  very  stout  resistance  on  the  part  of  masters,  in- 
dependently of  all  consideration  of  the  opposition  that  would  be  made  by 
the  operatives  and  of  their  own  appreciation  of  the  moral  and  social  im- 
provements which  the  law  has  effected  and  sustains.     (Page  8.) 

With  regard  to  production,  an  analysis  of  the  value  of  our  exports  in 
1858  shows  an  increase  of  £21,231,032  over  1844,  when  the  amended 
Factory  Act  came  into  operation.  Of  course  I  am  not  claiming  this  large 
increase  on  account  of  the  Factory  Acts,  far  from  it,  I  only  quote  it  to  show 
that  production  has  not  been  interfered  with  by  them.     (Page  53.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXIV.     1866.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1865. 

Moreover,  to  assume  that  so  to  limit  the  hours  of  labour  would  be  to 
destroy  any  branch  of  a  particular  trade  is  to  assume  that  we  have  arrived 


GENERAL   BENEFIT   TO   COMMERCIAL   PROSPERITY  343 

at  the  end  of  mechanical  and  chemical  science,  and  that  there  remains  no  great 

•  BRITAIIT 

more  capital  to  be  expended.  ...  In  no  trade  already  under  restriction, 
from  the  longest  possible  hours  to  60  hours'  work  a  week,  has  production 
been  diminished,  or  have  the  interests  of  the  masters  been  injuriously 
affected;  whilst  it  has  become  an  axiom  that  overwork  is  never  good  work, 
seldom  profitable,  and  always  prejudicial  to  the  physical  and  moral  con- 
dition of  the  workers.     (Page  82.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XIV.     1868-1869.     Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories. 

In  conclusion  we  think  we  may  point  with  satisfaction  to  the  results  of 
past  legislation  in  this  direction,  seeing  that  in  spite  of  the  opposition,  and 
the  deterring  predictions  hurled  against  it,  our  commercial  intercourse  and 
prosperity  is  extending  with  a  corresponding  increase  of  national  wealth. 
(Page  314.) 

A  Shorter  IVorking  Day.     R.  A.  Hadfield,  ofHadfield's  Steel  Foundry  Co., 
Sheffield,  and  H.  de  B.  Gibbins,  M.A.     London,  Methuen,  1892. 

There  are  two  very  important  sets  of  facts  to  be  obtained  upon  this 
question  of  the  previous  effects  of  a  reduction  of  working  hours,  and  these 
facts  come,  not  from  Australia  or  any  other  country  whose  conditions 
we  might  grant  were  different  from  our  own,  but  from  England  itself. 
We  refer  to  the  results  shown  in  the  working  of  the  Factory  Acts  which 
reduced  the  hours  of  labour  not  by  one  or  two,  but  by  three,  four,  and  even 
six  hours  per  day,  and  which  nevertheless,  as  everybody  now  admits,  have 
been  of  immense  benefit,  not  only  to  the  working  classes,  but  to  the  nation 
at  large,  and  have  caused  no  decline  whatever  m  the  rate  of  production. 
.  .  .  During  the  successive  reductions  of  working  hours  the  price  of  cotton 
yarn  has  fallen  from  25.71  pence  per  pound  in  1821  to  12.82  pence  per 
pound  in  1884.     (Pages  102-103.) 

As  it  is  found  that  where  labour  is  best  paid  that  there  are  the  best  and, 
with  certain  qualifications,  the  cheapest  products,  so  also  will  it  probably 
be  as  regards  reduced  hours.     (Page  114.) 

Le  Travail  de  Nuit  dans  V Industrie.     Rapports  sur  son  importance  et  sa  GERMANY 
reglementation  legale.     Preface  par    Etienne   Bauer.    [Night  Work 
of  Women  in  Industry.     Reports  on  its  importance  and  legal  regula- 
tion..   Preface  by  Etienne   Bauer.]     La  Reglementation  legale  du 


344 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  Travail  des  Femmes  en  Allemagne. 

Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 


[German  Labor  Laws  for  Women.] 


Dr.  Fuchs,  Factory  Inspector,  Baden: 

No  fact  indicates  that  industry  suffered  any  under  the  new  regime. 
The  production  which  had  in  some  industries  been  slightly  checked  at 
first  quickly  recovered  ground,  thanks  to  the  greater  zeal  of  the  workmen. 
The  figures  of  the  following  table,  taken  from  the  statistics  of  German 
exports,  do  not  in  any  case  allow  the  assertion  that  the  legislation  exercised 
a  paralyzing  influence  on  the  industry. 


Kind  of  goods 


Cotton  goods 

Woollens 

Silks 

Vestments,  lingerie,  etc 
Silver  plate  jewelry.  .  .  . 

Toys 

Sugar 


Value  of  Exports  in  Millions  of  Marks 


1890      1891      189S 


167.7 
246.8 
175.9 
121.3 
36.1 
26.8 
216.0 


146.7 

227.8 

146.5 

67.6 

31.3 

28.4 

227.8 


154.3 

217.9 

152.6 

61.7 

23.9 

30.3 

221.2 


1894 


144.8 

186.7 

103.9 

60.4 

25.4 

29.4 

209.2 


1899 


206.1 
217.2 
142.7 
92.3 
48.7 
43.0 
203.6 


1900 


244.7 

235.8 

139.5 

99.6 

73.5 

53.4 

216.3 


There  resulted  only  certain  difficulties  and  certain  temporary  disad- 
vantages for  some  industries.  .  .  .  The  limitation  of  the  hours  of  work  is 
especially  felt  by  the  export  houses,  though  it  is  not  possible  to  state  that 
an  industry  has  been  injured.     (Pages  12,  13.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1871. 

England  has  found  that  increased  leisure  for  the  operative  has  brought 
increased  wages,  increased  invention,  increased  production,  and  increased 
consumption;  for  there  and  everywhere  the  rule  holds  good,  that  the  rise 
of  wages,  following  the  reduction  in  hours  of  work,  gives  a  brisker  market. 
There  is  another  reason,  and  an  important  one,  why  there  will  be  no  di- 
minished production;  and  that  reason  is  found  in  the  fact  that  human 
machinery, — brain,  hands,  and  feet, — will  not,  cannot  work  midst  the 
whirl  of  machinery,  however  favorable  the  rooms,  above  a  certain  point 
to  any  productive  advantage.     (Page  560.) 


EFFECT   OF    SHORTER    HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  345 

Retort  of  tie  New  York  Factory  Inspector.     1894.  UNITED 

"  STATES 

New  York  has  about  doubled  its  manufacturing  resources  and  capacity 
in  the  decade  referred  to  (1880-1890),  notwithstanding  the  many  laws 
which  have  been  passed  regulating  the  employment  of  the  weaker  elements 
of  factory  employees.  To  say  that  the  passage  of  such  laws  and  their 
strict  enforcement  injures  trade  or  industry  is  a  patent  absurdity  in  the 
face  of  the  facts  shown,  and  is  contrary  to  the  history  of  all  States  and 
countries.  .  .  .  The  gauge  of  the  States'  progressiveness  and  prosperity 
is  not  the  wealth  of  its  richest  citizen,  but  rather  the  poverty  of  its  poorest 
industrious  laborer  is  a  fairer  test.  When  the  conditions  under  which  the 
latter  strive  are  improved,  the  entire  mass  of  citizens  is  benefited.  There- 
fore, it  is  a  reasonable  proposition  that  factory  laws,  instead  of  being  a 
detriment  and  a  check  to  business,  are  in  reality  promoters  of  energy 
and  productive  of  a  greater  earning  and  competing  capacity.     (Page  14.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  oj  Labor  Statistics.     1900. 

Fortunately,  statistics  are  at  hand  which  afford  simple  but  fairly 
effective  tests  of  the  assertion  that  Massachusetts  industries  are  threatened 
with  ruin  by  restrictive  labor  legislation.  In  the  first  place,  xMassachu- 
setts'  cotton  industry,  the  business  chiefly  affected  by  short-hour  laws, 
has  fully  kept  pace  with  that  of  rival  States  in  the  North.     (Page  54.) 

Certain  facts  appear  with  distinctness,  one  of  which  is  that  the  cotton 
industry  of  Massachusetts  has  not  only  grown  steadily  throughout  the 
period  of  short-hour  legislation,  but — what  is  far  more  impressive — has 
made  larger  gains  than  are  shown  by  the  adjacent  States  with  less  radical 
short-hour  laws.  In  1870,  four  years  before  the  enactment  of  the  ten- 
hour  law,  Massachusetts  had  39.5  per  cent  of  all  the  cotton  spindles  in  the 
North  Atlantic  States;  six  years  after  the  passage  of  that  law  Massachu- 
setts' proportion  was  45  per  cent;  in  1890  it  was  47.5  per  cent,  and  in  1900 
53.5  per  cent.  It  is  difficult  to  see  what  clearer  proof  could  be  demanded 
of  the  beneficial  results  of  the  Massachusetts  short-hour  laws  of  1874 
(sixty  hours  a  week)  and  1892  (fifty-eight  hours).     (Page  5h.) 


B.     Effect  on  Output 

The  universal  testimony  of  manufacturing  countries 
tends  to  prove  that  the  regulation  of  the  working  day  acts 
favorably  upon  output.     With  long  hours,  output  declines; 


346  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

with  short  hours,  it  rises.  The  heightened  efficiency  of 
the  workers,  due  to  the  shorter  day,  more  than  counter- 
balances any  loss  of  time.  Production  is  not  only  increased, 
but  improved  in  quality. 

On  the  other  hand,  with  excessive  working  hours,  out- 
put is  inferior  both  in  quantity  and  quality.  After  the 
workers  become  overfatigued,  "spoiled  work"  increases 
with  each  additional  hour  of  labor. 

(1)  Shorter  Hours  Increase  Efficiency,  and  thus  Result 
IN  Superior  Output. 

^^^''^^  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debaies.     Vol.  74.     1844. 

BRITAIN  -^ 

Lord  Ashley: 

"It  is  a  mistaken  notion,"  writes  this  Gentleman,  "to  suppose  that  the 
produce  of  yarn  or  cloth  from  machinery,  would  be  curtailed  in  an  arith- 
metical proportion  to  the  proposed  reduction  of  working  hours  from  12  to 
10,  because  in  very  many  instances  the  workman  can  produce  much  or 
little  during  the  day,  as  he  feels  disposed,  or  as  his  strength  enables  him; 
and  in  my  own  trade  in  which  we  employ  at  least  1200  hands,  I  have  proved 
beyond  a  doubt,  that  whenever  we  have  reduced  the  hours  for  working 
from  12  to  10  per  day,  which  is  equal  to  one-sixth  the  quantity  of  work 
produced  has  not  fallen  below  one-tenth  or  even  one-twelfth.  ...  All 
men  will  be  able  to  work  much  harder  for  10  hours  than  they  can  for  12." 
(Pages  901-902.) 

The  countervailing  advantages  of  reduced  time  are  so  great,  as  com- 
pared with  a  reduction  of  wages,  that  they  readily  accept  the  loss,  and  find 
their  interest  in  the  improvement  of  health  of  body  and  mind;  in  social 
and  domestic  comfort;  in  the  practice  of  household  economy;  and  es- 
pecially in  the  prolongation,  by  3  or  4  years,  of  their  working  life,  of  their 
physical  capacities  to  obtain  a  livelihood.     (Pages  904-905.) 

Mr.  Shaw: 

.  .  .  If  we  were  by  legislation  to  prescribe  the  hours  beyond  which  the 
weaker  classes  of  women  and  young  persons  were  not  to  work,  we  should 
name  a  period  not  greater  than  the  ordinary  day's  labor  of  nature  and 
robust  men,  namely  10  hours,  exclusive  of  meals  and  rest.  Ten  hours' 
healthful  and  vigorous  labor  would  yield  a  greater  profit  than  12  hours 
under  the  influence  of  overwork,  and  its  consequent  listlessness.  (Pages 
1072-1073.) 


EFFECT    OF    SHORTER    HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  347 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXV.     1845.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of  great 
Factories  from   1st   October,   1844,    to   30th   April,    1845.     Robert  ^^^^^ 

Gardner,  Mill-owner. 

• 

...  I  am  quite  satisfied  that  both  as  much  yarn  and  power-loom 
cloth  may  be  produced  at  quite  as  low  a  cost  in  11  as  in  12  hours  per  day; 
at  least,  that  it  has  been  so  the  last  12  months,  in  my  mills  at  Preston. 
...  It  is  my  present  intention  to  make  a  further  reduction  of  time  to 
10>^  hours,  without  the  slightest  fear  of  suffering  loss  by  it.  1  find  the 
hands  work  with  greater  energy  and  spirit;  they  are  more  cheerful,  and 
apparently  more  happy.  All  the  arguments  I  have  heard  in  favour  of 
long  time  appear  based  on  an  arithmetical  question, — if  11  produce  so 
much,  what  will  12,  13,  or  even  15  hours  produce?  This  is  correct,  as 
far  as  the  steam  engine  is  concerned;  whatever  it  will  produce  in  11  hours, 
it  will  produce  double  the  quantity  in  22.  But  try  this  on  the  animal 
horse,  and  you  will  soon  find  he  cannot  compete  with  the  engine,  as  he 
requires  both  time  to  rest  and  feed.     (Page  27.) 

,  .  .  It  is,  I  believe,  a  fact  not  questioned,  that  there  is  more  bad  work 
made  the  last  1  or  2  hours  of  the  day,  than  the  whole  of  the  first  9  or  10 
hours.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  11  hours  are  quite  sufficient  for  an\' 
one  to  exhaust  the  whole  of  his  or  her  strength  in  any  one  occupation, 
situation,  or  atmosphere,  although  the  work  is  not  laborious. 

It  can  be  no  small  gratification  to  any  employer  of  a  large  number  of 
hands  to  see  them  healthy  and  happy,  with  an  opportunity  of  improving 
their  minds.  I  beg  to  state  that  about  20  years  ago  we  had  many  orders 
for  a  style  of  goods  much  wanted.  To  increase  the  quantity  of  the  work, 
I  requested  they  (his  young  women  employees)  would  work,  instead  of 
11,  12  hours.  At  the  end  of  the  week  I  found  they  had  got  a  trifie  more 
work  done;  but  supposing  there  was  some  incidental  cause  for  this,  I 
requested  they  would  work  13  hours  the  following  week,  at  the  end  of 
which  they  had  produced  less  instead  of  more  work.  The  overlooker  told 
me  the  hours  were  too  long,  and  invited  me  to  be  in  the  room  with  them 
the  last  hour  of  the  day.  I  saw  they  were  exhausted,  drowsy,  and  making 
bad  work  and  little  of  it,  1  therefore  reduced  their  time  2  hours,  as  before. 
Since  that  time  1  have  been  an  advocate  for  shorter  hours  of  labour. 
(Page  27.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXIII.     1850.     Report  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1850. 

I  continue  to  receive  favourable  accounts  of  the  working  of  the  Ten 
Hours'  Act.     That  great  experiment,  dangerous  as  it  appeared  to  many. 


348  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  and  to  myself  among  others,  because  of  so  sudden  a  change  from  twelve 

BRIT  AI  INT 

to  ten  hours,  has  succeeded,  so  far  as  it  has  yet  been  tried,  beyond  what 
the  most  sanguine  of  those  who  were  favourable  to  it  ventured  to  antici- 
pate. Where  the  law  is  fully  carried  out,  according  to  its  true  intention, 
the  workpeople  appear  to  value  the  limitation  more  and  more  in  propor- 
tion, as  they  have  longer  experience  of  its  effects;  and  the  masters  appear 
to  be  getting  daily  better  reconciled  to  it;  partly  by  finding  that,  by  the 
increased  alertness  of  their  workpeople,  by  the  closer  application  they  are 
now  enabled  to  give,  together  with  some  additional  speeding  of  the  ma- 
chinery not  before  tried,  the  produce  is  much  nearer  to  that  of  12  hours 
than  it  was  conceived  possible  it  could  be  brought  up  to,  but  partly  also 
by  the  marked  change  for  the  better  which  they  see  in  the  health,  appear- 
ance, and  contentment  of  their  workpeople.     (Page  5.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXIII.  1851.  Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories  for  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1850. 

The  unexpected  and  gratifying  result  mentioned  in  former  reports  of 
the  amount  of  work  turned  off  in  10  hours,  having  kept  up  so  much  nearer 
to  the  produce  of  12  hours  than  was  conceived  by  any  one  to  be  possible, 
has  been  confirmed  by  many  instances  stated  to  me  during  the  last  half- 
year.  This  is  accomplished  partly  by  an  increased  speed  of  the  machin- 
ery, but  chiefiy  by  the  closer  attention  which  the  people  give  to  their 
work,  and  are  enabled  to  give  by  the  shortened  duration  of  the  daily 
strain  upon  their  physical  powers.     (Page  5.) 

It  is  also  worthy  of  note,  that  during  a  portion  of  the  last  period  the 
greatest  amount  of  restriction  ever  contemplated,  either  as  to  ages  or  as 
to  hours  of  work,  has  been  in  operation,  and  making  every  possible  allow- 
ance for  the  period  during  which  the  daily  working  hours  of  young  persons 
and  women  were  reduced  to  11,  and  then  to  10,  the  power  of  production 
has  increased  beyond  that  of  any  other  period.     (Page  65.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XL.  1852-1853.  Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories  for  half-year  ending  30th  April,  1853.  Letter  to  Leonard 
Horner  from  IVilliam  Grant,  concerning  the  effect  of  the  ten-hour  day. 

We  employ  nearly  600  hands,  and  out  of  that  number  1  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  saying  there  is  not  one  person  would  prefer  to  work  even  one  hour 
per  week  longer  than  they  do  at  present.  By  extra  attention,  knowing 
that  their  hours  are  shorter  than  formerly,  and  a  little  increase  to  the 
speed,  they  make  quite  as  much  money  as  ever  they  did.     (Pages  20-21.) 


EFFECT    OF    SHORTER    HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  349 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXX.     1876.     Factory  and  IVorkshops     great 

J   .     ^  .      .  BRITAIN 

Ads  Commission. 

Witness,  Phillip  Grant,  representing  operatives: 

8582.  During  the  agitation  for  the  ten-hours  bill  in  the  >-ear  1844  or 
1845  he  (a  cotton-spinner  at  Preston)  reduced  his  time  \Tjluntarily  to 
eleven  hours  instead  of  twelve,  and  at  the  end  of  twehe  months  he  re- 
ported, as  Mr.  Hugh  Mason  did,  that  he  had  got  a  better  qualit\-  of  work 
and  more  of  it  in  the  eleven  hours  than  he  had  in  the  tweh'e,  and  that  is 
obvious  to  anybod}'  who  understands  the  process  of  following  a  machine. 
(Page  418.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XII.     1895.     Report  from  the  Select  Com- 
mittee on  Shops  (Early  Closins)  Bill. 

583.  You  think  in  the  shorter  hours  \'ou  would  do  as  much  as  in  the 
longer  hours' — Decidedly,  we  have  proved  that  b_\'  fact  under  the  volun- 
tary efforts  when  we  have  had  the  shorter  hours,  and  although  it  lasted 
for  some  months  we  had  no  loss  in  drawings;   the  cash  turnover  was  as 

good;    and  it  lasted  till  either  some  one  broke  awa\',  or  some  new  start 
went  into  the  later  hours.     TPage  IS.) 


The  Half-holiday  Question.     John  Lilwall.     London,  Kent,  1856. 

...  It  is  a  well-ascertained  fact  that  the  amount  of  work  done, 
whether  in  the  case  of  a  man  who  makes  an  article  or  of  him  who  sells  it, 
does  not  depend  so  much  on  the  extent  of  time  devoted  to  an_\'  given 
employment,  as  upon  the  degree  of  application,  energ\-,  and  cheerfulness 
of  spirit  which  are  brought  to  bear  thereon.  The  human  frame  and  the 
human  mind  are  so  constituted  that  they  are  capable  of  onl\'  a  certain 
amount  of  continued  effort.  Let  the  natural  bounds  be  but  systematicalh" 
extended,  and  so  far  from  such  excess  bemg  producti\e,  it  will  ordinaril}' 
be  found  that  there  will  be  really  less  work  done  than  when  due  regard  is 
paid  to  the  capacity  of  the  agent,  and  that  it  will  also  be  of  an  inferior 
description.  This  statement  is  borne  out  b\'  the  experience  of  man>' 
scientific  and  practical,  observant  men,  who  have  recorded  their  opinions 
on  the  subject. 

.  .  .  Mr.  Robert  Baker,  surgeon,  of  Leeds,  also  obser\'es: 
"There  is  more  work  done  now  in  ten  hours  and  a  half  in  the  factories 
in  England  than  ever  was  in  twelve  or  fourteen,  and  there  is  no  greater 


350  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

RRTTATN  fallacy  in  the  employment  of  physical  strength  than  to  suppose  that  long 

hours  are  conducive  to  its  profitable  use."  .  .  . 

Mr.  Leonard  Horner,  Government  Inspector  of  Factories,  says: 

"It  will  be  satisfactory  to  you  to  learn  that  the  last  year  has  afforded 
fresh  proofs  that  the  restrictions  now  regulating  the  labour  of  children, 
women,  and  young  persons  in  factories,  which  have  immensely  improved 
their  condition  in  many  respects,  have  not  been  attended  with  the  in- 
jurious effects  upon  trade  which  were  apprehended.  .  .  .  This  is  accounted 
for,  partly  by  the  increased  stimulus  given  to  ingenuity  to  make  the 
machinery  more  perfect  and  capable  of  increased  speed,  but  it  arises  far 
more  from  the  workpeople,  by  improved  health,  by  absence  of  that  weari- 
ness and  exhaustion  which  the  long  hours  occasioned,  and  by  their  in- 
creased cheerfulness  and  activity,  being  enabled  to  work  more  steadily 
and  diligently,  and  to  economize  time,  intervals  of  rest  while  at  their  work 
being  now  less  necessary." 

Mr.  Henry  Millward  of  the  firm  of  H.  Millward  and  Sons,  extensive 
needle  manufacturers,  of  Redditch,  writes: 

"In  reply  to  your  note,  I  cannot  have  the  slightest  difficulty  in  your 
stating .  .  .  the  excellent  effect  I  have  found  the  Saturday  half-holiday 
and  a  general  short  time  in  the  week,  has  had  on  my  people.  I  have 
adopted  it  now  more  than  two  years,  and  it  is  valued  by  the  men.  I  have 
no  hesitation  in  saying  that  my  orders  are  got  out  quicker  and  better  than 
they  were  previous  to  it." 

I  think  this  varied  testimony,  considering  its  distinctness  of  character, 
and  the  practical  and  highly  respectable  parties  from  whom  it  emanates, 
must  be  admitted  as  conclusive  by  proving  two  points:  First,  that  a  cur- 
tailment of  the  period  of  labour  does  not  necessarily  involve  a  diminution 
of  the  work  done;  and  secondly,  that  such  curtailment  as  is  advocated  in 
these  pages  would,  as  a  rule,  be  advantageous  to  the  employers  of  industry. 
(Pages  34-37.) 

Lectures  on  the  Labour  Question.     The  Nine  Hours  Movement.     Thomas 
Brassey.     London,  Longmans,  1878. 

A  reduction  in  the  hours  of  labour  does  not  necessarily  involve  a  corre- 
sponding reduction  in  the  amount  of  work  performed.  ...  A  few  years 
ago  M.  Dolfuss,  the  great  manufacturer  of  Miihlhausen,  offered  to  reduce 
the  working  hours  in  his  establishment  to  the  extent  of  one  hour  a  day, 
without  reduction  of  pay,  provided  his  work-people  would  undertake  to 
do  an  equal  amount  of  work  in  the  shorter  day.  In  a  month  after  the 
offer  was  made  the  hands  in  the  employ  of  M.  Dolfuss  had  succeeded  in 


EFFECT    OF    SHORTER    HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  351 

making  the  production  of  the  shorter  day  equal  in  amount  to  the  pro-  great 

BRITAIN 

duction  of  their  former  longer  hours.     (Pages  9-10.) 

Overwork  is  equally  undesirable  in  a  moral  and  an  industrial  point  of 
view.  Adam  Smith  has  said  truly  that  the  man  who  works  so  moderately 
as  to  be  able  to  work  constantly,  not  only  preserves  his  health  the  longest, 
but  in  the  course  of  the  year,  executes  the  greatest  quantity  of  work. 
(Page  12.) 

Factory  Act  Legislation.     The  Cobden  Pri^e  Essay  for  1891.     Victorine 
Jeans.     London,  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  1892. 

"The  great  improvements,"  wrote  one  of  the  inspectors  in  1858, 
"made  in  machines  of  every  kind  have  raised  their  productive  power 
very  much.  Without  a  doubt  the  shortening  of  the  hours  of  labor  .  .  . 
gave  the  impulse  to  these  improvements.  The  latter,  combined  with  the 
more  intense  strain  on  the  workman,  have  had  the  result  that  at  least  as 
much  is  produced  in  the  shortened  (by  2  hours,  or  one-sixth)  working  day 
as  was  previously  during  the  longer  run." 

We  may  fairly  conclude,  then,  that  the  first  result  of  the  Factory  Act 
was  this — it  fostered  the  growth  of  the  factory  system. 

...  The  second  great  result, — the  increase  in  the  vigor  and  intelli- 
gence of  the  laborer,  and  therefore,  to  some  extent  at  least,  in  his  capacity 
for  work.  .  .  .  It  is  perfectly  certain  that  a  fair  portion  of  the  increased 
production  may  quite  justly  be  put  down  to  the  improved  physical  and 
mental  energy  of  the  mill-hands  themselves.  That  was  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury's great  argument.  ...  He  brought  forward  a  great  many  cases  of 
equal  or  increased  production  arising  simply  from  improved  vigor  on  the 
part  of  the  workmen  in  mills  where  owners  had  voluntarily  reduced  their 
hours  by  way  of  experiment. 

"  I  could  not  understand,"  one  master  wrote,  "how  it  was  that  our  men 
could  turn  off  as  much  work  (and  some  a  little  more)  in  11  hours  as  ever 
they  did  in  12.  I  said  to  one  of  them,  'John,  will  you  tell  me  how  it  is 
that  you  can  do  more  work  in  11  hours  than  you  did  in  12?'  'Why,'  said 
he,  'we  can  lay  to  in  11  hours  a  day  better  than  we  could  in  12,  because  we 
get  more  rest  at  night  and  we  are  in  better  spirits  all  the  day  through,  and 
besides,  the  afternoons  were  not  so  long.'  " 

"He  could  spin,  he  said,  10  years  longer  if  Mr.  G.  would  keep  on  11 
hours."  .  .  . 

The  truth  is,  there  is  a  law  of  "Diminishing  Returns"  from  labor  as 
from  land.  .  .  .  Dr.  Cunningham's  verdict  is  concise  and  to  the  point. 
"There  is  an  amount  of  tension,"  he  writes,  "which  the  human  frame  can 


352  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  bear,  and  to  prevent  men  from  going  bevond  it  was  really  to  establish  the 

BRITAIN  .      .  "  .  . 

textile  industries  of  Great  Britain  on  a  far  firmer  economic  basis."  Fac- 
tory legislation  thus  helps  forward  production  in  the  textile  industries  in 
two  ways:  by  hastening  the  development  of  production  on  a  large  scale 
or  the  factory  system,  and,  secondly,  by  heightening  the  efficiency  of  each 
individual  worker.  But  .  .  .  the  first  result  has  always  a  certain  ten- 
dency to  weaken  the  force  of  the  latter.     (Pages  31-34.) 


Eight  Hours  for  JVork.     By  John  Rae.     London,  Macmillan,  1894. 

Short  hours  carry  with  them  general  habits  of  briskness,  which  are 
communicative,  and  soon  pervade  the  whole  establishment.  Work  is 
more  continuous  during  the  whole  day.     (Page  116.) 

Men  need  leisure,  and  if  they  are  not  granted  it,  nature  will  evidently 
take  her  revenge  by  wasting  in  the  end  more  genuine  working  time  than 
the  length  of  the  relaxation  she  is  denied.     (Page  121.) 

The  world  takes  a  long  time  to  appreciate  adequately  the  enormous 
productive  value  of  mere  contentment  and  cheerfulness  of  mind.  .  .  . 
One  of  the  first  and  most  marked  effects  of  shortening  hours  has  been  the 
greater  satisfaction  and  cheerfulness  which  the  laborers  feel  in  their  work. 
They  come  back  to  it  in  the  morning  with  a  new  spring  and  relish  and  they 
leave  it  in  the  evening  with  hope  and  spirit.  .  .  .  The  cheerful  mind  carries 
a  spontaneous  vigor  into  labor,  and  dispenses  with  much  of  the  necessity 
of  constant  superintendence  and  goading.     (Pages  123-125.) 


The    Economic   Journal.     Vol.    XVIII.     1908.     London.     Gaps    in   our 
Factory  Legislation.     B.  L.  Hutchins. 

There  is  a  great  mass  of  evidence  which  tends  to  show  that  labour 
carried  on  for  comparatively  short  hours,  under  the  best  sanitary  condi- 
tions, and  for  high  wages,  eliminating  the  competition  of  child  labour,  is 
very  much  more  productive  than  is  the  work  of  sweated  industries,  where 
the  opposite  conditions  prevail.     (Page  221.) 

It  may  be  remarked  that  in  non-textile  factories  it  has  for  some  time 
been  customary  not  to  work  the  full  legal  hours.  About  nine  hours  is  the 
rule,  for  instance,  in  the  Birmingham  brass  works;  an  employer  in  this 
trade  once  very  kindly  explained  to  me  in  detail  how  it  was  that  he  found 
it  actually  bad  economy  to  keep  going  more  than  nine  hours,  because  the 
girls  could  not  keep  their  attention  fixed  longer,  made  more  "scrap"  and 
wasted  material.     (Page  223.) 


EFFECT   OF    SHORTER   HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  353 

Reports  of  the  Inspectors  of  Factories,  for  the  Province  of  Ontario,  Canada,    CANADA 
1903.     Toronto,  1904. 

As  a  rule  the  working  hours  are  well  observed.  In  many  factories 
they  begin  work  at  7.30  or  8  a.  m.,  quitting  at  5.30  or  6.  The  owners  of 
these  establishments  have  assured  me  that  they  get  as  much  work  out  of 
their  help  by  giving  them  easy  hours.     (Page  31.) 


Verhandlungen  des  Reichstags,  101.  Sitpmg.     16.  April,  1891.      [Proceed- 
ings of  the  {German)  Reichstag,  101st  Session,  April  16,  1891.] 

It  has  sometimes  been  assumed,  perhaps  too  optimistically,  that  short- 
ening hours  of  work  would  effect  a  very  considerable  diminution  of  the 
unemployed.  The  latest  statistics  prove  that  this  would  not  result  in  the 
degree  formerly  expected,  as,  by  dint  of  more  intensive  labor  and  improved 
machinery  a  part  of  the  time  so  lost  in  output  is  made  up.  Yet  there  will 
always  be  some  part  formerly  produced  under  an  11  and  12  hour  day 
which  will  not  be  made  up,  so  that  a  certain  proportion  of  additional  labor 
will  always  be  required,  and  to  this  extent  diminution  of  the  unemployed 
will  follow.  That  will,  of  course,  mean  some  little  falling  off  in  profits,  but 
of  insignificant  extent,  as  is  shown  by  the  statistics  of  various  other  coun- 
tries. In  Switzerland,  for  instance,  with  the  shorter  day  production  fell 
oflf,  at  first,  at  the  most,  in  some  few  instances,  from  4,  5,  or  6  per  cent; 
in  some  industries,  however,  only  a  bare  1  per  cent.  It  is  only  a  question 
therefore  of  an  unimportant  percentage  (a  couple  of  per  cent)  loss  for  the 
business.     (Pages  2363-2364.) 


Amtliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichts- 
heamten.  XVIII.  1893.  [Official  Information  from  Reports  of  the 
(German)  Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,  1894. 

In  most  establishments  the  working  day  was  eleven  hours,  but  the  ten- 
hour  day  was  introduced  in  certain  ones.  The  shorter  day  turned  out 
well  in  all  cases.     (Liegnitz.) 

In  a  cigar-box  and  wrapper-mould  factory  all  adult  workers  were  given 

uniform  working  hours  in  summer  and  winter, — a  nine-hour  day,  from 

seven  to  six,  with  two  hours  free  time  at  noon.     The  owner  asserts  that 

in  this  shorter  time  no  less  work  is  done  than  formerly  in  the  longer  time, 

the  eleven-hours  day.     (Kassel.)     (Page  155.) 
23* 


GERMANY 


354  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY        ^b'd.  for  the  year  1895. 

The  reports  of  amount  and  value  of  the  work  done  in  the  reduced  work- 
ing day  are  also  of  interest.  The  fact  that  the  value  of  the  work  is  not  in 
proportion  to  the  hours  of  work  is  but  slowly  understood.  A  wool  factory 
reduced  their  working  day  by  one  hour,  in  accordance  with  the  law  of 
June  1,  1891;  subtracting  the  rest  periods,  it  now  amounts  to  ten  and  one- 
half  hours.  The  owners  assert  that  the  amount  and  value  of  work  done 
by  both  males  and  females  remain  the  same,  while  calls  upon  the  sick 
fund  have  greatly  diminished.     (Page  370.) 

Ihid.  for  the  year  1898. 

In  one  laundry  in  Plauen,  where  the  hours  of  the  workers  have  been 
reduced  from  eleven  to  ten  hours,  it  has  been  proved  that  the  women 
accomplish  fully  as  much  as  before  this  reduction.  In  a  jute  spinning 
and  weaving  factory  in  Cassel  the  ten-hour  day  was  provisionally  intro- 
duced at  the  request  of  the  hands  in  September.  Thus  far  it  has  worked 
so  well  that  the  shorter  day  will  probably  be  retained.     (Page  106.) 

Jahresbericht  der  Grossher^ogliche  Badischen  Fahrikinspektion  fiir  das 
Jahr  1901.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  of  Baden.  1901.] 
Karlsruhe,  Thiergarten,  1902. 

The  chemical  works  in  Durlach  resolved  not  to  dismiss  any  workmen 
in  a  certain  slack  season,  shortening  the  hours  of  labor  instead.  But  the 
expected  decrease  in  output  did  not  occur,  so  that  occasional  closing  for  a 
day  had  to  be  resorted  to.  After  this  experience  the  firm  resolved  to 
retain  the  shorter  hours  even  in  recurring  seasons  of  full  orders,  believing 
that  they  can  institute  an  even  shorter  day  without  any  reduction  of  prod- 
uct worth  speaking  of.     (Page  22.) 

Jahresberichte  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichtsheamten  im  Konigreich  IVurttemberg 
fiir  das  Jahr  1901.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  IVurttemberg,  1901.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1902. 

The  productivity  of  the  workers  in  the  (previously  mentioned)  trades 
where  shorter  hours  have  been  established  has  not  fallen  with  the  reduced 
hours  of  work,  and  thereby  fresh  proof  has  been  given  that  the  quantity 
of  output  does  not  rise  and  fall  with  length  of  working  hours.     (Page  13.) 


EFFECT  OF  SHORTER  HOURS  ON  OUTPUT         355 

Ihid.  for  the  year  1902.  GERMANY 

Special  report  made  on  questions  as  to  the  possibility  of  shortening 
hours. 

Industry  would  suffer  no  injury  from  shortening  the  working  day  for 
women  by  an  hour.  (Legal  day  11  hours.)  Such  a  reduction  would 
finally  bring  about  a  general  10-hour  day  in  all  industries  where  men's 
and  women's  work  was  correlated,  and,  while  some  diminution  of  product 
and  wages  might  take  place  for  a  time,  output  would  finally  be  restored  to 
its  former  level  by  greater  activity  and  improved  devices,  and  wages  would 
also  tend  to  return  to  their  previous  rate.     (Page  179.) 

Ihid.  for  the  year  1903. 

Many  employers  corroborate  the  assertion  that  11  hours  work  is  far 
too  much  for  working  women,  by  the  fact  that  the  11th  hour  of  the  day 
does  not  show  an  11th  part  of  the  output,  a  proof  of  the  relaxation  of  zeal 
and  energy  and  the  overstrain  under  which  the  11th  hour  is  finished.  .  .  . 
Ten  hours  of  intensive  work  day  by  day  for  the  week,  is  enough,  consider- 
ing that  modern  machinery  requires  the  greatest  possible  attention,  to 
use  up  all  the  strength  that  a  woman  has  at  her  command.     (Page  139.) 

Jahresberichte  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichtsheamten  und  Bergbehorden  fur  das 
jahr  1903.  Bd.  I.  Preussen.  [Annual  Reports  of  the  {German) 
Factory  and  Mine  Inspectors  for  1903.  Vol.  I.  Prussia.]  Berlin, 
Decker,  1904. 

The  so-called  English  time  has  been  introduced  in  several  shoe  factories: 
The  resultant  reduction  from  10  to  9}i  hours  has  not  brought  about  any 
reduction  in  output.  Employers  and  workers  are  both  pleased.  (Page 
219.) 

Employers  seem  more  and  more  inclined  to  establish  the  ten-hour  day; 
various  mills  which  formerly  had  long  hours,  have  adopted  the  ten-hour 
day  without  having  experienced  any  disadvantage;  others  intend  to  in- 
troduce it.     (Page  275.) 

The  prejudice  against  a  ten-hour  day  is  fast  disappearing,  as  it  comes  to 
be  understood  that  the  productivity  of  the  worker  in  the  eleventh  hour  is 
proportionately  low.     (Page  295.) 

Ihid.  for  the  year  1905.     Vol.  I.     {Prussia.) 

The  experiments  mentioned  in  last  year's  report,  by  two  of  the  largest 
industries  in  the  district  [a  rubber  works  of  the  General  Electric  Company 


356  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  at  Oberspree  and  Borsig's  smithworks]  reducing  the  hours  of  labor  re- 
spectively from  10  to  9  and  from  9><  to  S}4  hours,  have  been  declared  to 
be  thoroughly  satisfactory.     (Page  1.^°) 

The  efforts  of  workingmen  to  obtain  shorter  hours  of  work  are  con- 
tinually resulting  in  success.  Hours  of  9,  8}i,  S^  or  even  8,  daily,  are 
now  not  at  all  uncommon  in  Frankfurt  A.  M.  The  employers  are  in 
general  not  opposed,  as  they  find  that  the  output  of  the  shorter  day  is 
quite  equal  to  what  it  was  before.     (Page  1.^^^") 

Ibid,  for  the  year  1906.     Vol.  II.     (Baden.) 

Many  reductions  of  the  hours  of  labor  in  women  employing  industries 
are  reported  for  the  current  year.  The  entire  textile  industry  of  Wiesen- 
thal  has  adopted  the  ten-hour  day  in  response  to  vigorous  demands. 
(Page  5.33) 

(For  additional  examples  see  also  pages  2.^^  and  4.^^'^^") 

Ibid,  for  the  year  1907.     Vol  III.     (Hesse.) 

An  important  example  of  reduced  hours  while  wages  remained  the 
same  was  given  last  year  by  the  biggest  employer  in  the  district.  (C 
Heyl.)  Now,  also,  the  large  leather  works  of  Doerr  and  Reinhart  have 
carried  out  their  long  contemplated  plan  of  a  shorter  working  day,  with 
the  result  that  4,615  leather  workers  or  about  one-third  of  the  entire 
working  population  of  Worms  have  gained  the  advantage  of  an  8>^  hours 
working  day. 

The  firm  has  come  to  the  conclusion  that  a  more  economical  use  of 
machine  power,  daylight,  and  working  time  will  be  attained,  quite  aside 
from  the  benefit  to  the  men.  With  da\'  wages  raised  somewhat,  the  work- 
man will  earn  quite  as  much  as  before,  or  even  rather  more.  With  punc- 
tuality in  beginning  and  stopping  work  the  pieceworkers  will  produce 
and  will  earn  as  much  as  before.     (Pages  6.^^  and  ^^') 

Jahresberichte  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichtsheamten  im  Konigreich  IViirttemherg 
fUr  das  Jahr  1905.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  IViirttemberg,  1905.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1906. 

Earlier  fears  that  the  Saturday  half  holiday  would  bring  reduced  output 
and  lower  wages  have  not  been  realized. 

The  unanimous  verdict  of  the  emplo_\ers  affected  by  the  Saturday 
closing  is  rather  a  repetition  of  the  opinions  given  upon  the  shorter  working 


EFFECT   OF    SHORTER    HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  357 

day — that  the  working  capacity  of  the  women  improves  with  the  shorter   Germany 
hours,  and  that,  as  a  result,  the  interests  of  neither  employer  nor  employee 
are  damaged.     (Page  41.) 

Many  employers  say  that,  with  shorter  hours,  "blue  Monday"  has 
almost  disappeared,  and  that  men  are  more  punctual.  Amount  of  pro- 
duction is  hardly  if  any  less,  and  the  saving  in  light  and  heat  is  consider- 
able.    (Page  51.) 


International  Conference  in  Relation  to  Labor  Legislation.     Berlin,  1890. 

Alone,  the  nations  hesitate  to  reduce  the  hours  of  work  for  fear  of 
competition,  although,  with  modern  machinery,  experience  has  abun- 
dantly proved  that  the  countries  with  the  shortest  working  day  attain  the 
maximum  of  production.  These  are  the  countries  that  produce  under 
good  conditions  most  cheaply;  that  are  most  prosperous,  and  most  feared 
as  competitors  in  the  world's  markets.     (Page  88.) 


Archiv  fiir  Soiiale  Geset^gebung  und  Statistik.  Bd.  VL  1893.  Ein  Ex- 
periment mit  dem  Achtstimdentage.  [An  Experiment  with  the  Eight 
Hour  Day.]     Dr.  Otto  Pringsheim.     Berlin,  1893. 

That  production  remains  at  the  same  height  when  working  time  has 
been  reduced  by  18.4  per  cent  has  been  recently  proved  in  Holland.  In 
a  cigar-factory  in  Gouda,  with  26  workers  (7  of  these  minors),  the  hours 
in  accordance  with  the  law  passed  in  1889  were  shortened  from  11>^  to  9}4. 
At  the  end  of  1890  it  was  shown  that  the  output  was  even  greater  than 
before  and  the  wages  as  high  also — in  some  cases  higher.     (Page  14.) 


Hours  and  Wages  in  Relation  to  Production.     Lujo  Brentano.     Trans- 
lated by  Mrs.  Wm.  Arnold.     London,  Sonnenschein,  1894. 

Where,  however,  a  rise  in  the  standard  of  life  has  come  about  as  a  con- 
sequence of  increased  wages  and  shorter  hours,  experience  shows  that  it 
induces  greater  intensity  of  labour,  since  men  whose  requirements  are 
larger  and  their  hours  shorter  are  compelled  to  greater  industry,  and  that 
at  the  same  time  it  makes  that  intensive  labour  possible,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  favourable  bodily  circumstances  and  greater  pleasure  in  labour 
make  the  greater  industry  easier  to  such  workmen  than  to  those  whose 
requirements  are  small  and  who  are  badly  nourished,  weary,  and  depressed. 
(Page  48.) 


GERMANY 


358  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Handbuch  der  Hygiene.  Bd.8^.  [Handbook  of  Hygiene.  Vol.8  ^.]  Edited 
by  Dr.  Theodore  Weyl.  Allgemeine  Gewerbehygiene  tmd  Fabrik- 
gesetigebung.  [General  Industrial  Hygiene  and  Factory  Legislation.] 
Dr.  Emil  Roth.     Jena,  1894. 

It  is  found  to  be  a  fact  that  workmen  often  produce  50  per  cent  more  in 
the  first  half  of  their  working  day  than  in  the  last  half.     (Page  27.) 

Die  Arbeiterfrage.  [The  Problem  of  Labor.]  Dr.  Heinrich  Herkner. 
Berlin,  Guttentag,  1894. 

Chap.  I,  Part  111.     The  relation  of  wages  and  hours  to  production. 

The  raising  of  wages  and  the  reduction  of  hours  which  have  taken 
place  in  the  last  few  decades  are  not  due  solely  to  state  intervention  and 
the  pressure  of  labor  unions.  Increasing  competition  at  home  and  abroad 
continually  demands  increasing  efficiency.  Experience  has  proved  that 
really  good  work  can  be  permanently  given  only  by  well  paid  workmen 
who  are  not  overworked.  Schoenhof  and  von  Schultze-Gaevernitz  have 
amply  demonstrated  that  the  heightened  demands  made  upon  the  work- 
man by  the  pressure  of  competition  in  the  markets  of  the  world  have  also 
been  instrumental  in  procuring  more  favorable  conditions  for  him.  Keen- 
sighted  employers  have  long  understood  that  the  highly  paid  workers,  not 
the  cheap  ones,  are  the  most  economical  ones  in  the  long  run.  Similar 
experiences  have  been  collected  in  regard  to  hours.  Under  modern  con- 
ditions of  production  it  is  not  the  long,  exhausting  work  day  of  13-14 
hours,  but  the  moderate  day  of  8-10  hours,  that  yields  the  best  output. 
(Page  186.) 

So,  in  every  instance  where  wages  have  been  raised  and  hours  reduced 
it  has  been  proved  that  none  of  the  fears  of  those  opposed  to  the  change 
have  been  realized.     (Page  187.) 

Archiv  fiir  Unfallheilkunde,  Gewerbehygiene,  und  Gewerbekrankheiten. 
Bd.  I .  Uber  den  Gesundheitsschuti  der  Gewerblichen  Arbeiter.  [Pro- 
tection of  the  IVorkingman' s  Health.]  Dr.  Schaefer.  Stuttgart,  Enke, 
1896. 

Occupation  hygiene  teaches  us  that  after  brief  over-exertion  the  repro- 
duction of  working  strength  ceases,  and  a  rapid  descent  to  incapacity 
takes  place.  It  has  been  thoroughly  demonstrated  by  observations  last- 
ing over  a  long  period  of  time  that  the  workman  produces,  on  an  average, 
almost  twice  as  much  in  the  first  half  of  his  working  hours  as  in  the  last 
half  of  his  day.     (Page  204.) 


EFFECT   OF    SHORTER    HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  359 

Schrijten  der  Gesellschaft  fur  So^iale  Reform,  Heft  7-8.  [Publications  of  GERMANY 
the  Social  Reform  Society,  Nos.  7  and  8.\  Die  Herahsetiung  der  Ar- 
heitsieit  fiir  Frauen  and  die  Erhohung  des  Schut^alters  fUr  Jugendliche 
Arheiter  in  Fabriken.  [The  Reduction  of  IVomen's  fVorking  Hours 
and  the  Raising  of  the  Legal  fVorking  Age  for  Voting  Factory  Employees.] 
Dr.  August  Pieper  and  Helene  Simon.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

Such  reduction  of  working  hours  as  is  absolutely  necessary  for  con- 
servation of  health  and  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  riches  of  civilization 
is  also  a  mandate  of  economic  good  management.  Those  potential  sources 
of  energy  whose  misuse  is  prevented  will  be  thereby  preserved  and  main- 
tained in  higher  efficiency  for  production  instead  of  being  lost  to  it  by 
premature  ruin.     (Pages  48^9.) 

All  the  known  instances  of  a  systematic  reduction  of  working  hours 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  whether  by  voluntary  action  or  as  a  result  of 
legislation,  show  indubitably  that  no  ill  results  have  followed  either  to  the 
output  or  to  the  workers. 

Output  and  wages  have  remained  the  same,  or  have  actually  risen  as  a 
consequence  of  heightened  energy  and  perfected  plants.     (Page  73.) 

Le  Travail  de  Nuit  dans  V Industrie.  Rapports  sur  son  importance  et  sa 
reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer.  [Night  Work 
of  Women  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  importance  and  legal  regu- 
lation. Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]  La  Reglementation  legale  du 
Travail  des  Femmes  en  Allemagne.  [Labor  Legislation  for  Women  in 
Germany.]  Dr.  Fuchs,  Factory  Inspector,  Baden.  Jena,  Fischer, 
1903. 

Before  the  enactment  of  the  German  Imperial  Law  of  1891  restricting 
the  hours  of  labor  of  women  there,  overtime  work  was  already,  in  the  in- 
dustries concerned,  occasional  and  irregular.  The  very  great  majority  of 
the  establishments  affected  were  working  regularly  eleven  hours  a  day  or 
less  as  early  as  1892. 

Not  one  fact  indicates  that  industry  suffered  under  the  restriction. 
The  output,  which,  in  a  few  establishments,  diminished  at  first,  soon  re- 
gained its  normal  dimensions,  thanks  to  the  greater  energy  evinced  by  the 
employees.     (Page  12.) 

Gesammelte  Abhandlungen.  Bd.  III.  [Complete  Works.  Vol.  III.] 
Die  Volkswirthschaftliche  Bedeutung  der  Verkiir^ung  des  Industriellen 
Arbeitstages.     [The  Economic  Significance  of  a  Shorter  Working  Day.] 


360  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY  Ernst  Abbe.     Paper  read  before  the  Political  Society  at  Jena  in  1901. 

Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 

Beside  the  effect  on  production  and  international  competition  involved 
in  shorter  working  hours,  the  question  arises  as  to  the  effect  of  a  shorter 
day  on  the  workman's  strength.  If  he  produces  as  much  in  shorter  hours, 
does  he  do  this  at  the  cost  of  his  reserve  energy?  In  a  word,  does  he  use 
up  his  strength  sooner  by  more  intensive  work?  If  he  did,  this  fact  would 
be  of  far-reaching  social  and  economic  import.     (Page  204.) 

The  experiment  made  in  the  optical  works  in  whose  management  I  had 
a  part,  and  where  the  working  day  was  abruptly  reduced  from  a  9  to  an  8 
hourday  at  a  time  of  the  most  active  production,  .  .  .  confirms,  in  the  most 
important  and  leading  points,  all  that  the  far  more  extensive  experiences  of 
England  had  demonstrated  as  to  the  effect  of  shorter  hours  on  output. 

Our  researches  proved  that  this  reduction  from  9  to  8  hours,  that  is,  of 
more  than  10  per  cent  at  one  bound,  brought  about  not  the  least  diminu- 
tion of  the  daily  output,  but  increased  it  demonstrably  even  if  only  to  a 
slight  extent.  ...  It  would  not  be  worth  while  to  add  our  testimony  to 
that  of  England,  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  we  worked  out  our  results 
in  exact  figures.     (Page  205.) 

Our  inquiries  have  this  further  credit,  that  they  give  a  decisive  answer 
to  the  question:  Does  reduction  of  hours  mean  a  greater  expenditure  of 
strength  for  the  individual?  Is  the  work  more  wearing  to  the  workman 
or  not? 

Our  observations  enable  us  to  reply  with  certainty  in  the  negative: 
the  workmen  are  subjected  to  no  greater  strain  by  executing  in  8  hours 
what  they  used  to  do  in  9,  although  they  do,  certainly,  work  with  greater 
intensiveness  during  the  shorter  period.  We  gained  an  insight  into  the 
actual  factors  that  enable  efficiency  to  rise  with  shorter  hours,  and  to  rise 
in  such  degree  that  the  results  are  the  same.  To  the  question  whether 
the  difference  is  accounted  for  by  such  special  motives  as  good  will  or 
ambition  for  personal  interest  (as  in  piece  work),  we  say,  decidedly:  no. 
The  satisfactory  result  is  obtained  independently  of  such  motives.  And 
1  regard  this  as  one  of  the  most  important  points  that  our  experience  has 
brought  to  light. 

Finally,  our  observations  have  enabled  us  to  explain  the  connection 
between  rapidity  of  work  and  shorter  working  hours,  and  to  show  how  the 
equalizing  of  efficiency  is  brought  about.  1  am  under  the  impression  that 
this  has  never  been  explained.     (Page  206.) 

Our  working  hours  were  first  reduced  gradually  through  a  period  of 
30-35  years,  from  12  hours  to  9,  then  to  8.  .  .  . 


EFFECT   OF    SHORTER    HOURS    OX    OUTPUT  36 1 

Some  slight  differences  in  output  were  noticeable  from  the  standpoint  Germany 
of  the  age  of  workers,  but  so  insignificant  that  they  are  negligible.  The 
youngest  workmen  had,  to  be  sure,  the  best  results,  }-et  in  no  instance 
was  there  any  lagging  worth  mentioning  among  the  older  ones.  (Page 
211.)  From  our  results  it  may  be  concluded :  Success  under  shorter  hours 
is  attained  equally,  with  but  slight  variations,  by  older  and  }-ounger  work- 
men.    (Page  212.) 

The  testimony  of  different  individuals  on  time  work  agreed  that  after 
the  first  few  days  no  conscious  effort  had  to  be  made  to  keep  up  the  pace 
of  work.  .  .  .  Many  were  unconscious  that  they  had  done  more  until  1 
proved  it  to  them.  .  .  .  All,  even  the  older  ones,  averred  that  the  work 
was  not  more  wearing;  the  last  half-hour  was  not  harder  than  before. 
(Page  218.) 

Piece  workers,  who,  at  first,  made  an  effort  that  the_\'  could  not  keep 
up,  found  that  they  had  at  first  in  reality  attempted  to  do  much  more 
than  they  had  ever  done  before.  After  relaxing  to  the  pace  that  was 
permanently  endurable,  they  discovered  that  their  output  and  earnings 
were  the  same  as  previously,  or  slightl}'  more.     (Page  219.) 


{Condensed  from  original) 

1.  Reduction  of  working  hours  is  not  followed  by  a  reduction  of  output. 
Frequently  a  distinct  increase  in  output  results.  In  our  works,  in  a  year, 
30  men  have  done  as  much  under  the  8  hours  as  31  men  had  done  in  the 
year  before  under  9  hours.     (Page  222.) 

2.  In  spite  of  good  will  and  obvious  self-interest,  increased  output  is 
only  temporarily  attainable  b\'  lengthening  the  hours  of  work,  and  after 
a  short  time  the  output  under  lengthened  hours  falls  back  to  what  it  was 
in  the  shorter  day. 

3.  Even  where  workmen  have  no  interest  in  doing  as  much  in  the  shorter 
hours;  where  on  the  contrary  they  have  interests  in  tiot  doing  as  much, 
nevertheless  the  same  result  is  obtained : — no  diminution  of  product  occurs. 

4.  This  seems  to  me  conclusive  evidence  that  the  rate  of  speed  (short 
working  hours  resulting  in  heightened  intensity  and  long  ones  in  diminished 
intensity)  is  an  automatic  and  involuntary  adjustment  not  realized  by 
the  individual;  that  many  persons  have  no  idea  of  it,  and  indeed  do  not 
believe  it  until  the  proofs  that  they  have  accomplished  more  in  a  short  day 
are  shown  to  them.     (Page  223.) 

In  saying  that  recuperation  must  equal  fatigue,  1  am  speaking  of  real 
things.  .  .  .  We  may  discern  three  plainh'  separable  factors  in  the  pro- 


362  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GERMANY        duction  of  fatigue,  and  these,  when  added  together,  make  an  important 
total. 

I.  The  first  is  the  amount  of  the  daily  output,  quite  independent  of 
the  time  in  which  it  is  produced.  When,  for  instance,  a  man  at  a  turning 
lathe,  one  who  is  distinctly  skilful,  has  about  50  similar  objects  to  make, 
he  must  make  a  certain  number  of  motions  of  the  hand  in  sequence  and 
must  exercise  a  certain  number  of  sense  perceptions  in  order  to  control  his 
work.  He  needs  also  to  exercise  a  certain  number  of  impulses  of  the  will. 
Now,  if  instead  of  50  objects  he  makes  100,  then  he  has  done  all  these 
things  twice  as  often — quite  independent  of  whether  he  has  worked  5,  6, 
or  10  hours. 

The  amount  of  output  gives  an  estimate  by  which  to  measure  the 
amount  of  strength  expended.  This  is  different  with  different  persons. 
Greater  experience,  skill,  or  quickness  enables  one  to  work  with  less  ex- 
penditure of  strength  than  another.  .  .  .  Yet  on  the  whole,  with  persons 
who  are  working  under  similar  conditions,  there  is  always  a  large  number 
whose  expenditure  of  strength  in  the  daily  working  hours  is  wholly  pro- 
portionate to  the  amount  of  their  output. 

II.  The  second  factor  in  fatigue  depends  on  the  speed  with  which  work 
is  done.  In  general  it  might  be  supposed  that  when  a  given  piece  of  work 
was  performed  in  a  shorter  time,  a  greater  exertion  of  strength  would  be 
necessary.  But  this  is  only  true  beyond  certain  limits.  Within  certain 
reasonable  limits,  the  same  piece  of  work  can  be  done  somewhat  faster 
without  increased  outlay  of  strength.  If,  for  instance,  one  walks,  say, 
four  kilometres,  it  is  quite  the  same  whether  one  walks  a  little  faster  or 
slower,  so  long  as  one  does  not  actually  run.  This  second  factor,  speed,  is 
an  important  one  in  producing  the  same  result  with  a  shorter  work  day. 
(Page  229.) 

III.  The  third,  however,  is  the  most  important,  in  my  opinion,  and  is 
entirely  analogous  with  what  is  called  in  technical  language  concerning 
machinery,  "waste  of  power,"  when  the  machines  are  running  dead. 
( Kraft verbrauch  fiir  Leergang.)  .  .  . 

The  consequence  of  the  previously  mentioned  division  of  labor  is 
that,  with  few  exceptions,  all  details  of  industry  are  performed  by  persons 
who  must  either  sit  or  stand  all  day;  few  have  any  chance  for  change  with- 
in the  limits  of  their  working  time.  If  we  picture  to  ourselves  what  it 
would  be  for  a  man  to  be  obliged  to  sit,  or  stand,  without  doing  any  work, 
but  maintaining  a  fixed  position  of  the  body  for  8  or  10  hours,  we  know 
at  once  that  he  would  be  fatigued  even  though  he  had  done  nothing.  My 
contention  is  that,  as  this  fatigue  represents  an  outlay  of  strength  required 
solely  by  sitting  or  standing  in  the  position  needed  by  his  work,  and  in  the 


EFFECT   OF    SHORTER    HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  363 

environment  of  work  (with  noise,  confusion,  the  need  of  attention  to  GERMANY 
protect  himself  and  others  from  danger) — as  this  purely  passive  fatigue, 
I  repeat,  forms  a  large  part  of  the  day's  work,  every  reduction  of  hours 
which  results  in  concentrating  the  usual  output  within  the  shorter  work- 
ing day  is  a  clear  gain  for  the  worker's  strength. 

If  a  man  can  do  a  certain  day's  work  in  8  hours,  and  he  is  compelled 
to  spend  10  hours  at  it,  then  it  is  just  as  if  we  said  to  him:  you  may  do 
your  work  in  8  hours,  but  then  you  must  sit  here  for  2  hours  more,  in  the 
same  position,  listening  to  the  same  noise,  paying  the  same  attention, 
being  careful  to  avoid  danger,  but  without  doing  anything.  And  I 
maintain  that,  just  as  the  shorter  time  has  been  a  definite  saving  for 
the  "wasted  power"  of  the  machine,  so  the  shorter  day  is  a  corre- 
sponding saving  of  human  strength,  avoiding  a  waste  of  power  in  men. 
(Page  230.) 

The  length  of  working  hours,  therefore,  comes  up  for  consideration 
three  times — twice  in  estimating  the  expenditure  of  energy  (1.  Shortened 
hours  and  increased  intensity:  exertion  the  same  if  certain  limits  of  speed 
are  not  exceeded.  2.  In  estimating  the  "wasted  power"  of  man,  analogy 
with  the  machine),  and  thirdly  in  considering  recuperation  (shorter  work 
— longer  time  for  rest).     (Page  232.) 

Without  pressing  mathematical  conclusions  further  it  is  evident  that, 
when  this  relation  of  work  to  rest  is  correctly  grasped,  the  shorter  day  not 
only  leaves  the  day's  output  unchanged,  but  may  improve  it.     (Page  232.) 

It  must  be  true  that,  if  we  could  accurately  gauge  the  mathematical 
relation,  we  would  find  that  there  was  an  "Optimum"  for  each  person, 
namely,  the  shortest  possible  time  in  which  the  largest  possible  product 
could  be  achieved.  Where  this  lies  will  depend  largely  upon  the  thorough- 
ness with  which  the  single  elements  of  fatigue  are  studied. 

How  great  the  outlay  of  strength  in  lost  time,  wasted  energy,  and  speed 
is  in  individual  cases,  is  essentially  a  question  of  investigation.  (Page 
232.) 

Berichte  der  eidg.  Fabrik  und  Bergwerkinspektoren  uber  ihre  Amtstdtigkeit  swiTZER- 
in  den  Jahren  1898-1899.     [Reports  of  the  (Swiss)  Factory  and  Mine 
Inspectors.     1898-1899.]     Aarau,  Sauerldnder,  1900. 

The  reduction  of  hours  from  12  to  11  has  justified  itself;  it  has  had  none 
but  good  results;  it  has  contributed  largely  to  restore  order  and  regularity 
to  industry. 

The  adversaries  of  the  11-hour  day  who  predicted  the  total  ruin  of 
many  industries  have  had  to  abandon  their  prejudices;  they  now  see,  as 


LAND 


364  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

swiTZER-         we  do,  that  instead  of  being  ruined  our  industries  are  developing  in  a 

LAND  .      .  .      .  .  . 

most  gratifying  way.  We  hope  soon  to  have  a  similar  experience  with 
the  10-hour  day. 

The  man  who  works  11  hours  per  day  will  probably  produce  more  on  a 
given  day  than  he  who  works  10,  but  this  advantage  is  more  apparent 
than  real,  and  vanishes  with  time,  since  prolonged  work  results  in  fatigu- 
ing the  workman. 

Workers  who  are  overstrained  by  long  hours  are  less  eificient  and  less 
skilful  than  others,  and  in  the  end  they  produce  less. 

...  It  is  also  an  incontestable  fact  that  reduction  of  hours  has  a  good 
moral  effect.  It  is  generally  admitted  by  employers  that  the  deplorable 
habit  of  not  working  on  Monday  is  tending  to  disappear  more  and  more 
among  the  employees  with  reduced  hours  of  work.     (Page  146.) 

An  das  Schwei^.  Industriedepartement.  Bern.  Die  Eidgenossischen 
Fabrikinspekioren.  [Report  of  the  Swiss  Factory  Inspectors  to  the 
Swiss  Department  of  Labor  on  the  Revision  of  the  Factory  Laws.] 
Schaffhausen,  1904. 

.  .  .  We  have  to  examine  the  effects  of  shorter  hours  upon  our  industry 
to  find  out  whether  they  can  be  introduced  without  injury  to  business. 
The  statements  and  opinions  expressed  by  the  various  factory  inspectors 
in  the  course  of  recent  years,  as  to  the  results  of  experience  in  shortening 
the  working  hours  wherever  this  has  been  tried,  have  brought  us  to  the 
conclusion  that  a  generally  shorter  day  may  be  introduced  without  injury. 
(Page  23.) 

It  will  be  readily  seen  that  these  two  questions, — the  extension  of 
legislation  to  workers  now  unprotected  by  law  and  the  reduction  of  work- 
ing hours  are  the  most  important  for  revision.  As  to  the  latter  we  here 
state  our  conviction  that  Swiss  industry  is  well  able  to  substitute  a  ten- 
hour  for  an  eleven-hour  day.  This  has  indeed  been  done  in  the  majority 
of  factories  now  subject  to  the  law  and  is  moreover  required  by  law  in 
various  cantons  without,  indeed,  having  brought  rum  upon  industry. 
(Page  5.) 

In  no  case  where  the  10-hour  day  has  been  introduced  is  there  any 
tendency  to  return  to  the  11  hours,  because  both  employers  and  workers 
find  advantages  in  the  shorter  time.  Not  only  from  individual  branches 
of  industry,  but  even  from  the  ranks  of  the  cotton  factory  owners,  who 
constituted  the  majority  of  the  opposition,  the  sentiment  of  all  who  have 
established  the  10-hour  day  is  favorable  to  it.     (Page  26.) 


EFFECT   OF    SHORTER    HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  365 

Bulletin  de  V Office  du   Travail.     Minister e  du  Commerce,  de  V Industrie,   FRANCE 
des  Pastes,  et  des  Telegraphes.     Paris,  1903.     [Bulletin  of  the  {French) 
Labor  Office,  1903.] 

There  are  establishments  in  which  it  may  be  affirmed,  according  to  the 
statement  of  a  district  inspector  of  Nantes,  that  the  production  per  hour 
increases  as  the  number  of  hours  per  day  decreases.  These  are  the  in- 
dustries in  which  the  personal  qualities  of  the  worker  are  an  important 
factor  in  production.     (Page  807.) 

La  Revue  Socialiste.     T.  XLL     Jan.-Juin.     1905.     La  Journee  de  Huit 
Heures.     [The  Eight  Hour  Day.]     Etienne  Buisson.     Paris. 

The  seemingly  paradoxical  result  of  equal  production  with  shorter 
hours  of  work  can  be  attained,  at  least  to  a  certain  degree,  in  industries 
where  human  labor  plays  the  most  important  part, — in  a  word,  in  all 
those  lines  where  the  worker  is  not  simply  an  attendant  for  a  machine 
which  performs  the  work.  In  such  industries  the  product  may  remain 
equal,  in  spite  of  shorter  hours,  by  reason  of  the  worker's  increased  appli- 
cation to  the  work.  This  augmentation  of  output  is  quite  possible. 
Physical  strength  and  concentrated  attention  cannot  be  exerted  during 
10  or  11  hours  with  equal  intensity.  According  to  the  time  of  day,  or 
the  feelings  of  the  moment,  the  worker  has  more  or  less  energy  for  his 
work;  nevertheless  he  is  human;  he  is  not  a  machine,  and  he  is  liable  to 
ups  and  downs.  Then,  in  the  workshop  itself  there  are  causes  for  dis- 
traction; in  brief,  without  going  into  details,  there  are  various  causes  for 
inattention,  or  interruption,  which  constitute  a  waste  time  or  a  loss  of 
output.  These  losses  in  many  trades  may  easily  make  a  total  of  45  min- 
utes, or  an  hour,  or  even  more  in  a  day  of  10  or  11  hours.  This  is  true  of 
day  work;  and  a  comparison  of  day  work  with  piece  work  in  the  same  kind 
of  trade  will  always  prove  it.     (Pages  642,  643.) 

La  Revue  de  Paris.     T.  V.     Sept.-Oct.,  1907.     La  Journee  de  Huit  Heures. 
[The  Eight  Hour  Day.]     Maxime  Leroy. 

In  his  testimony  during  this  inquiry  (1902)  M.  Grillet,  a  factory  in- 
spector in  Brittany,  said:  "If  we  do  not  go  below  a  certain  limit,  say  8, 
9,  or  10  hours,  according  to  the  different  industries,  we  find  that  the  re- 
duction of  working  hours  has  produced  no  appreciable  loss  of  production, 
and  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  brought  about  an  often  striking  improve- 
ment in  the  quality  of  the  product." 

He  adds:   "It  is  certain  that  in  proportion  as  working- hours  lengthen. 


366 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


FRANCE  the  hourly  output  of  the  worker  diminishes.     What  does  the  employer 

want  to  have  from  his  employee?  Work,  not  simply  his  presence  during 
so  much  time.  And  what  does  the  employer  need  to  do?  To  utilize  the 
workman's  strength  to  the  best  advantage."     (Pages  838,  839.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Maine  Senate  Document  19:  Public  Documents,  1848.     Report  on  Petition 
-praying  passage  oj  law  making  ten  hours  legal  day's  work. 

Everyone  knows  by  observation  and  experience,  that  a  man  can  endure 
a  certain  amount  of  labor  every  day,  and  that  he  must  have  a  certain 
amount  of  rest;  and  that  if  he  is  compelled  to  toil  on  day  after  day  from 
early  morning  till  late  at  night,  he  may  for  a  few  days  do  more  work,  but 
if  long  continued,  he  actually  becomes  unable  to  accomplish  as  much  per 
day  as  he  could  do  if  permitted  to  divide  his  time  more  equally.  .  .  .  And 
your  committee  are  firmly  of  the  opinion,  from  all  the  facts  and  informa- 
tion they  can  procure,  that  men  accomplish  more  work  in  ten  hours,  where 
that  system  is  reduced  to  practice,  than  where  they  work  as  long  as  they 
can  see.     (Pages  2-3.) 

Report  oj  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1870-1871. 

A  man  can  work  ten  hours  in  the  mill,  and  working  with  a  will,  and  with 
the  object  of  gaining  one  hour  for  himself,  he  will  make  a  machine  produce 
in  ten  hours  as  much  as  it  will  in  eleven.  He  would  be  more  attentive 
and  try  to  make  as  much  pay  as  in  eleven  hours.  1  think  it  will  be  found 
that  much  of  the  cloth  made  during  the  eleventh  hour  is  of  poorer  quality 
than  the  rest,  and  that  the  necessity  of  looking  it  over  the  next  day  and 
fixing  it  all  night,  lessens  the  product  of  that  next  day.  If  we  were  to 
suppose  two  sets  of  operatives  in  the  same  business,  one  working  11  hours 
and  one  working  10  a  day,  other  things  being  equal,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  10-hour  set  would  hold  out  more  years  than  the  11-hour  set.  I 
certainly  believe  that  the  productive  capacity  of  a  set  of  work-people 
may  be  lessened  by  increasing  the  hours  of  their  daily  labor.  (Pages 
499-500.) 


Argument  of  Hon.  William  Gray  on  Petitions  for  Ten-Hour  Law  before 
The  Massachusetts  Committee  on  Labor.     February  13,  1873.     Boston. 

There  are  facts  which  .  .  .  will  show  you  .  .  .  the  actual  result  of 
the  introduction  of  ten  hours  nearly  six  years  ago.  This  corporation 
entered  upon  that  change  in  June,  1867.     (Page  17.) 


EFFECT   OF    SHORTER    HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  367 

The  speed  of  the  looms  was  increased  about  four  per  cent  the  first   united 

STATES 

month,  and  other  machinery  in  about  the  same  ratio.  All  work  which 
could  be  made  job  work  was  so  made  .  .  .  and  the  first  month  after  the 
change  showed  these  results. 

Observe  the  time  had  been  reduced  from  10^  hours  to  10  hours;  the 
product  was  reduced  4  to  5  per  cent;  the  cost  of  labor  was  increased  2^ 
per  cent;  the  wages  paid  were  not  essentially  changed.  In  three  years 
and  a  half  from  the  time  of  the  change,  the  product  of  ten  hours  was  fully 
equal  to  the  product  of  10^  hours  at  the  previous  date.  .  .  .  With  no 
material  change  in  machinery,  the  following  results  appeared.  .  .  . 

First.  We  saw  an  improvement  in  the  operatives  directly  after  adopt- 
ing ten  hours, — which  improvement  has  been  going  on;  and  we  have  now 
the  best  set  of  workers  that  have  been  in  the  mill  for  fifteen  years.  .  .  . 

Second.  We  have  had  more  continuous  and  uninterrupted  work 
throughout  the  year  than  before.     (Page  18.) 

Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1873. 

The  overseer  (of  Pemberton  Mills,  Lawrence)  informed  us  that  they 
took  the  result  of  every  half-hour's  work,  and  upon  inquiring  the  relative 
product  of  the  different  hours,  he  assured  us  that  invariably  the  last  hour 
was  the  least  productive.     (Page  246.) 

Hon.  William  Gray,  Treasurer  of  the  Atlantic  Mills,  Lawrence,  began 
the  ten-hour  experiment  with  the  operatives  in  his  employ,  June,  1867, 
and  his  testimony  concerning  its  practical  and  financial  success  may  be 
regarded  as  nearly,  if  not  quite,  authoritative  and  decisive. 

Massachusetts  Senate  Documents,  No.  33.     1874. 

The  Committee  on  the  Labor  Question  to  whom  was  referred  so  much 
of  the  Governor's  address  as  relates  to  Labor  Reform,  having  considered 
so  much  thereof  as  pertains  to  the  enactment  of  a  ten-hour  law,  and  hav- 
ing also  considered  the  petition  of  Wendell  Phillips  and  others  for  the 
passage  of  such  a  law.  Report:  .  .  .  Your  Committee  find  that  the  manu- 
facturers of  Fall  River  voluntarily  adopted  ten  hours  as  the  length  of 
time  their  operatives  should  work,  and  continued  on  this  basis  for  twenty- 
one  months.  They  ceased  only  because  the  other  manufacturers  in  the 
State  would  not  adopt  the  same  regulation.  They  find  further,  that  the 
Atlantic  Mills,  in  Lawrence,  have  long  been  run  on  these  hours,  and  in 
both  these  instances  the  corporations  have  paid  large  dividends.  Your 
Committee,  therefore,  are  of  the  opinion  that  while  the  lessening  of  the 
hours  of  labor  as  contemplated  may  reduce  the  profits,  it  will  not  diminish 


368  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  them  so  much  as  to  prevent  a  fair  and  honorable  return  for  the  capital 

STATES 

mvested,  and  that  the  question  seems  to  be,  whether  the  health,  intelli- 
gence, and  morals  of  a  large  class  of  the  women  and  children  of  the  Com- 
monwealth shall  be  sacrificed  in  order  that  the  manufacturers  opposed 
to  this  measure  may  reap,  not  large  and  paying  dividends,  but  as  large  as 
are  received  when  the  hours  of  labor  are  more.     (Page  2.) 

Report  of  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1881. 

It  is  apparent  that  Massachusetts  with  ten  hours  produces  as  much 
per  man  or  per  loom  or  per  spindle,  equal  grades  being  considered,  as  other 
States  with  eleven  and  more  hours;  and  also  that  wages  here  rule  as  high, 
if  not  higher,  than  in  the  States  where  the  mills  run  longer  time.  (Page 
457.) 

But  perhaps  the  most  emphatic  testimony  is  that  of  another  carpet 
mill  employing  about  twelve  hundred  persons.  This  mill,  which  has  been 
running  but  ten  hours  for  several  years,  and  has  during  this  period  tried 
the  experiment  of  running  overtime,  gives  the  following  results.  The 
manager  said,  "1  believe,  with  proper  management  and  supervision,  the 
same  help  will  produce  as  many  goods,  and  of  superior  quality,  in  ten 
hours  as  they  will  in  eleven.  1  judge  so  from  the  fact  that  during  certain 
seasons,  being  pushed  for  goods,  we  have  run  up  to  nine  o'clock,  and  for 
the  first  month  the  production  was  increased  materially.  After  this, 
however,  the  help  would  grow  listless,  and  the  production  would  fall  off 
and  the  quality  of  the  goods  deteriorate."     (Pages  460-461.) 

The  reason  is,  the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  operatives  have  only  so  much 
work  in  them,  and  it  was  all  got  out  in  ten  hours,  and  no  more  could  be  got 
out  in  twelve;  and  what  was  got  extra  in  the  first  month  was  taken  right 
out  of  the  life  of  the  operatives.     (Page  461.) 

Report  of  the  Chief  of  Massachusetts    District   Police  for  the  year  ending 
December  31,  1883. 

It  has  been  stated  by  those  who  have  specially  watched  the  operation 
of  the  ten-hour  law  that  "its  enforcement  has  increased  production  and 
advanced  the  wages  and  moral  standing  of  the  masses."     (Pages  17-18.) 

Ibid,  for  the  year  ending  Dec.  31,  1886. 

One  manufacturer  stated  to  me  a  short  time  ago  that  he  had  run  his 
mill  66  hours  per  week,  supposing  that  by  so  doing  he  increased  the  pro- 
duction nearly  one-eleventh,  but  was  persuaded  last  January  to  reduce 
his  running  time  to  60  hours  per  week,  and  at  the  end  of  six  months  found 


EFFECT    OF    SHORTER   HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  369 

that  the  production  of  his  mill  had  increased  nearly  ten  per  cent  while  the  united 

''  STATES 

qualit}'  of  the  work  done  was  more  perfect.  He  also  stated  that  no 
amount  of  argument  could  have  convinced  him  that  the  results  would  be 
as  they  have  proven.  This  shows  that  an  operative  can  perform  only  a 
certain  amount  of  labor  though  seemingly  light  when  such  labor  is  re- 
quired every  working  day  in  the  year.     (Pages  71-72.) 

Report  of  the  Connecticut  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1886. 

Down  to  a  certain  point,  the  nations  who  work  shorter  hours  not  merely 
do  better  work,  but  more  work  than  their  competitors.  In  Russia  the 
hands  work  twelve  hours  a  day;  in  Germany  and  France,  eleven;  in 
England,  nine.  Yet  nine  hours  a  day  of  English  work  mean  more  than 
twelve  hours  of  Russian  work. 

The  laborer  receives  better  wages,  and  at  the  same  time  the  manu- 
facturer gets  a  larger  product — so  much  larger  that  it  is  the  Russian,  the 
German,  or  the  Frenchman  v/ho  requires  protection  against  his  English 
competitor  in  spite  of  the  longer  hours  and  lower  day's  wages.  (Pages 
16-17.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  State  Factory  Inspector.     1887. 

...  As  a  rule,  at  the  end  of  a  year,  they  (women  working  over  10 
hours  a  da_\')  would  not  have  so  much  working  time  to  their  credit  as 
those  who  were  not  so  overworked.  It  can  be  deduced  from  this  that  it 
does  not  pay  even  the  employer  to  insist  upon  excessive  hours  of  toil,  and, 
indeed,  the  invariable  testimony  of  the  proprietors  of  those  mills  which, 
before  the  present  law  was  passed,  ran  eleven  hours  a  day,  is  to  the  effect 
that  their  product  was  not  decreased  by  the  reduction  to  ten  hours,  but 
that  the  quality  of  the  work  was  superior,  the  employees  worked  more 
steadily,  and  were  less  interfered  with  by  sickness.     (Page  28.) 

Ihid.     1890. 

.  .  .  Every  important  manufactory  in  this  State,  which  formerly 
required  sixty-six  or  more  hours  of  labor  as  a  week's  work,  is  now  running 
on  sixty  or  less  hours'  limit,  and  the  testimony  of  the  proprietors  thereof  is 
to  the  effect  that  their  production  increased  instead  of  diminished  at  the 
same  time.  This  enhancement  of  the  productiveness  of  their  employees 
has  not  come  through  increasing  the  speed  of  machinery,  as  some  people 
suppose,  but  it  is  believed  that  it  has  grown  out  of  the  more  contented 
minds  and  better  rested  bodies  of  the  operatives.  (Page  26.) 
24* 


370  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Fourth  Annual  Convention  of  the  International  Association  of  Factory  In- 

STAT£S  ^  ^ 

spectors  of  North  America.     Boston.     fVright  and  Potter,  1890.     The 

Restriction  of  the  Hours  of  Labor  in  Factories  and  Workshops.     L.  R. 

Campbell,  Maine. 

The  history  of  all  successful  movements  for  less  hours  to  constitute  a 
day's  work,  as  a  rule,  is  that  they  have  been  followed  by  a  greater  pro- 
duction in  their  several  lines;  and,  also,  these  reductions  in  the  hours  of 
labor  were  generally  followed  by  an  increase  of  wages.     (Pages  43-44.) 

In  my  state,  since  the  adoption  of  the  ten  hours  in  lieu  of  the  eleven 
hours,  in  mills  and  factories  where  machinery  is  employed,  it  is  the  uni- 
versal verdict  of  manufacturers  that  their  product  is  as  great  under  the 
ten-hour  system  as  it  was  under  the  eleven-hour  system,  and  I  think  that 
the  same  answer  comes  from  every  State  that  has  adopted  the  ten-hour 
system.     (Page  47.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Factory  Inspector.     1894. 

It  must  be  said  that  not  only  was  the  time  reduction  (60  hours  a  week) 
hailed  with  satisfaction  by  the  hands  in  the  factories,  but  their  employers, 
within  a  short  period  from  the  date  on  which  the  law  took  effect,  almost 
unanimously  acknowledged  that  there  was  no  reduction  whatever  in  the 
amount  of  labor  performed  or  the  product  of  their  plants.     (Page  32.) 

Report  of  the  Pennsylvania  Factory  Inspector.     1895. 

1  have  come  in  contact  with  a  number  of  operators  who  state  that  their 
experience  in  working  long  hours  had  been  detrimental  to  their  business, 
and  injurious  to  the  employees,  and  by  working  shorter  hours  they  get  a 
better  production  per  hour,  and  a  superior  article,  and  are  now  running 
their  establishment  less  than  the  sixty  hours  a  week  required  by  law. 
(Page  6.) 

Report  of  the  Michigan  Bureau  of  Labor.     1899. 

All  the  young  women  in  the  employ  of  the  Company  (National  Cash 
Register)  are  allowed  to  come  in  one  hour  and  a  quarter  later  than  the 
men.  ...  At  night  they  go  home  15  minutes  earlier  than  the  men. 
They  are  given  one-half  holiday  each  week  to  do  their  shopping  and  a  full 
day's  holiday  each  month.  .  ,  .  These  same  women,  says  Mr.  Patterson, 
do  the  same  amount  of  work  as  when  they  worked  10  hours  per  day  and 
its  quality  is  much  improved.  They  give  us  better  and  quicker  work  for 
our  kindness  and  it  has  been  a  great  source  of  profit  to  us.     (Page  85.) 


EFFECT   OF    SHORTER    HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  371 

Report  of  Chief  of  Massachusetts  District  Police.     1899.  UNITED 

STATES 

One  question  has  been  raised  from  the  beginning,  which  is,  whether  or 
not  legislation  of  this  kind  does  not  make  it  impossible  for  our  manufactur- 
ing industries  to  compete  successfully  with  those  of  other  States  of  the 
Union  not  having  laws  fixing  the  limit  of  hours  of  labor  for  women  and 
minors.  ...  To  shorten  the  hours  of  labor,  it  was  said,  would  reduce  the 
production  of  our  factories,  and  increase  the  running  expenses,  unless 
wages  should  be  cut  down  to  meet  the  changed  condition.  The  evils 
predicted  have  not  come  to  pass.  It  is  at  least  probable,  if  it  cannot  be 
claimed  as  an  ascertained  fact,  that,  taking  a  reasonable  period  for  the 
basis  of  comparison,  better  work  and  more  of  it  is  done  by  the  operatives 
than  under  the  former  system  of  unrestricted  hours  of  labor.  ...  It 
may  be  assumed  that  no  legislation  in  this  Commonwealth  would  insist 
upon  maintaining  a  policy  whose  effect  would  be  the  destruction  of  our 
manufacturing  supremacy.  ...  It  cannot  be  shown  that  the  laws  in 
question  have  wrought  injury  to  any  interest;  but  it  is  true  that  they  have 
been  highly  beneficial  to  those  most  deeply  concerned.  The  condition  of 
operatives,  of  women  and  minors  as  well  as  men,  have  been  greatly  im- 
proved.    (Pages  11-12.) 


Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission  on  the  Relations  and 
Conditions  of  Capital  and  Labor  employed  in  Manufactures  and  General 
Business.  Vol.  VII.  1900.  Testimony  of  Mrs.  Fanny  B.  Ames, 
former  Factory  Inspector  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

It  is  also  claimed  that  a  shorter  day  would  not  lessen  production  even 
in  hand  work.  Perhaps  you  would  be  interested  in  the  experiment  of  a 
gentleman  who  had  an  establishment  in  Fitchburg  where  were  made  the 
balls  used  in  bicycle  bearings.  When  he  first  took  charge  of  the  establish- 
ment they  were  running  ten  hours  a  day,  with  the  exception  of  Saturday, 
when  they  ran  eight,  making  fifty-eight  hours  a  week.  Women  were 
employed  in  inspecting  the  balls.  They  do  this  by  touch,  which  becomes 
very  perfect  in  time  and  sensitive  to  the  least  imperfection;  the  balls  are 
dropped  into  boxes,  the  perfect  balls  into  one  box  and  the  imperfect  ones 
into  others,  graded  according  to  the  imperfection.  In  the  afternoon  the 
work  done  by  one  woman  in  the  morning  is  inspected  by  another,  and  thus 
there  is  a  double  inspection.  He  became  persuaded  that  there  was  a 
certain  strain  in  this  work  on  the  eyes,  the  fingers,  and  the  attention,  and 
finally  he  made  up  his  mind  that  shorter  hours  would  be  better  for  the 
women  and  would  not  lessen  the  amount  of  work  done — it  would  be  better 


372  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  for  their  health  and  quite  as  well  for  the  business.     Accordingly  he  directed 

STATES  ^j^g  women's  department  to  be  run  but  nine  hours  a  day.     At  first  the 

women  were  very  much  distressed.  As  they  were  paid  by  the  number  of 
thousands  of  balls  inspected,  they  thought  it  would  permit  them  to  earn 
less  money;  but  they  soon  found  that  they  did  just  as  many  balls  in  the 
nine  hours  as  they  had  heretofore  done  in  the  ten;  and  they  had  besides 
ten  minutes'  vacation  in  the  middle  of  the  morning  session  and  in  the 
afternoon.  Later,  the  time  was  shortened  to  eight  hours  and  a  half. 
There  was  not  so  much  objection  as  at  first,  because  they  began  to  see 
what  the  object  was,  and  they  soon  found  they  did  just  as  much  in  eight 
and  a  half  as  in  nine.  At  last  accounts  the  time  had  been  shortened  to 
eight  hours,  and  it  was  believed  it  could  be  cut  down  to  seven  and  one- 
half.     (Page  63.) 

What  I  wanted  to  show  was  that  the  trend  of  intelligent  business 
management  is  to  the  conclusion  that  when  a  person  who  is  doing  the 
work  has  less  strain  upon  him,  he  will  get  out  more  work  up  to  a  cer- 
tain limit,  in  less  time;  and  where  the  work  is  done  by  the  piece  it  is 
done  with  less  dawdling  and  more  diligence,  nor  is  it  so  hard  to  work 
with  that  severe  attention  for  less  time  as  it  is  to  work  longer  hours 
with  less  attention.     (Page  64.) 

Report  of  the  New   York  Department  of  Labor:    On  Factory  Inspection. 
1901. 

It  was  feared  by  employers  that  to  reduce  the  hours  of  labor  was  to 
reduce  the  quantity  of  products,  and  that  in  the  competition  for  markets 
the  longer  hours  would  have  a  decided  advantage  over  the  shorter  hours; 
but  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  lessening  of  the  hours  of  labor  does 
not,  within  certain  limits,  result  in  a  decrease,  but  rather  in  an  increase 
of  products  instead. 

Another  phase  of  the  subject  has  also  come  to  the  front  gradually  in 
the  course  of  this  agitation  for  a  shorter  work-day.  It  is  that  quality 
of  product  may  be  improved  by  a  shorter  day,  and  by  this  improvement 
in  quality  of  the  product  has  come  to  be  considered  the  improvement  of 
the  quality  of  the  laborer  himself.     (Page  562.) 

Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission.     Final  Report.     Vol. 
XIX.     1902. 

Those  States  which  are  just  now  advancing  to  the  position  of  manu- 
facturing communities  might  well  learn  from  these  examples  the  lesson 


EFFECT   OF    SHORTER   HOURS    ON    OUTPUT  373 

that  permanent  industrial  progress  cannot  be  built  upon  the  physical   united 
exhaustion  of  women  and  children.  ...  A  reduction  in  hours  has  never  ^'^^'^^^ 
lessened  the  working  people's  ability  to  compete  in  the  markets  of  the 
world.     States  with  shorter  work-days  actually  manufacture  their  prod- 
ucts at  a  lower  cost  than  States  with  longer  work-days.     (Page  788.) 

United  States  Congress.  House  Report,  No.  1793  (4405).  Hours  of 
Laborers  on  Public  IVorks  of  the  United  States.  Report  from  the 
Committee  on  Labor.  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  1st  Session.  1901- 
1902. 

No  reasonable  person  would,  for  a  moment,  entertain  the  proposition 
that  the  work  day  should  again  be  lengthened  to  fourteen  or  twelve 
hours.  ...  It  is  nowhere  claimed,  so  far  as  your  committee  is  aware, 
that  any  reduction  in  the  hours  of  labor  has  had  a  detrimental  effect  on 
business,  on  manufacturers,  on  labor  as  a  unit,  or  individual  laborers. 
The  advocates  of  the  short-hour  theory,  on  the  other  hand,  trace  the  moral, 
social,  and  financial  improvement  of  the  laborer  to  this  cause,  and  allege 
that  business  was  at  no  time  injured,  but  improved,  if  affected,  and  that 
production  was  stimulated  and  consumption  increased.     (Page  9.) 

Report  of  the  IVisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1903-1904. 

Manufacturers  maintain  that  by  enforcing  shorter  hours  they  are 
unable  to  compete  with  those  factories  which  are  not  hampered  in  this 
way.  In  order  to  test  the  truth  or  falsity  of  this  claim,  the  Salford  Iron 
Works  of  Manchester,  England,  voluntarily  reduced  the  number  of  hours 
required  for  a  day's  work  to  eight.  After  giving  the  system  a  fair  trial, 
the  management  declared  that  the  character  of  work  performed  and  wages 
paid  remained  about  the  same;  that  although  a  depression  in  trade  took 
place  about  the  same  time  this  experiment  was  being  made,  and  competi- 
tion was  exceedingly  fierce,  the  output  was  greater  and  the  receipts  larger 
than  under  the  old  system.  The  Salford  Iron  Works  continue  the  eight- 
hour  system  to  the  present  day,  and  other  allied  industries  and  the  arsenal 
works  and  dock-yards  are  following  example.     (Page  142.) 

Eleventh  Special  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor.     1904. 
Regulation  and  Restriction  of  Output. 

Considered  solely  with  reference  to  speed  or  intensity  of  exertion,  a 
moderate  reduction  in  the  number  of  hours  of  labor  each  day  usually 


374  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

DT^TED  tends  to  increase  the  speed  rather  than  to  restrict  it.     From  the  stand- 

STATES  point  of  exertion  a  reduction  of  hours  is  exactly  the  opposite  from  a  re- 

striction of  output.     (Pages  15-16.) 

Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics.  Vol.  II.  Francis  A.  Walker, 
Ph.D.,  LL.D.  The  Eight-hour  Law  Agitation.  New  York,  Holt, 
1899. 

There  is  Httle  doubt  that  all  the  successive  reductions  in  the  working 
day  which  have  thus  far  taken  place  among  certain  laboring  populations 
have  resulted  in  an  immediate  gain  to  productive  power  in  the  generation 
following.  It  has  probabl\'  never  occurred  that  a  reduction  of  working 
time  has  been  all  loss,  since  a  somewhat  increased  activity,  a  somewhat 
enhanced  energy,  has  characterized  each  part  of  the  time  remaining. 
(Page  387.) 

Factory  People  and  their  Employers.     E.  L.  Shuey.     New  York,  1900. 

Among  the  most  desirable  things  is  the  matter  of  shorter  hours  for 
women.  The  experience  of  a  number  of  leading  manufacturers  has  indi- 
cated that  equal  results  may  be  obtained  in  man\'  forms  of  manufacture 
in  the  shorter  hours.  Fels  &  Co.  of  Philadelphia  gradually  reduced  the 
time  of  their  women  from  ten  to  eight  hours,  girls  working  five  days  in  the 
week.  At  the  same  time  wages  have  been  practically  increased.  The 
Levy  Bros.  Co.  (England)  has  had  a  similar  experience.  The  National 
Cash  Register  Co.  in  the  same  manner  reduced  its  hours  for  women  from 
ten  to  eight.     (Page  113.) 

Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Annual  Contentions  of  the  International  Associa- 
tion of  Factory  Inspectors  of  America.  Indianapolis,  1900.  Niagara 
Falls,  1901.  {Bound  in  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor  Re- 
port, 1901.)  The  Shorter  IVorkday  in  its  Effect  upon  the  Personal 
Character  of  the  fVorker.  John  Holbrook,  Deputy  Commissioner  of 
Labor,  Michigan. 

...  It  was  feared  b\'  employers  that  to  reduce  the  hours  of  labor  was 
to  reduce  the  quantit\'  of  products,  and  that  in  the  competition  for  markets 
the  longer  hours  would  have  a  decided  advantage  over  the  shorter  hours; 
but  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  lessening  of  the  hours  of  labor  does 
not,  within  certain  limits,  result  in  a  decrease,  but  rather  in  an  increase  of 
products  instead.     (Page  562.) 


LONG   HOURS    REDUCE    EFFICIENCY  375 

American  Economic  Association  Quarterly.     {Formerly,  Publications  of  the  united 
American  Economic  Association.)     Third  Series.     Vol.  IX.     No.  3. 
1908.     Factory  Legislation  of  Rhode  Island.     John    Ker  Towles, 
Ph.D.     Princeton. 

Perhaps  the  strongest  reason  for  the  observation  of  the  statute  is  the 
fact  that  the  mill  managers  have  found  that  a  reduction  of  the  average 
working  day  to  ten  hours  has  not  curtailed  production.  Such  influences, 
rather  than  any  activity  on  the  part  of  the  factory  inspectors,  caused  the 
manufacturers,  during  the  normal  periods  of  business,  to  comply  with  the 
law.     (Page  72.) 


(2)  Long  Hours  Reduce  Efficiency  and  thus  Result  in 
Inferior  Output 


British    Sessional   Papers.     Vol.    XIII.     1843.     Children's    Employment 
Commission.     John  Lawson  Kennedy,  Esq.,  Lancashire. 

408.  .  .  .  Practically  it  has  been  found  that  the  attention  of  the 
workman,  on  which  the  application  of  his  skill  and  the  productiveness  of 
the  machine  under  his  care  depend,  cannot  be  sustained  beyond  a  certain 
daily  period.  From  this  cause,  namely,  the  impossibility  of  keeping  up 
the  attention,  care,  and  skill  of  the  workman  in  applying  the  machinery, 
night  work  has  been  generally  abandoned  in  the  cotton-spinning  trade; 
and  it  is,  moreover,  an  important  fact  that  those  establishments  in  this 
district  which  resorted  systematically  to  night  work  have  almost  without 
exception  become  bankrupt.  I  have  been  assured  by  printers  themselves 
that  the  rule  as  to  the  unprofitableness  of  long  hours  of  work  for  long 
continued  periods  is  equally  applicable  to  the  (calico-print)  trade.  I  have 
been  favoured  by  an  influential  house  in  the  print  trade  with  an  inspection 
of  those  books  which  show  the  rates  of  production  in  their  roller  printing 
machines  during  a  period  of  4  months  when  they  worked  unusually  long 
hours,  vii.,  15  hours  a  day,  under  a  peculiar  stress  of  business.  The 
machines  never  stopped  from  morning  till  night  and  there  was  no  inter- 
mission at  the  dinner  hour.  From  the  beginning  of  the  first  month  to  the 
middle  of  the  second  the  production  kept  very  steady,  scarcely  varying 
from  week  to  week,  with  a  comparatively  low  proportion  of  spoiled  work, 
towards  the  end  of  the  second  month  a  gradual  decrease  in  the  production 
of  the  machines  was  perceptible,  attended  by  an  increased  proportion  of 
spoiled  work.  Towards  the  end  of  the  third  month,  and  throughout  the 
fourth,  the  production  of  the  machines  arrived  at  their  minimum,  and  the 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


376  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

RR^m  proportion  of  spoiled  work  its  maximum.     The  proportion  of  spoiled  work 

from  the  beginning  of  the  first  to  the  end  of  the  fourth  month  actually 
doubled  itself,  whilst  the  average  production  of  the  machines  decreased 
from  100  to  90  per  cent,  during  the  same  time.  In  fact  the  amount  of 
spoiled  work  increased  to  such  an  alarming  degree  that  the  parties  re- 
ferred to  felt  themselves  compelled  to  shorten  the  hours  of  labour  to  avoid 
loss,  and  as  soon  as  the  alteration  was  made  the  amount  of  spoiled  work 
sunk  to  its  former  level.  The  men  were  paid  extra  wages  for  their  extra 
exertions,  and  there  was  no  intention  or  motive  on  their  parts  to  produce 
this  result.  It  is,  I  am  informed,  the  general  experience  of  this  branch  of 
trade  that  under  whatever  circumstances  night  work  is  tried  the  produce 
is  distinguished  by  a  larger  share  than  ordinary  of  spoiled  work.    (Page  72.) 

Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  73.     1844. 

Mr.  Vernon  Smith: 

But  he  would  venture  to  say,  that  though  the  diminution  of  time  was 
one-sixth,  the  diminution  of  profitable  labour  would  be  much  less  because 
the  last  2  hours  would  be  the  least  efficient  owing  to  the  exhaustion  caused 
by  the  previous  10  hours  of  labour.  But  he  could  not  think  that  the  com- 
merce of  this  country  was  really  in  so  ticklish,  hazardous  and  perilous  a 
state,  as  to  depend  upon  so  small  an  amount,  more  or  less,  of  additiona. 
labour.  ...  If  the  proposed  diminution  of  labour  should  induce  some 
evils  as  regarded  our  commerce,  it  appeared  to  him  that  the  change  would 
be  attended,  on  the  other  hand,  with  great  advantage  to  the  country. 
(Pages  1404^1405.) 

Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  74.     1844.     Letter  in  Bolton  Free 
Press  {April,  1844). 

"There  is  also  another  consideration  for  employers,  namely,  that  in  a 
day's  work  of  12  hours,  the  last  hour  by  reason  of  the  exhaustion  and 
listlessness  of  the  workers,  is  the  least  productive  in  quantity,  and  the 
least  satisfactory  in  quality."     (Page  911.) 

"The  probability  is,  that  the  twelfth  hour  produces  more  spoiled  work 
than  any  other  2  hours  of  the  day."     (Page  911.) 

Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  92.     1847. 

The  Earl  of  Ellesmere: 

.  .  .  Deductions  are  made,  when  the  article  is  brought  in  by  the  opera- 
tive, for  waste  and  spoil.  .  .  .  from  such  information  as  I  can  obtain,  it 


LONG  HOURS    REDUCE    EFFICIENCY  377 

is  my  firm  belief  that  nine-tenths  of  that  spoiled  will  arise  in  the  last  great 
weary  hours  of  the  operatives'  present  average  toil.     I  have  never  met 
with  any  man  of  any  class,  conversant  with  the  subject,  who  has  not  laid 
much  stress  on  this  circumstance.     (Page  898.) 

The  Bishop  of  Oxford: 

Could  they  for  a  moment  conceive,  that  by  limiting  the  labour  of  the 
factory  worker  to  10  hours  a  day  instead  of  12,  they  would  sweep  away 
all  the  manufacturers  of  the  country,  and  drive  them  abroad?  .  .  .  Let 
them  remember  that  he  was  speaking  of  young  females  who  had  to  follow 
the  rapid  motions  of  the  machinery  of  a  mill;  .  .  .  and  remember  also 
the  fixedness  of  the  attention  which  was  necessary  for  these  young  women 
to  maintain  when  walking  in  the  midst  of  a  factory,  where  danger  threat- 
ened them  at  every  turn,  and  where  a  single  instance  of  negligence  might 
be  attended  with  loss  of  life  or  limb.  .  .  .  Could  their  Lordships  believe 
that  upon  the  last  2  hours'  labour  of  that  trembling  hand,  tending  upon 
that  machinery  after  long,  unceasing,  and  heart-consuming  attention, 
when  nature  almost  refused  to  perform  her  functions — could  their  Lord- 
ships believe  that  upon  those  2  last  hours  depended  all  the  profits  and 
accumulations  of  the  manufacturers?  He  believed  that  the  work  done  in 
those  2  last  hours  was  infinitely  inferior  in  quality  to  that  which  was  done 
in  any  other  portion  of  the  day.  It  was  demanding  work  when  nature 
refused  the  power  of  working.     (Pages  939-940.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXI.     1894.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

Overtime  {i.  e.,  over  ten  and  a  half  hours  daily)  allows  but  scanty 
opportunity  for  leisure.  .  .  .  The  consequent  effect  upon  the  health 
of  the  workers  is  exceedingly  injurious.  Some  employers,  too,  hold  that 
in  proportion  as  the  workpeople  suffer  in  health,  their  work  suffers  in 
execution.     (Page  11.) 

Eight  Hours  for  Work.     John  Rae.     London,  Macmillan,  1894. 

But  for  the  last  60  years  we  have  been  slowly  learning  the  lesson  that 
all  this  successive  prolongation  of  working  hours,  which  was  near  eating 
the  heart  out  of  the  labouring  manhood  of  England,  was  also,  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  manufacturers'  own  interest,  a  grave  pecuniary  mistake. 
In  their  haste  to  be  repaid  their  expenditure  on  machinery,  the  manufac- 
turers were  really  wearing  down  the  most  precious  machine  they  had  got 
— their  great  machine  mere,  as  Blanqui  called  it,  on  which  the  success  of 
all  the  rest  depended.     They  found  that  with  this  flesh  and  blood  machine 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


378 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


an  hour's  more  running  in  the  day  did  not  mean  an  hour's  more  product 
in  the  day,  but  that  really,  after  a  certain  limit,  an  extra  hour  of  repose 
has  much  higher  productive  value  than  an  extra  hour  of  work.  ...  A 
French  manufacturer  once  said  to  Guizot:  "We  used  to  say  it  was  the  last 
hour  that  gave  us  our  profit,  but  we  have  now  learnt  it  was  the  last  hour 
that  ate  up  our  profit,"  and  though  we  still  hear  much  fright  expressed 
about  the  competition  of  the  pauper  and  long  hour  labour  of  other  coun- 
tries, we  are  coming  more  and  more  to  perceive  that  Mr.  Mundella  is 
probabl\'  right  in  sa\'ing  it  is  really  their  long  hours  that  save  us  from  their 
competition,  because  their  long  hours  impair  the  personal  efficiency  of 
their  labour  and  the  competition  between  the  nations  is  growing  every 
day  more  and  more  to  be  mainly  a  competition  in  personal  efficiency. 
(Pages  11-12.) 


GERMANY  Jahrcsberichte  der  Gewerhe-Aiijsichtsheamien  iind  Berghehorden  fiir  das 
Jahr  1903.  Bd.  III.  [Annual  Reports  of  the  (German)  Factory  and 
Mine  Inspectors  for  1903.     Vol.  III.]     Berlin,  Decker,  1904. 

Mecklenburg  Schwerin. 

Abnormally  long  hours  of  work  are  gradually  disappearing,  partly  by 
the  influence  of  the  trade  unions  and  their  demands  for  a  shorter  day, 
partly  because  of  the  legal  restrictions,  but  also  because  employers  are 
generally  beginning  to  realize  their  ineffectiveness.     (Page  T°.) 

Jahresberichte  der  Gewerbe-Aiifsichtsbeamten  und  Bergbehorden  fiir  das 
Jahr  1904.  Bd.  III.  [Reports  of  the  (German)  Factory  and  Mine 
Inspectors  for  1904.     Vol.  III.]     Berlin,  Decker,  1905. 

Elsass  Lothringen. 

The  abandonment  of  extremel\'  long  hours  in  Lothringen  is  due  less 
to  the  efforts  of  the  unions  than  to  the  effect  of  legislation.  It  is  due  most 
of  all  to  the  steady  if  slow  increase  of  insight  among  employers,  that  a 
permanently  long  working  day  is  useless.  .  .  .  Only  force  of  habit  and 
the  stupidity  of  some  employers — also  of  some  workers — explain  the  per- 
sistence of  long  hours  in  the  face  of  all  the  favorable  testimony  for  the 
shorter  day.     (Page  26'62  ) 


Hours  and  Wages  in  Relation  to  Production.     Lujo  Brentano.     Trans- 
lated by  Mrs.  W.m.  Arnold.     London,  Sonnenschein,  1894. 

Before  the  passing  of  the  Ten  Hours  Act,  individual  manufacturers 
who  were  agitating  for  that  law  had  set  on  foot   experiments   in   their 


LONG    HOURS    REDUCE    EFFICIENCY  379 

factories,  with  the  view  of  testing  the  assertion  that  the  lowering  of  the  germajxy 
working  day  from  12  to  10  hours  would  ruin  the  cotton  industry.  These 
cases  made  it  quite  clear  that  the  question  was  not  merel>-  the  arith- 
metical one, — if  12  hours  produce  x,  what  will  10  produce'  It  was  found 
that  the  work  done  in  the  last  two  hours  was  so  small  that  in  the  experi- 
mental shortening  of  the  working  day  from  12  to  10  hours  the  output  was 
not  one-sixth  but  only  one-twelfth  less  than  formerly.  In  addition  to 
this,  it  was  found  that  just  in  those  last  two  hours  a  great  deal  of  material 
was  spoiled  by  the  wearied  and  therefore  careless  operatives.  When, 
therefore,  the  Ten  Hours  Act  was  actually  passed, — it  became  generally 
apparent  that,  as  Ernest  von  Plener  said  in  his  work  on  factor}-  legislation, 
"the  mere  lengthening  of  the  working  day  of  a  workman  was  not  equiva- 
lent to  the  increase  of  his  productive  capacity;  the  operatives,  especially 
the  \-ounger  ones,  no  longer  exhausted  by  excessive  bodily  effort,  produced 
the  same  amount,  and  frequentl}.-  even  turned  out  more  in  the  shorter 
time."     (Pages  29-30.) 

It  has  been  ever\"where  observed  that  the  workmen  in  countries  where 
work-time  is  short  produce  more  than  in  those  where  it  is  long.  ...  I 
myself  was  told  in  March,  1890,  by  an  overseer  in  .Mr.  Mathers'  machine 
works  in  Salford,  .  .  .  that  he  had  worked  in  Dresden,  England,  and 
America;  and  he  said  that  the  greater  etficiency  of  the  .American  workman 
was  a  result  of  his  shorter  hours.  In  the  same  way  he  had  observed  an 
increase  of  production  in  Salford  as  often  as  the  worktime  was  shortened; 
in  Saxony,  on  the  other  hand,  one  of  the  chief  reasons  of  the  inferior 
efficiency  of  labour  was  the  length  of  the  working-day.  .  .  .  .\nd  Brassey 
says  of  the  Russians,  that  one  English  workman  produces  as  much  in  ten 
hours  as  two  Russians  in  sixteen. 

In  complete  harmony  with  the  above,  it  has  been  further  observ^ed  that 
in  one  and  the  same  countr}%  workers  with  regularly  short  hours  outstrip 
those  who  regularly  work  longer.      (Pages  32-33.) 

At  the  congress  of  Hygiene  at  Vienna,  in  1887,  the  Swiss  factor.-  in- 
spector, Schuler,  reported  that  in  Switzerland  experience  had  shown  that 
the  legal  reduction  of  the  working  day  from  twelve  to  eleven  hours,  i.  e., 
by  8K  per  cent,  had  led,  in  short,  to  a  falling  oflf  in  the  less  well-equipped 
cotton-spinning  factories  of  only  3  per  cent  in  production,  while  in  the 
well-equipped  ones  it  was  only  2  to  1^  per  cent.  In  Miihlhausen,  Dolfuss 
reduced  his  working  day  from  twelve  to  eleven  hours,  and  promised  his 
operatives  that  their  wages  should  remain  unaltered  if  they  produced 
the  same  quantity  of  work  as  before.  At  the  end  of  a  month  it  was  seen 
that  not  only  as  much  work  was  done  in  eleven  hours,  as  formerh'  in 
twelve,  but  5  per  cent  more.     (Pages  35-36.) 


380  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

FRANCE  Bulletin  de  I'lnspedion  dii   Travail.     Minisiere  du  Commerce,  de  Vlti' 

dustrie,  des  Pastes  et  des  TeUgraphes.  Fasc.  5  and  6.  Travaux 
originaux  des  Inspedeurs.  [Original  Contributions  by  the  Inspectors.] 
Etude  sur  I'Infliience  de  la  Reduction  de  la  Journee  de  Travail  sur  le 
Rendement  Industriel.  [The  Effect  of  Shorter  Hours  on  Production.] 
M.  Grillet,  Inspector  at  Rennes.     Paris,  1902. 

The  most  striking  and  happy  results  of  the  reduction  of  hours  eflfected 
within  the  last  four  years  (brought  about  in  two  steps:  first  to  \Q}4,  then 
to  10  hours)  has  been,  that  many  employers  are  more  ready  to  agree  to 
the  principle  of  limiting  the  adult  worker's  hours  of  labor;  that  the  general 
and  uniform  application  of  a  shorter  day  has  been  facilitated,  and  that 
upright  and  reliable  employers  are  able  to  aifirm  that  this  reduction  of 
2V  in  the  length  of  hours  has  not  brought  about  any  sensible  loss  of  output. 
(Page  425.) 

One  thing  is  certain:  in  proportion  as  the  daily  duration  of  working 
hours  is  prolonged,  the  production  per  hour  decreases.  What  does  the 
employer  want  of  his  workmen?  Hours  of  work,  not  hours  of  presence. 
What  does  he  need?  To  secure  the  best  possible  use  of  his  workman's 
strength.  Now,  to  attain  that,  it  is  essential  that  the  worker  should  have 
rest  periods  sufficiently  long  to  completely  repair  his  vitality.  (Page 
426.) 

M.  Riviere  in  a  report  to  the  International  Congress  for  Labor  Legisla- 
tion in  Paris,  July  1900,  set  forth  in  masterly  fashion  the  disadvantages 
of  long  hours  of  work  from  the  industrial,  not  the  sentimental  point  of 
view.     We  have  reached  the  same  conclusions  by  a  different  route. 

Now,  if  workmen  are  employed  steadily  eight  hours  a  day  for  a  certain 
time,  say  two  months,  then  9  hours  for  an  equal  period  and  then  in  suc- 
cession for  10,  11,  12,  13,  14  hours,  it  can  be  shown  that  the  production 
per  hour  is  at  first  nearly  the  same  (in  6,  7,  8,  or  9  hours  of  work)  and  that, 
consequently,  the  daily  output  is  directly  proportioned  to  the  length  of 
the  working  day.  After  that,  in  proportion  as  length  of  working  time 
increases,  production  per  hour  decreases  and  as  a  result,  daily  output  does 
not  keep  pace  with  daily  hours  of  work.     (Page  426.) 

It  can  be  stated  positively  that  the  workman's  daily  output  diminishes 
progressively,  starting  with  such  a  period  as  we  have  just  mentioned,  and 
becomes  stationary  after  from  8  to  15  days  have  elapsed.  It  is  natural 
that  it  should  be  so.  Taking  one  single  day,  after  a  certain  number  of 
hours  have  elapsed  fatigue  comes  on  (later,  if  the  workman  is  fit;  sooner 
if  he  is  already  fagged  by  previous  work)  and  his  productive  capacity 
sinks.     The  hourly  output  decreases  toward  the  end  of  the  day  while  at 


LONG   HOURS    REDUCE    EFFICIENCY  381 

the  same  time  duration  of  work  is  prolonged.     Then,  when  the  workman   France 
resumes  his  work  on  the  following  day,  his  fatigue  of  the  day  before  has 
not  all  disappeared.     His  daily  output,  is  then,  a  little  less  every  day 
than  it  was  the  day  before,  working  hours  being  the  same,  until  finally  at 
the  end  of  a  certain  period,  an  equilibrium  is  arrived  at. 

It  is  evident  that  the  contrary  will  be  true  if  hours  of  work  are  reduced. 
The  output  per  hour  will  rise  until,  again,  an  equilibrium  is  estab- 
lished. 

The  result  is,  that  when  the  employer  increases  working  hours  con- 
siderably, and  for  a  considerable  length  of  time,  the  final  hours  of  every 
day  bring  him  a  certain  loss,  varying  in  difi'erent  industries. 

The  personal  interest  of  the  employer,  then,  is,  not  to  overpass  the 
"maximum  day,"  that  duration  of  time  during  which  the  worker's  pro- 
ductivity is  at  its  best.     (Page  426.) 

Our  observations  enable  us  to  say  positively:  If  it  is  not  carried  beyond 
a  certain  limit  of  hours  (eight,  or  nine,  or  ten  a  day  according  to  the  in- 
dustry) reduction  of  working  hours  has  not  only  not  caused  any  sensible 
diminution  in  output,  but  instead,  has  resulted  in  an  often  notable  im- 
provement in  the  quality  of  the  product.     (Page  428.) 

These  results  have  not  only  been  demonstrated  in  hand  work,  where 
the  workman's  share  in  production  is  direct  but  also  in  machine  work, 
where  the  workman's  part  is  primarily  to  supervise  the  machine.  For 
then,  by  reason  of  the  shorter  sojourn  in  the  factory  the  workman  is 
more  alert,  more  ready:  he  loses  less  time;  feeds  his  machine  more  rapidly, 
and  this  quite  unconsciously,  just  because  he  feels  more  able.  (Page 
428.) 

M.  Benedict  B — having  successively  tried  the  12,  then  the  11,  10,  and 
finally  the  8  hour  day  in  his  factories,  definitely  established  the  8  hour 
day  because  it  assured  him  not  only  the  best  hourly  output  but  also  the 
best  daily  output.  .  .  .  Naturally  (he  told  us)  one  of  his  women  could 
produce  more  in  9  or  10  hours,  but  only  temporarily.  According  to  his 
opinion,  every  industry  has  its  maximum  day  which  ought  not  to  be  over- 
passed and  ...  in  his,  this  maximum  is  eight  hours.  If  a  rush  of  work 
comes,  he  requires  his  workwomen  to  work  for  nine  hours,  and  the  output 
keeps  up  if  two  conditions  are  observed:  1.  that  supervision  is  good:  2, 
that  overwork  does  not  last  for  a  long  stretch  of  time.     (Page  434.) 

M.  Moussard,  carriage  maker,  said: 

In  our  shop  the  men  do  as  much  in  10  hours  as  formerly  in  12,  because, 
with  12  hours  they  became  fatigued  and  worked  without  energy.  In 
ten  hours  they  work  steadily.     (Pages  435.) 


382 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


BELGroM 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


Royaume  de  Belgique,  Conseil  Superieur  du  Travail,  9^  Session,  1907. 
[Belgian  Higher  Council  of  Labor,  9th  session,  1907.]  Re glementation 
de  la  Duree  du  Travail  des  Adultes.  [Regulation  of  Hours  of  IVork 
for  Adults.]     Discussion. 

M.  G.  Helleputte: 

It  has  been  established  by  figures  which  it  is  impossible  to  disregard 
that  what  is  lost  in  time  is  regained  in  work-intensiveness,  and  this  is  not 
surprising.  It  is  impossible  that  product  should  be  proportioned  to  the 
number  of  hours,  for  the  work  of  a  fatigued  organism  is  not  as  effective 
as  that  of  a  fresh  and  able  organism.  We  have  but  to  recall  our  own  ex- 
periences to  see  this.  If  one  could  trace  from  hour  to  hour  the  curve  of 
effectiveness  of  the  workman,  one  would  very  probably  find  that  it  rose 
in  the  morning,  rapidly  attained  a  maximum,  and  fell  toward  evening  to  a 
point  which  descended  as  the  working  day  increased  in  length. 

Cut  off  the  last  hour  experimentally  and  you  do  not  reduce,  propor- 
tionally, the  output  of  a  given  workman:  cut  it  off  permanently  and  the 
workman,  thanks  to  the  longer  rest,  becomes  more  alert  and  vigorous. 
His  curve  of  work  will  be  enlarged.  It  is  understood,  of  course,  that  this 
reduction  is  not  carried  to  extremes.     (Page  13.) 

Berichte  iiher  die  Fahrikinspektion.  1884:  1885.  [Reports  of  the  (Swiss) 
Factory  Inspectors,  1884  and  1885.]     Aarau,  Sauerldnder,  1886. 

The  argument  that  hours  of  work,  if  prolonged  beyond  a  certain  point, 
result  in  increased  production  has  been  disproved  by  the  experience  of  a 
factory  where  ...  to  avoid  over-production  the  hours  were  reduced  to 
one-half  the  usual  number  during  the  summer.  According  to  calculations 
the  output  should  have  been  reduced  by  50  per  cent;  actually  it  only  fell 
10  per  cent.  True  that  in  this  factory  hand  work  played  an  important 
part;  yet  does  not  this  result  prove  that  workmen,  overstrained  by  ex- 
cessive toil  and  worn  by  fatigue  in  excess  of  their  strength  undergo  a 
deterioration  of  their  productive  facilities?  In  proportion  as  fatigue 
enfeebles  in  them  that  master  faculty — application — they  come  in  fact 
to  produce  less  and  less  in  the  same  extent  of  time.     (Page  65.) 


GERMANY  ArchivfUr So^ialeGeset^gebungund Statistik.  Bd.VIII.  1895.  ZurVerkUri- 
ung  der  Arheitsieit  in  der  Mechanischen  Textilindustrie.  [The  Reduc- 
tion of  Working  Hours  in  the  Mechanical  Textiles  Industry.]  Rudolf 
Martin,  Referendar  in  the  Statistical  Office  of  the  Kingdom  of  Saxony. 

The  mechanical  textile  industries  of  Germany  suffered  greatly  after 
1830,  because,  protected  by  a  high  tariff  but  with  no  protective  labor  laws 


LONG    HOURS    REDUCE    EFFICIENCY  383 

she  sought  her  economic  salvation  through  long  hours  of  work  and  low  GERMANY 
wages — in  a  word,  through  defective  conditions  of  labor.  Depending  on 
her  long  hours  and  low  wages  she  neglected  to  improve  her  technic,  whilst 
England,  with  a  ten-hour  day  for  women  and  children  established  as  far 
back  as  1850,  and  higher  wages  .  .  .  made  vast  strides.  .  .  .  The  melan- 
choly result  was  that  the  history  of  cotton  mills  ...  in  the  '70's  was  a 
history  of  bankruptcy.     (Page  261.) 

Revue  Internationale  de  Sociologie,  Nov.-Dec,  1895.     Le  Travail  Hiimain  ITALY 
et  ses  Lois.     [The  Laws  of  Human  fVork.]     Francesco  S.  Nitti, 
University  of  Naples.     Paris,  Giard  et  Briere,  1895. 

The  workman  who  persists  in  working  despite  his  fatigue  not  only 
makes  a  greater  organic  effort  with  more  trouble  but  produces  an  inferior 
mechanical  result.     (Page  1029.) 

.  .  .  These  facts  explain  how  it  is  that  people  subjected  to  long  hours 
of  work  finally  produce  inferior  output;  and  they  explain,  too,  what  seems 
at  first  an  economic  paradox,  that  the  whole  cost  of  industry  is  ordinarily 
less  in  countries  where  the  hours  of  work  are  short  than  in  those  where 
they  are  long.     (Page  1029.) 

One  of  the  most  intelligent  of  the  Swiss  factory  inspectors  said  long 
ago  on  this  point,  "Germany  and  France,  apparently  will  not  reduce  their 
hours  of  work;  Austria  has  an  animated  opposition  going  on  to  reduction 
of  hours;  Italy  retains  night  work.  Their  workmen  will  become  less  and 
less  capable  of  productive  labor  whilst  ours  will  advance  and  then  we  shall 
see  once  more  what  we  have  seen  several  times  before,  namely,  that  we 
shall  excel  our  neighbors."     (Page  1029.) 


Retort  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  1871.  UNITED 

•^  STATES 

The  operatives  vary  in  perfectness  and  productiveness  as  the  day 
progresses;  and  if  there  should  be  a  reduction  to  ten  hours  there  would 
not  be  a  loss  of  one-eleventh  of  the  product.  ...  I  think  it  will  be  found 
that  much  of  the  cloth  made  during  the  eleventh  hour  is  of  poorer  quality 
than  the  rest,  and  that  the  necessity  of  looking  it  over  the  next  day  and 
fixing  it  all  right  lessens  the  product  of  that  next  day.  ...  1  certainly 
believe  that  the  productive  capacity  of  a  set  of  work-people  may  be  les- 
sened by  increasing  the  hours  of  their  daily  work.  The  question  is  not 
legitimately  one  of  arithmetic,  nor  can  it  be  settled  by  argument  about 
one-eleventh  less  or  one-tenth  more.  It  is  a  question  to  be  settled  by 
actual  results  on  long-continued  trial.     (Pages  499-500.) 


384  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Report  of  the  Chief  of  Massachusetts  District  Police  for  the   Year  Ending 

STATES  jj^^    jj^  ^^^5 

It  must  of  course  be  admitted,  that  there  is  a  limit  to  human  endurance. 
If  one  labors  twelve  hours  a  day,  it  cannot  be  maintained  that  he  will  do 
as  much  work  in  the  last  two  hours,  nor  do  it  as  well,  as  in  any  previous 
two  hours  of  the  same  day.  Jaded  by  excessive  toil,  the  brain  becomes 
sluggish  and  the  fmgers  clumsy.  It  is  not  an  assumption,  but  an  ac- 
knowledged fact  that  under  the  improved  condition  resulting  from  shorten- 
ing the  number  of  hours  of  labor,  operatives  produce  in  the  shorter  period 
at  least  the  same  amount  of  work;  and  many  manufacturers  admit  that 
in  the  last  two  hours  in  any  given  day  under  the  old  system,  work  so  much 
inferior  was  produced,  that  what  was  gained  in  quantity  was  lost  in  qual- 
ity. The  shortening  of  the  number  of  hours  of  labor,  if  the  time  thus 
gained  for  leisure  is  used  for  proper  purposes,  becomes  one  of  the  best 
means  for  the  elevation  of  the  people  thus  affected.     (Pages  19-20.) 

Getting  a  Living.     The  Problem  of  Wealth  and  Poverty,  Profits,  Wages,  and 
Trades  Unionism.    Geo.  Lewis  Bolen.    New  York,  Macmillan,  1903. 

Chap.  15.     Shorter  Workday. 

If  in  the  tenth  hour  as  much  work  has  been  done  as  the  average  for 
the  previous  nine  hours,  a  reduction  of  time  to  nine  hours  per  day,  at  the 
same  pay,  would  be  an  increase  of  wages  by  eleven  and  one-ninth  per  cent, 
unless  the  extra  hour  of  rest  increased  the  hourly  product.  But  in  any 
work  not  fixed  in  speed  by  steadily  running  machinery,  less  is  done  in  the 
tenth  hour,  by  reason  of  weariness,  than  in  other  hours;  and  the  work  of 
the  last  hour,  like  overtime  work  at  night,  weakens  a  person  for  the  next 
day.  It  is  this  weariness  that  causes  accidents  to  occur  two  or  three 
times  as  frequently  in  the  last  hour  as  in  other  hours — a  fact  proved  by 
European  statistics.  With  the  steady  machinery,  too,  weariness,  as  a 
rule,  either  lowers  the  quality  of  the  work  done,  or  by  frequent  stoppage 
lessens  its  amount — often  causing  both  these  losses.     (Pages  407-408.) 


C.     Incentive  to  Improvements  in  Manufacture 

The  regulation  of  the  working  day  has  acted  as  a  stim- 
ulus to  improvement  in  processes  of  manufacture.  Inven- 
tion of  new  machinery  and  perfection  of  old  methods  have 
followed  the  introduction  of  shorter  hours. 


INCENTIVE    TO    IMPROVEMENTS  385 

British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XII.     1859.     Report    of   Inspector    of  great 


Factories  for  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1858. 

But  the  increase  in  the  actual  number  of  mills  is  not  the  only  measure 
of  progression,  for  the  great  improvements  that  have  been  made  in  ma- 
chinery of  all  kinds  have  vastly  increased  their  productive  powers,  im- 
provements to  which  a  stimulus  was  doubtless  given,  especially  as  regards 
the  greater  speed  of  the  machines  in  a  given  time  by  the  restrictions  of  the 
hours  of  work.  These  improvements  and  the  closer  application  which 
the  operatives  are  enabled  to  give  have  had  the  effect  as  I  have  been  again 
and  again  assured  of  as  much  work  being  turned  off  in  the  shortened  time 
as  used  to  be  in  the  longer  hours.     (Page  10.) 


Factory  Act  Legislation.     The  Cohden  Pri^e  Essay  for  1891.     Victorine 
Jeans.     London,  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  1891. 

Each  succeeding  experiment  has  proved  legislation  to  be  justifiable 
not  only  on  grounds  sanitary,  educational  and  moral,  but  also  when 
judged  by  the  "strictest  rules  of  Political  Economy."  All  the  English 
economists  were  against  the  Act  of  1844;  probably  there  is  hardly  a 
single  writer  of  note  who  would  wish  to  see  that  or  any  subsequent  act 
repealed  to-day.  The  expected  economic  results  nowhere  came  to  pass, 
because,  wherever  legislation  penetrated  it  acted  as  a  stimulus  to  "in- 
vention" in  the  best  and  widest  sense  of  the  word. 

.  .  .  Production  will  increase  with  the  improved  vigor  of  the  work- 
people and  the  use  of  better  appliances,  wages  will  rise,  foreign  trade  can 
be  only  temporarily  injured;  the  whole  basis  of  the  industry  must  in  the 
end  be  made  wider  and  stronger.     (Pages  83-84.) 


A  Shorter  Working  Day.     R.  A.  Hadfield  of  Hadjield's  Steel  Foundry  Co., 
Sheffield,  and  H.  de  B.  Gibbins,  M.A.     London,  Methuen,  1892. 

Yet  production  has  not  suflFered.  The  reason  is  that  necessity,  here 
as  always,  showed  herself  to  be  literally  the  mother  of  invention,  and  the 
decrease  of  hours  was  amply  compensated  by  an  increase  of  new  ma- 
chinery, appliances,  and  devices  which  have  brought  the  development  of 
the  manufacturing  industries  up  to  the  present  point.  Some  fear  that 
we  have  gone  as  far  in  our  inventions  as  it  is  possible  for  us  to  go,  and  that 
if  we  were  to  reduce  the  hours  of  labor  now  we  could  no  longer  compensate 
by  increased  facilities  of  production.  But  we  can  hardly  believe  that  this 
is  the  case.  To  take  but  one  example:  The  steam  engine  alone  is  as  yet 
25* 


BRITAirf 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


386 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


practically  in  its  infancy,  and  one  can  hardly  believe  that  there  is  no  room 
for  further  invention  when  we  remember  that  only  10  per  cent  of  the  power 
generated  by  coal  in  the  steam  engine  is  utilized  while  the  remaining  90 
per  cent  is  wasted.     (Page  88.) 


The  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts. 
Richard,  1901. 


Edited  by  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.     London, 


But  the  exemption  from  regulation  is  also  responsible  for  corresponding 
deficiencies  in  the  technical  administration  of  the  industry.  The  very 
fact  that  the  employers  are  legally  free  to  make  their  operatives  work 
without  limit,  and  to  crowd  any  number  of  them  into  one  room,  makes 
them  disinclined  to  put  thought  and  capital  into  improving  the  arrange- 
ments. 

.  .  .  We  might  indefinitely  prolong  the  list  of  examples  of  the  effect 
of  the  Factory  Acts  in  improving  the  processes  of  manufacture.  (Page 
53.) 


History  of  Factory  Legislation. 
Westminster,  King,  1903. 


B.  L.  HuTCHiNS  and  Amy  Harrison. 


If  it  could  be  shown  that  this  regulated  industry,  far  from  suffering 
in  competition  with  others,  went  ahead,  improved  its  machinery,  and 
developed  a  higher  standard  of  comfort  than  its  rivals,  then,  although  the 
improvement  might  not  be  due  to  the  legislation,  there  would  be,  at  all 
events,  a  strong  presumption  that  good  and  not  harm  had  been  done. 
And  this  is  what  has  taken  place.  .  .  .  The  improvement  in  the  regulated 
industry  was  clear  and  conspicuous.     (Page  121.) 


FRANCE  La    Femme    dans    I'Industrie.     [Woman    in    Industry.]     R.    Gonnard. 

Paris,  Colin,  1906. 

The  inspector  of  labor  of  Lyons  says: 

"It  has  come  about  that  this  decrease  of  the  legal  maximum  limit  of 
hours  of  labor  (ten  hours  a  day),  which  went  into  effect  the  28th  of  March, 
1902,  obliging  the  employer  to  pay  a  higher  wage  for  overtime  hours, 
has  urged  the  manufacturers  to  replace  their  former  equipment  by  ma- 
chines of  great  producing  power.  In  short,  for  the  manufacturers  in 
question,  the  regulation  has  become  a  powerful  stimulus,  which  has  driven 
them  to  do  away  with  methods  of  manufacture  already  somewhat  super- 
annuated."    (Page  78.) 


EFFECT  ON   SCOPE  OF  WOMEN's  WORK  387 

Report  of  the  JVisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics,  1903-  united 


STATES 


1904. 

Wherever  a  uniform  standard  of  wages,  hours  of  labor,  and  wholesome 
sanitary  conditions  have  been  uniformly  enforced,  the  result  has  been 
that  laborers  have  been  stimulated  to  render  greater  services  to  their 
employers,  and,  in  turn,  employers  strive  to  excel  in  improved  machinery 
and  devices  for  the  protection  of  employees,  sanitation,  and  methods  of 
production  in  general.     (Page  138.) 

That  the  enforcing  of  a  certain  standard  in  regard  to  hours  of  labor, 
wages,  and  sanitary  conditions  compels  employers  to  continually  seek 
more  improved  machinery  and  methods  of  production  is  as  true  in  prac- 
tice as  in  theory.     (Page  140.) 


D.     Effect  on  Scope  of  Women's  Work 

The  establishment  of  a  legal  limit  to  the  hours  of  woman's 
labor  does  not  result  in  contracting  the  sphere  of  her  work. 

British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XX.     1878.     Report   of   Inspectors    of  bS^n 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1877. 

.  .  .  The  argument  that  the  tendency  of  the  Factory  Acts  is  to  place 
an  artificial  restriction  on  the  employment  of  women,  and  thus  to  de- 
preciate the  market  value  on  their  labour,  is  refuted  on  every  hand  by 
practical  experience  in  the  textile  manufactories.  Here  the  restrictions 
upon  women's  work  are  the  most  stringent;  and  yet  the  tendency  for  a 
long  series  of  years  has  been  the  opposite,  the  proportion  of  women  em- 
ployed has  steadily  increased.  The  same  observation  applies  to  many  of 
the  trades  and  occupations  carried  on  in  London.  As  for  the  rate  of 
wages  paid,  there  is  not  an  employer  in  the  metropolis  who  will  hesitate  to 
acknowledge  that  there  has  been  during  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years  a 
very  substantial  and  important  advance  in  the  remuneration  given  to 
women  for  their  work.     (Pages  15-16.) 

Labour  Laws  for  Women.     Their  Reason  and  their  Results.     Independent 
Labour  Party,  London,  1900. 

If  you  go  to  the  employers  and  ask  them  if  they  would  employ  more 
women  and  pay  them  better  if  their  hours  were  not  restricted,  they  tell 


388  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  you  such  an  idea  never  entered  their  calculations;    and  the  thoughtful 

ones  will  often  tell  you  that  they  welcome  the  legal  limit  because  it  enables 
them  to  withstand  unscrupulous  competitors,  and  to  refuse  unreasonable 
customers  who  rush  in  the  afternoon  with  work  which  they  want  done 
for  the  next  morning.     (Pages  17-18.) 

Special  inquiries  sent  round  to  the  secretaries  of  trade  unions  in  which 
there  were  women  members,  for  the  purpose  of  this  tract,  have  elicited  a 
large  concensus  of  opinion  that  women  are  by  no  means  being  driven  out 
of  work  by  regulation.  Over  and  over  again  in  the  answers  we  find  such 
statements  as  these:  "Shortening  of  hours  has  made  women's  labour  more 
valuable  because  they  do  their  work  better;  they  are  not  so  tired  and  worn 
out." 


The  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts.     Edited  by  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.     London, 
Richard,  1901. 

We  thus  find,  on  comparing  men  and  women  workers,  that  a  real 
difference  does  exist  between  the  two  classes,  a  difference  which  covers, 
not  the  whole  indeed,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  industrial  field.  This 
difference  consists  primarily  in  the  fact  that  while  men  are  permanent, 
women  are  temporary  industrial  workers.  From  this  primary  difference 
arise  secondary  difi^erences  of  need  and  desire,  leading  to  inferior  training 
and  inferior  skill  on  the  part  of  the  women,  and  to  a  consequent  diifer- 
entiation  of  work.  .  .  . 

But,  it  may  be  objected,  that  although  Factory  Legislation  would  im- 
prove the  women,  it  annoys  the  employer,  and  makes  him  inclined  to  get 
rid  of  women  altogether  and  employ  men.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this 
course,  though  often  threatened  beforehand,  is  not  in  practice  followed. 
Where  women  can  be  employed,  their  labour  is  so  much  cheaper  than  that 
of  men  that  there  is  no  chance  of  their  being  displaced.  The  work  of 
men  and  women  tending  automatically  to  differentiate  itself  into  separate 
branches,  it  follows  that  there  is  very  little  direct  competition  between 
individual  men  and  women.     (Page  209.) 

The  introduction  into  any  trade  of  machines  which  can  be  successfully 
worked  after  a  short  period  of  training,  and  which  demand  neither  very 
much  physical  strength  nor  very  much  mechanical  knowledge,  will,  for 
instance,  be  pretty  certain  to  promote  the  employment  of  women.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  introduction  of  large,  heavy  and  intricate  machinery 
will,  as  certainly,  be  favorable  to  the  employment  of  men.  Pages 
208-212. 


EFFECT   ON    SCOPE    OF    WOMEN's    WORK  389 

journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society.  Vol.  LXV.  1902.  Factory 
Legislation  considered  u-ith  Reference  to  the  Wages,  etc.  of  the  Operatives 
Protected  Thereby.  George  Henry  Wood.  London,  The  Royal 
Statistical  Society,  1902. 

An  important  aspect  of  factory  legislation  is  its  efiFects  on  the  numbers 
of  protected  and  unprotected  workers  emplo\ed.  If  the  regulations  are 
irksome  and  hamper  industry-,  changes  might  be  expected  in  the  direction 
of  emplox'ing  unprotected  male  adults  in  the  place  of  protected  women, 
young  persons,  and  children. 

There  are,  however,  two  important  reasons  why  this  ma\-  not  have 
taken  place.  First,  the  protected  workers  are  usually  employed  in  routine 
process,  where  the  emplo\-ment  of  an  adult  male  would  not  bring  about  a 
sufficient  increase  in  the  amount  produced  to  pa>'  that  worker  a  reasonable 
wage.  Second,  the  regulations  of  the  trade  unions  which  the  male  worker 
might  join  would  probably  become  as  stringent  in  relation  to  hours  of 
labour  as  the  Factor}'  Acts,  and  as  the  hours  now  allowed  b_\"  the  Acts  are 
above  rather  than  below  the  average  working  week  in  industries  where 
men  are  chiefly  emplo\ed,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  trade  union 
action  would  reduce  the  hours  In  textile  and  other  factories  also,  and  the 
employer  would  not  be  the  gainer  in  the  hours  which  his  machiner_\-  might 
run.     (Page  309.) 

.  .  .  The  percentage  of  children  employed  diminished  after  1835  until 
the  "sixties,"  when  the  expansion  in  the  textile  trades  brought  about  a 
marked  change.  The  increase  continued  for  onl\'  a  few  years,  and  though 
the  small  proportion  of  1850  has  not  >'et  been  reached,  a  considerable 
decline  has  taken  place.  Males  between  thirteen  and  eighteen  _\-ears  have 
declined  almost  consistentl_\-,  their  places  apparently  being  taken  b_\"  fe- 
males over  thirteen  years.  This  is  only  the  substitution  of  one  class  of 
protected  workers  for  another,  and  cannot  be  due  to  an}'  movement  to 
evade  the  Factory  Regulations.  It  may  be  and  probably  is,  due  to  the 
increased  efficiency  of  the  labour  of  female  young  persons  and  women,  and 
in  so  far  as  this  increased  efficiency  may  be  ascribed  to  Factor}'  Acts,  it  is 
in  the  nature  of  an  indirect  effect.  Women's  labour  was  not  regulated 
until  1844,  so  any  change  in  the  relative  emplo}"ment  of  men  and  women 
before  that  date  is  not  traceable  to  the  Acts,  and  since  then  the  percentage 
of  men  employed  has  varied  little.  On  the  whole  there  seems  no  evidence 
of  a  movement  in  favour  of  the  substitution  of  unprotected  for  protected 
workers,  and  the  chief  result  of  the  changes  has  been  a  substitution  of  the 
protected  adult  and  young  person  for  the  similarly  protected  child.     In 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


390  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  the  interests  of  comine  eenerations,  this  seems  a  most  satisfactory  and 

BRITAIN  . 

desirable  direction  in  which  to  move.     (Page  311.) 

Report  of  the  72nd  Meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science.  1902.  London,  Murray,  1903.  IV omen' s  Labor.  Second 
Report  of  the  Committee  .  .  .  appointed  to  investigate  the  Economic 
Effect  of  the  Legislation  Regulating  IVomen' s  Labor. 

Of  all  the  factors  which  decide  whether  women  or  men  shall  be  employed 
on  a  particular  machine,  it  appears  to  me  that  the  restrictive  laws  are  the 
least  important,  the  relative  expense  of  the  labor  of  the  two  sexes,  the 
suitability  of  the  work,  local  custom,  the  demand  for  labor  in  other  in- 
dustries, all  have  great  influence;  but  the  cases  where  men  are  preferred 
to  women,  because  of  the  56>^  hours  law  are  far  to  seek.     (Page  292.) 

Report  of  the  73rd  Meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science.  1903.  London,  Murray,  1904.  IVomen's  Labour.  Third 
Report  of  the  Committee  .  .  .  appointed  to  investigate  the  Economic 
Effect  of  Legislation  Regulating  IVomen's  Labour. 

It  is  suggested  that  women  are  prevented  from  taking  positions  of 
responsibility,  and  from  taking  advantages  of  the  possibilities  of  new 
skilled  occupations,  by  their  restriction  from  working  extra  hours  at  times 
of  pressure;  but  no  specific  cases  are  given,  and  considering  that  it  is  rare 
that  work  is  carried  on  more  than  60  hours  a  week,  or  that  women  can 
work  efficiently  for  longer  hours,  any  effect  in  this  direction  must  be  very 
small.     (Pages  336-337.) 

History  of  Factory  Legislation.  B.  L.  Hutchins  and  Amy  Harrison. 
Westminster,  King,  1903. 

It  is  surely  extremely  significant  that  whilst  the  attack  on  the  regula- 
tion of  women's  labor  has  been  fruitless  in  better  organized  industries — 
that  is,  in  those  which  can  make  their  wishes  felt — it  has  taken  effect 
precisely  in  those  industries  which  are  unorganized  and  collectively  in- 
articulate. By  the  admission  of  the  opposition  itself,  the  women  whose 
trades  have  been  under  State  control  for  thirty,  forty,  or  fifty  years  are 
now  so  strong,  so  efficient,  so  well  organized  that  even  those  who  most 
strongly  disapprove  of  State  control  do  not  wish  to  withdraw  it  from  them. 
Yet  we  are  to  believe  that  to  those  who  are  still  working  long  hours,  in 
unsanitary  conditions,  State  control  would  mean  lowered  wages,  perhaps 
ruin.     (Page  193.) 


EFFECT   ON    SCOPE    OF    WOMEN  S    WORK  39 1 

Le  Travail  de  Nuit  dans  I'Industrie.     Rapports  sur  son  importance  et  sa   GREAT 

■'  BRITAIN 

reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer.  [Nightwork  of 
JVomen  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  importance  and  legal  regula- 
tion. Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]  Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes 
dans  I'Industrie  Anglaise.  [Nightwork  of  Women  in  English  In- 
dustry.]    Geo.  H.  Wood,  F.  S.  S.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

The  restrictions  imposed  on  the  employment  of  women,  girls  and 
children  have  not  resulted  in  any  displacement  of  female  labor  by  male 
labor,  except  in  the  branches  of  the  lead  industry  in  which  the  employment 
of  women  is  absolutely  prohibited.  Considering  the  entire  textile  in- 
dustry the  proportion  of  women  employed  has  remained  comparatively 
stable  during  the  last  sixty  years,  and  the  successive  raising  of  the  age  at 
which  children  may  be  employed  in  factories  has  been  the  means  of  in- 
creasing the  proportion  of  adults  employed  in  these  trades  in  the  place 
of  young  women  and  children.  In  other  trades  the  regulations  of  the 
hours  of  work  for  women  has  not  resulted  in  impeding  the  employment  of 
women,  nor  in  increasing  the  proportion  of  women  doing  work  at  home, 
nor  even  in  diminishing  the  number  of  women  working  in  mills.  (Page 
244.) 

The  Economic  Journal.     Vol.  XIV.  1904.     The  Employment  of  Women 
in  Paper  Mills.     B.  L.  Hutchins. 

The  question  may  be  asked,  "Has  the  regulation  of  women's  hours 
caused  any  restriction  of  women's  employment?"  .  .  .  No  evidence  is 
forthcoming  to  show  that  women  have  been  dismissed  or  set  aside  owing 
to  the  regulations  of  the  Act;  no  employer  and  only  one  foreman  thought 
the  regulations  had  any  such  tendency.  .  .  .  The  prohibition  of  over- 
time is  sometimes  considered  an  inconvenience;  but  not  one  of  a  nature 
to  cause  displacement  of  women.     (Pages  239-240.) 

To  sum  up  it  would  seem  at  first  sight  that  women  are  especially  handi- 
capped in  paper-making  owing  to  the  fact  that  night  work  is  considered 
essential,  is  prohibited  to  women,  and  is  permitted  under  certain  condi- 
tions to  the  most  formidable  competitors  of  women,  viz.,  male  young 
persons.  Nevertheless,  the  demand  for  women  workers  seems  to  be 
steadily  increasing,  and  no  displacement  can  be  shown  except  that  which 
has  been  brought  about  by  the  process  and  development  of  the  industry 
on  its  mechanical  side.  The  hours  worked  by  the  majority  of  women  are 
about  25  per  cent  shorter  than  the  legal  maximum,  and  this  arrangement 
is  mainly  due  to  conditions  inherent  in  the  industry  itself,  the  main  features 
and  characteristics  of  which  have  been  little  affected  by  the  provisions  of 


392 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


the  Factory  Act.  As  regards  the  minority,  certain  grave  abuses  have 
been  checked,  night  work  and  overtime  have  been  abandoned,  and  there 
is  no  evidence  that  the  employment  of  women  has  been  thereby  hindered. 
Wages  have  risen  though  hours  are  shorter.  .  .  .  The  demand  for  women's 
labour  is  greatest  and  their  earnings  are  said  to  show  most  of  the  upward 
tendency,  in  the  lighter,  cleaner,  and  more  dexterous  employments.  In 
these  better  skilled  branches,  where  healthy  conditions  are  necessary  to 
maintain  efficiency,  the  regulations  of  the  Act,  so  far  as  they  enforce  those 
conditions,  do  not  hinder  but  promote  the  employment  of  women,  and 
tend  indirectly  to  divert  their  labour  into  those  channels  where  it  is  least 
at  a  discount  and  most  in  demand.     (Pages  247-248.) 


IVomen's  IVork  and  IVages.     Edward  Cadbury,  Cecile  Matheson,  and 
George  Shann,  M.A.     London,  Unwin,  1906. 

It  is  often  stated  by  those  who  oppose  regulation  of  women's  work  by 
legislation  that  the  effect  of  such  legislation  is  to  displace  women  in  favour 
of  men.  Our  inquiry  seems  to  prove,  however,  that  this  idea  is  erroneous, 
and  that  in  the  large  majority  of  cases  ...  it  is  other  questions  altogether 
that  determine  the  division  of  labour  between  men  and  women.  A  great 
deal  of  light  has  been  thrown  on  the  question  of  women's  work  and  wages 
generally  by  the  elucidation  of  the  fact  that  as  a  rule  men  and  women  do 
different  work,  and  the  relation  between  men  and  women  workers  is,  on 
the  whole,  that  of  two  non-competing  groups.  It  is  quite  true  that  that 
marginal  division  between  the  two  groups  is  constantly  shifting,  but  in 
the  particular  trades  where  this  is  the  case  the  questions  considered  are 
the  difference  in  wages  between  the  two  groups,  their  aptitude  and  physi- 
cal fitness  for  certain  work,  and  the  fact  that  women  expect  to  leave  work 
when  married.     (Page  39.) 


BELGIUM  Royaume  de  Belgiqiie.     Rapport  presents  a  M.  le  Ministre  de  I'Industrie 

et  du  Travail.  [Report  made  to  the  Belgian  Minister  of  Commerce  and 
Labor.]  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Ouvrieres  de  I'Industrie  dans  les  Pays 
Etrangers.  [Night  Work  of  Women  in  Industry  in  Foreign  Countries.] 
Maurice  Ansiaux.     Brussels,  1898. 

With  reference  to  the  French  law  of  1892 : 

It  has  been  often  stated  to  me  that  the  general  effect  of  the  law  was  a 
diminution  of  employment  of  women,  a  diminution  which  otherwise  would 
not  have  been  noticeable. 

Nevertheless  on  the  whole  the  number  of  adult  women  and  young 
women  of  ages  18  to  21,  employed  in  industry, — that  is  to  say  the  number 


EFFECT   ON    SCOPE    OF    WOMEN  S    WORK 


393 


of  female  workers  subject  for  the  first  time  in  1892  to  legal  regulation —  BELOroM 
has  increased  both  absolutely  and  relatively.  That  at  least  is  what  ap- 
pears to  result  from  a  comparison  of  the  years  1893  to  1895.  In  1893  the 
number  of  female  workers  of  more  than  18  years  was  338,486;  the  year 
following  it  was  412,400;  in  1895  it  was  445,712;  the  increase  was  re- 
spectively 78,914  and  33,312;  these  figures  are  surely  considerable.  In 
1894  the  female  labor  force  of  all  ages  represented  32.8  per  cent  of  all 
French  workers;  in  1895  this  proportion  reached  33.6  per  cent.  These  facts 
would  seem  to  contradict  the  assertion  reproduced  above.  (Pages  34-35.) 
The  fact  is,  far  from  decreasing,  the  number  of  women  working  in 
regulated  establishments  (in  Germany)  has  continually  increased  since 
the  enactment  of  the  law  of  1891,  and  a  very  marked  ratio,  as  the  follow- 
ing table  shows. 


Total  No. 
of  IVomen 
IVorkers  of 
21  years 
and  over  in 
all  Industries 

Total  No. 
of  IVomen 
IVorkers  of 
More  than 
16  Years  in 
all  Industries 

Textiles 

Women  More  than  21  in 

Years 

Paper  and 
Leather 

Food 
Prepara- 
tions 

Clothing 

1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 

346,795 
367,411 
383,094 
403,813 

576,433 
616,620 
633,783 
664,116 

170,002 
186,225 
192,439 
202,644 

21,321 
22,233 
23,462 
24,533 

49,055 
53,091 
55,968 
59,501 

24,855 
27,573 
28,830 
29.548 

M.  Morgenstern,  chief  of  inspection  of  the  kingdom  of  Saxony,  has 
communicated  to  me  an  interesting  set  of  statistics  comprising  the  years 
1890  to  1896  inclusive,  thus  embracing  a  period  of  time  more  extensive 
than  the  general  table  above  and  therefore  meriting  reproduction  here. 

It  follows  that  from  1890  to  1896,  the  total  number  of  persons  occupied 
in  industry  in  Saxony  increased  87,144,  of  whom  32,373  were  adult  women. 
(Pages  234-236.) 


Years 

Number  of  Adult 
Women 

Total  of  all 
Workers 

1890 

105,492 
107,756 
110,222 
120,212 
123,309 
128,375 
137,865 

369,258 

1891 

371,541 

1892 

364,636 

1893 

1894 

394,426 
404,010 

1895 

420,499 

1896 

456,402 

394 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  Schriften  der  Gesellschaftfiir  Soiiale  Reform,  Heft  7-8.  [Publications  of  the 
Social  Reform  Society,  Nos.  7-8.]  Die  Herabset^ung  der  Arbeits^eit 
fiir  Frauen  und  die  Erhohung  des  Schutialters  fiir  Jugendliche  Arbeiter 
in  Fabriken.  [The  Reduction  of  IVomen's  Working  Hours  and  the 
Raising  of  the  Legal  IVorking  Age  for  Young  Factory  Employees.] 
Dr.  August  Pieper  and  Helene  Simon.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

The  reports  of  factory  inspectors  for  1894  showed  that  as  a  result  of  the 
establishment  of  a  maximum  day  women  had  only  been  dismissed  in  those 
industries  where  they  had  been  on  night  work,  now  forbidden  for  women. 
Moreover,  in  many  factories  which  had  previously  made  extensive  prac- 
tice of  overtime,  additional  women  workers  were  taken  on.     (Page  75.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor.  No.  80.  January,  1909.  Women 
and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  Great  Britain.     Victor  S.  Clark,  Ph.D. 

When  the  early  factory  laws  of  Great  Britain  went  into  force  women 
workers  opposed  provisions  in  the  factory  acts  limiting  their  hours  of 
work  for  fear  that  such  limitation  would  lead  to  the  displacement  of  women 
by  men.  Women  had  been  substituted  for  children  in  textile  mills  when 
the  hours  of  the  latter  were  first  limited,  and  it  was  perhaps  natural  that 
the  women  should  fear  being  in  turn  supplanted.  But  while  the  factory 
law  has  doubtless  caused  some  redistribution  of  employment  among  work- 
ers of  different  age  and  sex  it  has  not  upon  the  whole  lessened  the  demand 
for  female  labor. 

It  is  true  that  there  has  been  a  decrease  in  the  proportion  of  the  female 
population  working  in  industrial  occupations  since  the  factory  acts  first 
went  into  force,  but  there  has  been  an  increase  precisely  in  those  occupa- 
tions where  those  acts  might  have  been  expected  to  have  most  influence. 
The  following  table  gives  the  number  of  female  employees  in  every  thou- 
sand workers  in  several  of  the  more  important  industries  where  the  hours 
of  labor  have  been  restricted  by  factory  legislation,  by  10-year  periods, 
from  1861  to  1901. 

Number  OF  Females  in  Every  1000  Employees,  by  Industries,  1861  to  1901 


Industry 


Bookbinding 

Boots  and  shoes 

Cotton  manufactures 

Pottery  and  porcelain 

Tailoring 

Tobacco  manufactures 

Woolen  and  worsted  manufactures... 


1861 

1871 

1881 

1891 

450 

488 

527 

554 

154 

115 

160 

185 

567 

598 

620 

609 

311 

354 

384 

385 

208 

254 

330 

427 

221 

296 

435 

548 

461 

513 

561 

557 

1901 

603 
210 
628 
392 
471 
601 
582 


EFFECT   ON    WOMEN  S    WAGES  395 

The  influence  of  the  factorv  law  in  discouraging  child  employment   united 

-  •  •  STATES 

has  been  re-enforced  by  the  growing  complexity  of  mdustrv-,  which  places 
a  greater  premium  upon  mature  and  intelligent  workers.     (Page  67.) 

There  is  a  prevalent  opinion  in  England  that  the  proportion  of  women  is 
increasing  in  the  industries.  Commenting  upon  this,  the  chief  lady  statis- 
tician of  the  Board  of  Trade  says  that  this  is  due  to  the  entry  into  the  labor 
market  of  middle-class  women,  who  engage  in  new  occupations,  and  to  the 
substitution  of  skilled  workers  employed  full  time  for  a  larger  number  of 
unskilled  workers  intermittently  employed.     (Page  67.) 

E.     Effect  on  IVomens  Wages 

Wherever  the  legal  regulation  of  women's  working  hours 
has  been  long  enough  established  to  show  any  effect  on  their 
wages,  statistical  evidence  tends  to  show  that  wages  are 
not  decreased  but  increased  by  the  limitation  of  hours.  In 
some  cases  there  may  be  temporary  decrease  for  a  short 
time,  before  industry  adjusts  itself  to  a  change  in  hours, 
but  after  a  short  period  the  gain  in  the  workers'  efficiency 
from  shorter  hours  and  their  consequent  increase  in  output 
completely  balances  the  curtailment  of  their  working  time. 
Women's  wages  are  universally  higher  in  the  industries  sub- 
ject to  legal  limitation  of  hours,  than  they  are  in  the  un- 
protected trades. 

Moreover,  even  when  regulation  has  resulted  in  a  slight 
temporary  decrease  in  wages,  the  majority  of  workers  have 
willingly  suffered  the  slight  reduction,  in  order  to  gain  the 
increased  health  and  leisure  consequent  upon  shorter  hours 
of  labor. 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXII.     1849.     Reports  oj  Inspectors  of  great 
Factories  for  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1849.  BRITAIN 

Referring  more  particularly  to  the  Cotton  district,  it  may  be  premised 
that,  shortly  before  the  passing  of  the  Ten  Hours  Act,  a  general  reduction 
in  the  rate  of  wages,  to  the  extent  of  10  per  cent,  was  adopted  by  the  mas- 
ters, and  submitted  to  by  the  work  people;  but  this  did  not  produce,  even 
at  that  critical  moment,  any  remonstrances  on  the  part  of  the  work  people 
against  the  law,  which  was  then  impending  over  them,  for  further  limiting 


396  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  their  hours  of  work,  whence  it  may  be  inferred  that  they  had  calculated 

BRITAIN 

not  only  what  would  be  its  effects  upon  their  earnings  tn  the  factories,  but 
also  how  it  would  affect  their  condition  in  other  particulars.  .  .  . 

From  the  inquiries  which  1  have  made,  1  find  it  indeed,  to  be  generally 
represented  that,  notwithstanding  this  reduction  in  the  rate  of  wages  and 
the  abridgment  of  the  hours  of -work,  the  Ten  Hours  Act  has  not  effected 
any  diminution  in  the  earnings  of  the  work  people  which  is  not  practically 
counterbalanced  by  some  equivalent  advantages  which  they  gain  from  the 
shortening  of  the  working  day.  In  the  first  place,  it  would  seem  that  the 
diminution  in  the  amount  of  net  wages,  actually  received  in  cash  at  the 
end  of  the  week  or  fortnight,  is  by  no  means  proportioned  to  the  reduction 
in  the  number  of  the  hours  of  labour;  for  it  is  stated  that  the  "two  last" 
hours  of  the  12  were  not  those  in  which  the  greatest  energy,  activity,  and 
vigilance  were  available;  that,  by  shortening  the  day,  the  hands  are  now 
enabled,  in  10  hours,  to  do  more  work,  and  to  it  better,  than  they  could  in 
the  first  10  hours  of  a  longer  working  day;  that  by  improvements  in  the 
construction  as  well  as  by  accelerating  the  speed  of  the  machinery,  a 
greater  amount  of  work  is  turned  off  in  the  same  time  than  before,  that, 
in  fact,  they  get  through  their  work  with  more  hearty  good-will,  with 
greater  care  and  attention,  and  in  better  spirits,  and  that,  by  turning  their 
work  better  out  of  hand,  their  earnings  are  not  diminished  by  so  many 
abatements,  stoppages,  and  fines  for  negligence  and  for  bad  or  damaged 
work,  as  used  to  curtail  their  receipts  under  the  system  of  longer 
hours.   .  .  . 

Furthermore,  it  is  stated,  that  any  diminution  in  the  amount  of  wages 
earned  at  the  factory,  is  fully  compensated  by  what  is  gained  in  other 
wages;  thus  the  females  are  now  enabled  to  attend  to  various  household 
duties,  which  must  be  discharged  by  someone,  and  for  which,  under  the 
system  of  long  hours  at  the  factory,  they  had  been  obliged  to  pay  for  the 
services  of  a  hireling,  that  the  money  formerly  spent  in  this  way  is  now 
saved  by  the  leisure  afforded  to  the  females  of  a  family,  under  the  10 
hours'  system,  which  enables  them  to  perform  their  own  duties  themselves; 
and  that  it  is  this  saving  of  expenditure  at  home,  which  in  great  measure 
enables  them  to  withstand  a  diminished  rate  of  wages,  accompanied  by 
shorter  hours  of  work.     (Pages  19-20.) 

Ibid.  Appendix.  Evidence  of  the  Opinions  of  Persons  Employed  in  Fac- 
tories, Respecting  the  Ten  Hours  Act,  Collected  in  September,  October, 
and  November,  1848. 

Cotton  Mill  A.  No.  2,  Manager,  and  No.  3,  Bookkeeper,  spoken  to- 
gether: .  .  .  added,  that  the  spinners  are  making  nearly  as  much  (in  10 


EFFECT   ON    WOMEN  S    WAGES  397 

hours)  as  they  did  when  working  12  hours,  partly  by  a  little  increased   great 
speed,  partly  by  some  improvements  in  the  machinery,  but  chiefly  by   ^^ 
greater  attention  and  economy  of  time;  that  by  shortening  the  hours  they 
are  able  to  keep  up  their  exertions.     (Page  27.) 

Nos.  29,  30,  31,  32.  Adult  males.  Mule  spinners.  All  said  they 
would  much  rather  work  10  hours  with  less  wages  than  go  back  to  12  with 
higher.  "No  one  who  has  felt  the  good  of  the  10  hours  would  willingly 
go  back  to  12."  They  said  that  they  have  better  appetites  and  better 
health.     (Page  28.) 

Cotton  Mill  F.  No.  16.  Manager.  .  .  .  Many  of  the  hands  in  this 
mill  make  nearly  as  much  as  they  used  to  do;  there  has  been  no  alteration 
in  the  speed  of  the  machinery,  "but  they  stick  closer  to  their  work." 
(Page  27.) 

Nos.  75  and  76.  Adult  males.  Weavers.  Say,  that  there  is  not  so 
much  difference  in  the  amount  of  work  they  can  turn  off,  so  that  their 
wages  have  not  been  much  less  than  when  they  worked  12  hours;  they 
make  it  up  by  increased  exertion,  and  they  do  not  find  themselves  so 
much  fatigued  by  thus  working  more  closely  as  they  were  by  the  long  day's 
work.     (Page  29.) 

Cotton  Mill  W.  No.  89.  Owner.  Afterwards  added  since  the  10 
hour  restriction  began,  they  have  paid  the  overlookers  by  piecework  in- 
stead of  fixed  wages  as  formerly,  and  they  are  making  nearly  as  much  in 
the  10  as  they  did  in  12.  That  by  their  greater  vigilance  in  looking  after 
the  workers  the  produce  has  been  increased.     (Page  30.) 

Cotton  Mill  E.  No.  14.  Mill-owner.  Extract  from  letter  to  Mr. 
Horner,  dated  18th  October,  1848: 

.  .  .  My  weavers  do  not  sufi^er  in  their  wages  to  the  extent  of  reduction 
in  the  working  hours.  1  pay  more  money  now  than  1  formerly  did  in 
proportion  to  the  time  worked.  1  account  for  this  by  unusual  exertion 
on  the  part  of  the  work  people,  coupled  with  greater  strength  for  the 
work,  from  having  more  time  to  recruit  themselves.     (Page  37.) 

No.  143.  Overlooker  of  the  card  room.  ...  He  was  not  averse  to 
the  reduction  either  in  time  or  wages,  and  remarked  that  "towards  the 
close  of  the  12  hours'  day,  he  could  not  do  his  duty  satisfactorily,  as  the 
hands  were  too  much  jaded  to  attend  to  their  work,  and  many  of  them 
fast  asleep."  He  added,  "that  there  is  not  half  the  number  off  sick  since 
the  10  hours  have  been  worked,  that  the  hands  work  more  cheerfully, 
and  that  there  is  less  trouble  in  keeping  them  up  to  it."  He  had  never 
heard  one  express  a  wish  to  return  to  longer  hours.  For  his  own  part,  he 
declared,  that  although  he  now  has  less  money  to  spend,  there  is  much 
greater  happiness  in  his  family.     (Page  72.) 


398  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  No.  218.     Adult  female.     Reeler:    She  much  prefers  the  10  hours, 

BRITAIN  ,   ,  ,       ,  •  ,  ,  wTxri  •       , 

although  she  receives  less  wages,  and  says,  What  is  the  use  of  getting 
more  money  if  I  have  no  appetite  or  other  means  of  enjoying  it?"  After 
working  12  hours  she  was  so  tired  and  weak  at  the  close  of  the  day  that 
she  could  never  do  anything  at  home.     (Page  76.) 

No.  219.  Adult  female.  Winder:  Said  that  she  was  always  sick  when 
working  12  hours  a  day,  but  now  that  she  is  less  in  the  factory  her  health 
is  quite  recruited.  She  would  rather  work  the  present  hours,  however 
small  the  wages.     (Page  76.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXXIV.     1860.     Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories  for  half-year  ending  31st  Oct.,  1859. 

Two  other  arguments  formerly  in  great  repute  with  the  opponents  of 
any  Factory  Bill  these  Acts  have  entirely  refuted;  the  one  the  certain 
reduction  of  wages  concurrent  with  the  reduction  of  the  working  hours; 
the  other,  the  "pro-rata"  limit  which  the  same  reduction  of  hours  would 
place  upon  the  textile  production  of  the  country  to  the  disparagement  of 
our  commerce.  In  no  branch  of  textile  labor  are  wages  reduced  since 
1833,  but  there  is  an  average  increase  of  12  per  cent  and  in  one  instance  of 
40  per  cent.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  whole  branches  of  manual  labor 
have  not  ceased,  nor  to  deny  that  machinery  has  replaced  it  here  and 
there,  but  if  it  has  other  branches  of  industry  have  supervened.  (Page 
53.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vols.  XXIX  and  XXX.     1876.     Factories  and 
Workshops  Acts  Commission. 

Vol.  XXX.     Minutes  of  Evidence: 

5310.  If  you  reduce  the  hours  that  women  may  work  by  5  per  cent, 
21  women  will  be  required  to  do  the  work  that  20  women  do  now,  there 
will  be  a  greater  demand  for  women's  labour  and  women's  wages  ought 
to  go  up  5  per  cent  in  value  so  that  so  long  as  the  restrictions  are  not 
excessive  it  seems  to  me  that  they  will  benefit  the  women  pecuniarily. 
(Page  267.) 

Britisi  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXXIX.     Part  I.     1893.     Royal  Com- 
mission on  Labour.     Minutes  of  Evidence. 

Mr.  Henry  Meyers  Hyndman: 

8411.    The  trades  which  are  best  paid  to-day  are  precisely  those  that 


EFFECT   ON    WOMEN  S   WAGES  399 

work  the  shortest  hours,  and  as  was  got  out  by  one  member  of  the  com-  great 

BRITAIN 

mission  on  inquiry  of  Mr.  Giffen,  it  appeared  that  during  the  last  20  years, 
although  undoubtedly  the  hours  have  been  consistently  reduced,  es- 
pecially in  the  higher  skilled  trades,  such  as  the  engineers  and  so  forth,  the 
amount  of  wages  which  have  been  paid  has  increased.     (Page  595.) 

A  Few  Words  on  the  Ten  Hours  Factory  Question.     Edmund  R.  Larkin, 
M.A.     London,  Richardson,  1846. 

It  is  consolatory  and  encouraging  to  find  that  so  far  as  experience  can 
be  a  guide  to  us  in  determining  this  important  question,  it  goes  to  prove 
that  the  diminution  of  profits  and  wages  would  not  be  so  great  under  a 
system  of  shortened  time,  as  to  deter  us  from  making  trial  of  this  great 
social  experiment.  .  .  .  The  trial  has  been  made,  not  indeed  of  reduction 
to  Ten,  but  to  Eleven  hours  of  work;  and  the  result  has  been  not  merely 
so  slight  a  diminution  of  produce  as  to  justify  a  further  experiment,  but 
no  diminution  whatever  thereof,  nor,  consequently,  of  the  wages  of  the 
producers.     (Pages  21-22.) 

Labour   Laws  for   Women.     Their   Reason   and   their   Results.     London, 
Independent  Labour  Party,  1900. 

Then  as  to  the  lowering  of  wages,  though  women's  wages  are  deplorably 
low  now,  as  a  whole  they  have  risen  since  the  time  of  the  first  Factory 
Acts.  Again,  it  is  impossible  to  prove  definitely  either  that  they  would 
have  been  higher  or  lower  without  regulation,  but  it  is  a  very  important 
and  significant  fact  that  if  we  want  to  instance  the  most  horribly  low  pay, 
we  have  to  go  to  the  home  industries,  where  the  hours  are  absolutely  un- 
limited. .  .  .  While  for  the  highest  wages,  and  the  wages  which  have 
steadily  increased  for  the  past  fifty  years,  we  go  to  the  highly  regulated 
textile  factories,  and  the  most  skilled  branches  of  such  work  as  bookbind- 
ing which  is  also  subject  to  regulations.  But  the  argument  that  it  is  the 
special  legal  restrictions  on  women's  labour  which  keep  down  their  wages, 
is  completely  settled  by  the  fact  that  where  men  and  women  work  under 
practically  the  same  conditions  which  are  not  differently  affected  by  the 
law,  the  women's  wages  are  lower  than  the  men's.     (Page  15.) 

In  fact  the  absence  of  limitation  of  hours  is  the  very  thing  which  the 
greedy  or  careless  employer  uses  to  screw  more  work  out  of  his  workers 
for  the  same  pay,  or  to  let  his  work  be  so  disorganized  that  the  women 
waste  hours  doing  nothing,  and  then  make  up  by  overtime.  This  kind 
of  over-driving  most  effectually  lowers  wages,  for  it  exhausts  the  workers, 


400  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  and  renders  them  unfit  for  their  work,  and  thev  either  do  it  badlv  and  have 

BRITAIN 

to  accept  less  pay,  or  become  ill,  and  so  lose  employment.     (Page  16.) 

The  primary  evils  of  women's  work,  as  we  have  tried  to  point  out,  lie 
in  its  casual  and  unsettled  nature,  and  regulation  tends  to  steady  it,  and 
so  to  make  it  more  effective.  .  .  .  Though  the  limiting  of  hours  .  .  . 
may  not  seem  directly  to  raise  her  wages,  it  does  so  indirectly,  because  a 
rise  in  the  standard  of  emploxment  at  one  point  really  raises  it  all  round; 
and  it  is  not  an  accident  but  direct  cause  and  effect  that  such  regulations 
and  good  wages  go  together  and  vice  versa.  (Pages  20-22.) 

Journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society.  Vol.  LXV.  1902.  Factory 
Legislatian  considered  with  reference  to  the  IVages,  etc.,  of  the  Opera- 
tives protected  thereby.     George  Henry  Wood. 

In  summing  up  the  impressions  gathered  from  the  foregoing  review, 
we  find  that  in  one  or  two  cases  the  limitation  of  hours  of  labour  by 
Factory  Acts  has,  for  the  time  being,  reduced  wages,  especially  of  time 
workers,  but  that  as  soon  as  the  industry  affected  has  become  settled  under 
the  new  conditions,  wages  have  risen  to  a  higher  point  than  previous  to 
the  passing  of  the  Act,  and  that  this  has  been  ascribed  by  competent 
observers  to  the  increased  efficiency  of  the  operative  and  the  increased 
intensity  of  the  work.     (Pages  305-306.) 

During  the  era  of  Factory  Legislation,  that  is,  since  the  "Ten  Hours" 
Act,  and  its  extension,  in  a  more  or  less  modified  form,  to  other  industries 
than  textiles,  women's  wages  have  risen  by  about  66  per  cent,  while  the 
average  increase  for  the  United  Kingdom  is  about  45  per  cent.  .  .  . 
But  the  chief  point  to  be  noticed  is  that  factory  legislation  has  not  lowered 
wages,  but  has  been  accompanied  by  a  decided  and  progressive  increase. 
How  far  this  legislation  has  caused  this  increase  I  am  not  prepared  to  say, 
but  in  so  much  as  by  reducing  hours  of  labour,  raising  the  minimum  age 
of  entrance  to  the  factory  and  so  insuring  a  certain  amount  of  education, 
improving  the  sanitary  and  other  accommodations  of  the  worker,  and 
regulating  dangerous  trades  it  has  increased  the  standard  of  eflficiency  and 
encouraged  a  higher  standard  of  living;  it  seems  to  have  been  a  factor 
making  for  the  increase.     (Pages  308-309.) 

We  may  now  shortly  summarize  in  a  few  words  what  we  have  seen. 
It  is  not  certain  that  there  is  always  a  direct  connection  between  Factory 
Legislation  and  women's  wages,  but  as  a  rule  the  effect  of  each  limitation 
of  the  hours  of  labour  has  been  to  raise  wages,  though  for  a  while  they 
may  have  fallen  a  little.  This  usually  operates  through  an  increase  in 
the  efficiency  of  labour,  which  maintains  or  increases  the  former  output 


EFFECT    ON    WOMEN  S    WAGES  4OI 

in  the  lessened  hours.     While  such  an  increased  elTicienc}-  is  maintained,,   great 
the  expenses  of  production  are  not  increased,  and  no  damage  is  done  to  "  " 

foreign  trade  in  the  product  of  the  industry  affected.  .  .  .  All  these 
effects  have  been  for  the  general  good, — women  have  shared  in  the  progress 
of  the  past  sixty  years,  and  their  wages  have  risen  with  men's  but  at  a 
faster  rate  and  more  consistentl}-.     (Page  313. j 

Report  of  the  72nd  Meeting  of  He  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science.     1902.     London,  Murray,  1903.      Women's  Labour. 

Second    Report    of    the    Covdmittee  .  .  .  appointed    to  iniestisate  the 
Economic  Efect  of  Legislation  Regulating  IVomen  s  Lahour. 

...  To  the  third  question  (whether  legislation  restricting  women's 
labour  has  raised  or  lowered  wages)  the  answer  (from  the  emplo\-er5) 
was  in  almost  ever\'  instance  that  wages  had  not  been  affected.  Many 
were  agreed  that  the  legislation  on  the  whole  had  improved  health,  and 

consequently  efficiency.     f'Page  290. j 

Report  of  the  73rd  Meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Adiayicement 
of  Science.  1903.  London,  Murray.  1904.  Women's  Labour. 
Third  Report  of  the  Committee  .  .  .  appointed  to  investigate  the  Eco- 
nomic Effect  of  Legislation  Regulating  Women' s  Labour. 

The  experience  of  a  merino  factor}'  in  Nottinghamshire  is  \'ery  interest- 
ing: "The  reduction  of  hours  in  1875  did  not  reduce  wages.  The  men  and 
girls  at  first  asked  for  a  rise  of  piece  prices  as  compensation  for  an  antici- 
pated loss.  The  employer  promised  to  consider  it  in  a  while,,  if  the  loss 
actually  took  place  and  became  permanent.  In  4  weeks  it  was  found, 
however,  that  earnings  were  equal  in  56>^  hours  to  what  the\"  had  been 
in  the  previous  60-hour  week.  To  the  employer  there  was,  in  the  winter, 
an  actual  gain,  as  the  same  work  being  done  in  Zy^  hours  less,  and  the 
hours  not  worked  being  taken  off  the  evening  when  artificial  light  was 
needed,  less  gas  was  burnt.  The  same  firm  reduced  to  557^  hours  volun- 
tarily in  1900,  and  again  no  loss  was  occasioned  to  the  operatives." 
fPage  338.) 

Women  s  Wages  in  England  in  the  Nineteenth  Century.  Women  s  Industrial 
Council,  London,  1906. 

The  calculations  made  b_\"  Mr.  G.  H.  Wood,  F.S.S.,  demonstrate  the 
important  fact  of  a  stead}'  rise  in  women's  wages  in  those  industries  for 
which  we  have  reliable  information.     It  is  sisnificant  that  those  industries 
26* 


402  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  are  precisely  those  which  have  been  most  peculiarly  influenced  by  the 

BRITAIN 

Factory  Act.  It  was  formerly  m  cotton  that  the  hours  were  longest, 
the  toil  most  strenuous,  and  the  concfttions  most  entirely  subject  to  un- 
restricted competition;  it  was  cotton  that  was  first  put  under  State  con- 
trol, it  was  the  textile  industry  that  was  so  seriously  threatened  by  legal 
regulations  that  over  and  over  again  social  reformers  were  accused  of 
driving  trade  from  the  country.  Yet  in  textiles  and  most  especially  in 
cotton  the  improvement  in  women's  wages  has  been  extremely  marked. 
Without  wishing  to  claim  that  the  rise  in  wages  has  been  due  to  the  opera- 
tion of  the  Factory  Act,  for  it  is  no  doubt  due  to  many  complex  causes, 
we  may  point  out  that  wages  have  certainly  not  been  reduced  under  the 
Act,  except  quite  temporarily  here  and  there.  In  recent  years,  however, 
the  line  of  opposition  to  factory  regulation  has  taken  up  the  wages  argu- 
ment on  different  lines. 

It  is  more  usual  now  to  throw  up  the  attack  altogether  as  regards 
highly  organized  industries  like  cotton,  and  to  say  that  legal  regulation 
does  no  harm,  has  even  been  a  success,  in  highly  organized  textile  in- 
dustries, where  women  are  strong  enough  to  bear  it,  but  that  in  the  non- 
textile,  less  fully  developed  industries,  unless  women  may  work  at  night, 
and  overtime,  and  so  on,  they  are  at  a  great  disadvantage,  and  will  either 
be  superseded  by  men  or  lose  in  wages.  But  I  do  not  think  there  is  any 
sign  of  women  being  superseded  by  men  in  non-textile  industries,  for  the 
last  census  shows  a  larger  increase  in  non-textile  than  in  textile  trades; 
and  as  to  wages,  surely  the  opponents  of  Factory  Legislation  cannot  be 
allowed  to  use  their  arguments  backwards  and  forwards  as  they  choose. 
They  used  to  say,  you  must  not  legislate  for  cotton,  the  workers  are  so 
poor  they  will  starve;  yet  now  that  cotton  has  been  regulated  and  the 
women,  so  far  from  starving,  get  higher  wages  than  they  used,  the  cry  is 
that  the  cotton  trade  is  so  strong  and  the  women  so  well  paid,  even  the 
Factory  Act  cannot  pull  down  their  wages,  it  is  on  the  other  industries  it 
falls  so  heavily.  But  it  is  rather  significant  that  the  longest  regulated 
and  most  strictly  regulated  industry  is  the  very  one  that  shows  so  great  a 
rate  of  improvement,  and  we  need  not  be  afraid  that  the  status  of  laundry 
women,  or  even  of  home  workers,  will  be  injured  by  stricter  regulation  or 
stricter  administration  of  the  existing  law;  perhaps,  on  the  contrary, 
their  wages  also  will  rise.     (Pages  3-4.) 

...  As  Mr.  Wood's  table  shows,  increasing  strictness  of  administra- 
tion has  not  hindered  a  considerable  rise  in  wages.  It  is  not  certain  that 
there  is  a  direct  connection  between  factory  control  and  women's  wages, 
but  as  a  rule  the  sequel  of  each  limitation  of  hours  has  been  a  rise  of  wages, 
though  for  a  while  there  may  have  been  a  slight  fall.     The  rise  is  partly 


EFFECT   ON    WOMEN  S    WAGES  403 

due  to  progressive  restrictions  on  child  labour,  which  have  increased  the   great 

•  •  -  BRITAIN 

demand  for  women's  labour,  and  partly  to  an  increase  in  the  efficiency  of 
labour,  which  maintains  or  increases  the  former  output  in  the  shortened 
time.  There  are  certain  manufacturing  industries  where  the  masters 
voluntarily  work  9  hours  or  even  8  instead  of  10,  because  they  find  they 
can  get  better  work  done.  In  these  cases  the  reduction  is  not  directly 
due  to  the  Factory  Act  but  to  considerations  of  economic  efficiency. 
(Pages  5-6.) 

Retort  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1871.  united 

^  J  -'  ■'  STATES 

I  have  worked  what  is  called  ten  hours  a  day,  and  the  ten-hour  system 
always  has  a  good  influence  on  the  work-people.  We  don't  lose  one- 
eleventh  of  the  pay — everybody  knows  that.  I  didn't  lose  a  single  cent, 
because  I  didn't  get  so  much  exhausted.     (Page  498.) 

To  prove  the  soundness  of  the  ten-hour  claim,  the  operatives  instance 
the  reduction  in  the  past,  from  sixteen  to  fourteen,  to  thirteen  and  to 
twelve,  and  from  twelve  to  eleven  hours.  They  also  point  to  the  twenty- 
one  years'  experience  in  Great  Britain,  where  the  reduction  was  made  in 
1850  from  twelve  to  ten,  a  reduction  of  one-sixth  of  the  working  day. 
(Pages  557-558.) 

Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1881. 

It  is  apparent  .  .  .  that  wages  here  rule  as  high  if  not  higher  than  in 
the  States  where  the  mills  run  longer  time  (i.  e.,  than  ten  hours  a  day), 
(Page  457.) 

Still  another  case  is  that  of  a  carpet  mill  employing  about  seventeen 
hundred  persons.  Twenty-five  years  ago  the  hours  were  reduced  directly 
from  twelve  to  ten.  .  .  .  The  establishment  has  been  run  by  the  same 
management  from  then  till  now,  without  a  break  and  with  great  success; 
and  yet  the  average  pay  in  it  is  higher  than  in  any  other  mill,  with  possibly 
one  or  two  exceptions,  which  we  found.     (Page  460.) 

The  Willimantic  Linen  Company  of  Connecticut  ran  its  mills  eleven 
hours  per  day  till  about  two  years  ago,  when  it  was  determined  as  an 
experiment  to  run  ten  hours.  .  .  .  Wages  have  remained  intact  so  far  as 
the  hours  of  labor  are  concerned.     (Page  461.) 

...  It  was  quite  generally  conceded  (by  manufacturers)  that  even 
if,  at  first,  there  was  a  reduction  of  wages,  yet  by  a  year's  time  (only  one 
person  said  more)  the  market  would  have  readjusted  itself,  and  the 
wages  for  ten  hours  would  have  become  the  same  as  they  were  before 


404  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  for  eleven.     A  half-owner  of  six  mills  stated  the  case  thus:    "If  all  the 

STATES  mills  would  run  but  ten  hours,  there  would  be  a  diminution  in  the  product 

of  perhaps  five  per  cent.  That  slight  diminution  would  after  a  while  so 
empty  the  market  that  prices  would  rise  much  more  than  five  per  cent, 
and  so  we  could  pay  the  same  prices  for  ten  as  now  for  eleven  hours' 
work,  and  then  make  more  money  than  we  are  now  making."  And  the 
principle  involved  in  this  statement  was  very  generally  conceded  by  manu- 
facturers. .  .  .  That  is,  a  large  portion  of  the  manufacturers  have  come 
to  see,  what  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  the  width  of  the  margin  between 
cost  and  price,  and  so  the  possible  amount  of  wages  which  can  be  paid, 
are  not  so  much  determined  by  the  volume  of  the  product  alone,  as  by 
the  relation  between  the  amount  produced  and  the  amount  consumed. 
(Pages  462-463.) 

Within  a  year's  time  the  market  would  adjust  itself  entirely  to  the 
shorter  day,  the  operatives  would  have  as  good  a  living  with  ten,  as  now 
with  eleven,  eleven  and  a  half,  and  twelve  hours.     (Page  464.) 

Report  of  the  New  Jersey  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  and  Industry.     1886. 

The  Factory  Acts  were  believed  to  be  the  death-blow  to  English  manu- 
factures, and  they  have  made  labor  more  efficient,  more  intelligent,  more 
decent,  and  more  continuous  without  trenching  on  profits.  (Page  231, 
footnote.) 

In  1851  and  1852  those  who  advocated  that  ten  hours  should  be  a 
legal  day's  work  were  denounced  as  demagogues,  and  the  ten-hour  plan 
as  a  humbug  which  could  only  tend  to  reduce  the  wages  proportionately, 
while  all  kinds  of  evil  results  were  sure  to  follow  its  application,  especially 
to  agricultural  labor.  But  we  have  seen  ten  hours  become  the  rule;  wages 
have  not  fallen,  and  many  of  those  who  prophesied  disaster  are  now  as 
loud  in  their  praises  of  its  beneficence  as  the  friends  of  the  change.  (Page 
232.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Factory  Inspectors.     1894. 

This  material  reduction  (from  10  to  15  per  cent  in  many  industries) 
in  the  working  time  was  not  accompanied  by  any  reduction  in  the  pay 
of  those  interested.     (Pages  31-32.) 

Report  of  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     1900. 

In  all  those  departments  of  the  factory  in  which  wages  are  paid  by 
piece-work — and  these  constitute  probably  not  less  than  four-fifths  of 


EFFECT   ON    WOMEN  S    WAGES 


405 


the  whole,  the  proportion  to  fixed  daily  wages  being  daily  on  the  increase 
— it  has  been  found  that  the  quantity  produced  in  ten  and  one-half  hours 
falls  little  short  of  that  formerly  obtained  from  twelve  hours.  In  some 
cases  it  is  said  to  be  equal.  This  is  accounted  for  partly  by  the  increased 
stimulus  given  to  ingenuity  to  make  the  machines  more  perfect  and 
capable  of  increased  speed,  but  it  arises  far  more  from  the  workpeople  by 
improved  health,  by  absence  of  that  weariness  and  exhaustion  which  the 
long  hours  occasioned,  and  by  their  increased  cheerfulness  and  activity, 
being  enabled  to  work  more  steadily  and  diligently  and  to  economize 
time,  intervals  of  rest  while  at  their  work  being  now  less  necessary. 
(Pages  49-50.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  80.  January,  1909. 
IVoman  and  Child  IVage-Earners  in  Great  Britain.  Victor  S.  Clark, 
Ph.D. 

It  is  no  longer  argued  by  people  familiar  with  industrial  history  that 
shorter  hours  necessarily  mean  lower  wages.  But  this  argument  was 
used  extensively  when  the  earlier  British  acts  were  passed.  Here  again, 
as  in  case  of  the  shortening  of  hours,  it  is  difficult  to  separate  the  effect  of 
state  regulation  from  the  effect  of  other  causes,  but  the  upward  tendency 
of  the  wages  of  women  and  children  during  the  past  century  is  a  matter 
of  statistical  verification.  The  following  table  gives  the  most  authorita- 
tive statement  of  the  increase  of  the  wages  of  women  since  1820.  The 
table  shows  the  average  relative  wages  of  all  women  wage-earners,  by 
decades,  as  stated  in  percentages  of  the  average  wage  during  the  ten  years 
ending  with  1900.  To  show  that  there  was  more  than  a  normal  increase 
in  women's  wages,  as  compared  with  the  wages  of  unregulated  men's 
labor,  the  relative  wages  of  workers  of  both  sexes  combined,  using  the 
decade  ending  with  1900  as  the  base,  is  given  in  a  parallel  column. 


Relative  Wages 

IN   THE 

United  Kingdom,  1820  to  1900 

Decade  Ending 

Relative  Women 
Employees 

IVages  of  Employees 
of  Both  Sexes 

1830 

58 
56 
58 
62 
75 
93 
95 
100 

65 

1840 

60 

1850 

60 

1860 

65 

1870 

75 

1880 

95 

1890 

90 

1900 

100 

406  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Between  1830  and  1850  women's  wages  may  have  declined  less  than 

STATES 

those  of  men  because  they  were  already  near  the  subsistence  level.  An 
English  authority,  to  whom  these  statistics  are  due,  says:  "Factory 
legislation  has  not  lowered  wages,  but  has  been  accompanied  by  a  decided 
and  progressive  increase."  It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  factory  laws 
are  given  as  the  cause  of  this  increase,  but  they  may  have  contributed  to 
it  by  improving  the  efficiency  of  workers. 

The  wages  of  women  in  industries  regulated  by  the  factory  acts  are 
generally  better  than  those  in  unregulated  industries.  Among  the  best- 
paid  women  factory  workers  of  England  are  the  cotton  operatives  of 
Lancashire.  This  condition,  however,  is  probably  less  an  effect  of  the 
law  than  of  the  fact  that  the  law  happens  to  apply  to  a  better  grade  of 
workers.     (Pages  53-54.) 

Trades  may  be  mentioned,  like  some  kinds  of  decorating  and  polishing, 
where  neither  machinery  nor  labor  unions  have  influenced  conditions,  in 
which  wages  have  risen  as  working  hours  grew  fewer.  But  workers  in 
these  trades  were  benefited  by  the  rising  standard  of  living  of  their  fellow- 
workers  in  other  industries,  and  their  rate  of  compensation  was  affected 
by  the  competition  for  labor  caused  by  high  wages  in  other  occupations. 

The  statistics  available  indicate  that  the  enactment  of  the  successive 
laws  shortening  the  hours  of  labor  did  not,  in  the  particular  industries 
affected,  interrupt  the  progressive  improvement  of  wages  that  has  marked 
the  last  century.     (Page  55.) 

The  Arena.  Vol.  XXIV.  1900.  New  York,  Alliance,  1900.  The 
Eight-Hour  Day  by  Legislation.  Edwin  Maxey,  Southern  Normal 
University,  Tenn. 

According  to  the  best  authorities  wages  are  more  likely  to  be  raised 
than  lowered,  though  it  is  possible  they  may  remain  stationary.  .  .  . 
New  York  State  witnessed,  in  1887,  2,256  strikes  for  shorter  hours,  and 
in  every  one  of  the  trades  where  a  reduction  of  hours  was  obtained  a 
positive  increase  in  wages  is  also  reported.  In  1860,  six  years  after  the 
enactment  of  the  ten-hour  law  in  Massachusetts,  as  a  result  of  an  argu- 
ment made  before  the  legislative  committee  by  Edward  Atkinson,  who 
had  always  been  an  active  opponent  of  the  law  on  the  ground  that  its 
operation  was  injurious  to  the  working  man  (as  they  had  to  work  for  one- 
eleventh  less  than  similar  laborers  in  other  States),  the  legislators  ordered 
the  Labor  Bureau  to  investigate  the  hours  of  labor  and  wages  paid  in 
Massachusetts,  the  other  New  England  States,  and  New  York.  This 
was  done,  and  the  result  was  as  follows: 


ADAPTATION 

OF 

CUSTOMERS 

407 

In  Maine,  average  hours  66^ 

a 

verage 

wages  per 

week,  $7.04 

UNITED 

"  New  Hampshire     "     66i 

"       7.44 

STATES 

"  Connecticut            "     66j 

"       7.81 

"  Rhode  Island          "     66 

"       8.01 

"  New  York               "     65^ 

"       7.57 

"  Massachusetts        "     60 

"       8.32 

The  result  of  this  investigation — proving  as  it  did  that  the  average 
wage  in  Massachusetts  was  65  cents  more  for  5}4  hours  less  per  week  than 
the  average  in  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and 
New  York — was  far  more  eloquent  than  any  words  Mr.  Atkinson  could 
utter.     (Pages  236-237.) 


F.     Adaptation  of  Customers  to  Shorter  Hours 

Experience  shows  how  the  demands  of  customers  yield 
to  the  requirements  of  a  fixed  working  day.  When  cus- 
tomers are  obHged  to  place  orders  sufficiently  in  advance 
to  enable  them  to  be  filled  without  necessitating  overtime 
work,  compliance  with  this  habit  becomes  automatic. 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXIX-XXX.     1876. 
shops  Acts  Commission.     Vol.  XXIX.     Report. 


Factory  and  Work-   GREAT 
BRITAIN 


A  very  large  number  of  the  orders  of  customers,  which  it  has  been 
usual  to  keep  back  till  the  last  minute,  and  then  throw  upon  the  already 
fully  burdened  workers,  not  merely  can  be  quite  as  easily  given  so  as  to 
have  plenty  of  time  for  their  completion,  but  also  will  be  so  given,  and 
are  in  fact  so  given,  when  and  so  often  as  the  customer  is  made  to  recog- 
nize that  he  otherwise  runs  the  risk  of  not  having  his  orders  completed  in 
time  to  suit  his  own  convenience.  It  is  from  their  feeling  that  this  is  so 
that  the  workers  in  some  of  the  most  overworked  of  trades,  and  a  few  of 
the  sub-inspectors,  have  represented  to  us  that  what  is  needed  from  a 
reform  of  the  Factory  Acts  is  not  a  further  restriction  of  hours,  but  the 
total  abolition  of  all  modifications  whatever.  We  so  far  concur  in  this 
that  we  believe  it  is  not  necessary  to  retain  in  all  the  Acts  any  provi- 
sions by  way  of  relaxation  which  it  is  unadvisable  to  grant  once  and  for 
all  to  the  whole  trade.  We  trust  in  time  that  the  use  of  overtime  in 
trades  of  this  class  may  be  restricted  down  to  the  vanishing  point.  (Pages 
xli-xlii.) 


408  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXI.     1894.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 

of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

Most  of  the  employers  with  whom  I  have  discussed  the  matter  confirm 
my  own  impression  that  overtime  working  does  not  pay  (that  is,  when 
the  rate  of  wages  is  the  same  for  overtime  as  for  regular  working  hours), 
but  that  it  is  so  important  not  to  disappoint  a  customer  that  it  has  to  be 
done.  ...  I  am  sure  there  is  nothing,  beyond  habit,  in  the  nature  of  the 
trade  to  make  overtime  a  necessity,  and  if  women  find  out  by  1  or  2  dis- 
appointments that  a  dress  ordered,  for  instance,  on  Thursday,  cannot  be 
received  finished  on  Saturday,  they  will  soon  find  it  possible  to  order  it  a 
little  sooner.     (Pages  15-16.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XI.     1900.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops  for  the  Year  1899. 

I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  report  that  it  is  exceptional,  and  increasingly 
so,  to  find  employers  and  supervisors  of  labor  who  do  not  recognize  that 
overtime  is  injurious  both  to  employers  and  employed.  They  deplore, 
and  1  believe  in  general  sincerely,  the  necessity  when  it  arises.  They 
point  out  that  they  have  little  power  to  alter  the  mode  in  which  orders 
reach  them.  It  is  the  habits  of  buyers  which  in  most  cases  make  overtime 
necessary. 

There  seems  reason  to  hope  nevertheless  that  the  curtailment  of  over- 
time by  the  Factory  Acts  will  indirectly  put  such  pressure  on  the  buyers 
that  they  will  gradually  alter  their  methods  of  purchase. 

The  Eight  Hours  Day.     Sidney  Webb  and  Harold  Cox,  B.A.     London, 
Walter  Scott,  1891. 

We  come  now  to  the  trades  "where  sudden  press  of  orders  arises  from 
unforeseen  events."  Here  our  position  is  one  of  complete  scepticism. 
The  sudden  press  of  orders  arises  only  because  overtime  is  permitted. 
If  it  were  known  beforehand  that  excessive  hours  of  work  were  absolutely 
forbidden,  then  the  general  public  and  the  shopkeepers  would  make  their 
arrangements  accordingly.  If,  for  example,  Jones  knows  that,  owing  to 
the  operation  of  an  Eight  Hours'  Act,  a  pair  of  trousers  cannot  possibly 
be  made  in  less  than  three  days  he  will  take  care  to  give  three  clear  days' 
notice  to  his  tailor.  Or  to  take  a  still  more  homely  illustration,  the  house- 
wife who  knows  that  she  cannot  buy  bread  on  Sunday  will  take  care  to 
order  a  double  supply  on  Saturday.  In  the  same  way,  if  the  biscuit  trade, 
the  fancy  box  trade,  and  the  artificial  flower  trade  were  subject  to  the 


ADAPTATION    OF    CUSTOMERS  4O9 

same  rigid  law  as  the  cotton  trade,  even'  one  would  soon  accommodate   great 

'  BRITAIN 

himself  or  herself  to  the  necessities  of  the  case.  Orders  would  be  given 
longer  in  advance,  and  the  work  would  be  spread  more  equall\-  over  the 
whole  year,  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  workers. 

In  support  of  this  contention  we  cannot  do  better  than  quote  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  Lakeman.  This  most  energetic  of  factory  inspectors  has 
frequently  stated,  as  the  result  of  his  long  experience  in  watching  almost 
every  industry  in  the  kingdom,  that  overtime  is  in  most  trades  an  utterly 
unnecessary  evil.  For  a  particular  illustration  we  may  further  appeal  to 
the  opinion  of  the  head  of  a  large  firm  of  tobacco  manufacturers  in  South- 
wark.  This  gentleman  informed  one  of  the  present  writers  in  the  course 
of  conversation  that  he  always  refused  to  allow  overtime.  "Possibly," 
he  said,  "we  lose  a  few  orders  in  consequence,  but  we  get  a  more  regular 
and  steady  business,  and  we  prefer  it."  Nor  would  even  the  few  orders 
be  lost  if  the  rule  applied  to  all  competing  firms.     (Pages  161-163.) 

The  Women's  Industrial  News.     London,  March,  1901.     Season  Trades' 
Conference. 

In  regard  to  causes  of  irregularity,  while  some  of  these  are  evidently 
inherent  and  unavoidable,  there  appear  to  be  others  which  might  be  re- 
moved. One  of  these  is  the  practice — which  unquestionably,  to  some 
extent,  exists — of  deliberately  holding  back  the  orders  of  customers  until 
the  busy  period.  There  are  reasons  for  which  this  practice  comes  cheaper 
to  the  employer,  the  chief  of  these  being  the  ver}'  largel}"  prevalent  custom 
of  not  paying  for  overtime. 

In  regard  to  remedies  .  .  .  one  Londoner  suggested  that  the  workers 
ought  to  combine  to  insist  upon  pay  for  overtime  and  to  resist  infringe- 
ments of  the  Factory  Act.  Some  evidence  had  come  before  the  Com- 
mittee which  seemed  to  show  that  the  restriction  of  hours  by  law  had 
tended,  by  forcing  customers  to  allow  longer  time  for  the  fulfilment  of 
their  orders,'  and  enabling  emplo>'ers  to  declare  themselves  unable  to  get 
work  done  in  a  hurry,  to  diminish  overpressure.     (Pages  220-221.) 

History  of  Factory  Legislation.     B.   L.   Hutchixs  and  Amy  Harrison. 
Westminster,  King,  1903. 

Tremenheere  then  took  the  opinion  of  certain  of  the  merchants  on  this 
point,  and  found  them  much  more  favorable  to  the  extension  of  the 
Factory  Act.  .  .  .  A  limitation  of  hours  might,  it  was  admitted,  occasion- 
ally produce  inconvenience,   but  this  would  by  degrees   adjust   itself. 


4IO 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


Merchants  would  have  to  think  of  their  orders  a  little  beforehand.  .  .  . 
One  bleacher  very  candidly  admitted  that  knowing  the  bleacher  would 
undertake  to  bleach  and  finish  one  thousand  pieces  of  cloth  in  five  days 
he  often,  in  cases  of  sudden  orders,  gave  him  only  five  days  to  do  it  in; 
but  that,  if  the  hours  of  the  boys  and  women  working  were  restricted  so 
he  would  know  the  work  could  not  be  accomplished  in  that  time,  he 
should  have  to  make  his  arrangements  beforehand  to  give  seven  or  ten 
days,  or  to  send  part  of  the  order  to  another  bleacher.  It  was  pointed 
out  that  if  a  bleacher  lost  part  of  an  order  on  one  occasion  it  would  be 
made  up  to  him  on  another,  and  that  very  possibly  the  bleachers  would 
enlarge  their  works  and  keep  more  hands  ready.  If  legislation  were  alike 
for  all,  the  outlay  would  do  the  trade  no  harm.  Tremenheere  arrived  at 
the  conclusion  that  a  limitation  of  women's  and  boys'  hours  would  cause 
the  masters  to  enlarge  their  works  and  improve  their  machinery  rather 
than  chance  losing  an  order.  ...  In  1857  ...  the  mere  anticipation  of 
some  such  measure  had  caused  additions  to  be  made  both  to  buildings  and 
machinery  which  would  considerably  augment  the  firms'  power  of  getting 
speedily  through  an  increased  quantity.     (Page  134.) 


FRANCE  i^e  Travail  de  Nuii  dans  V Industrie.  Rapports  sur  son  importance  et  sa 
reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer.  [Night  IVork 
of  IVomen  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  importance  and  legal  regu- 
lation. Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]  L' Interdiction  du  Travail 
de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  l' Industrie  franfaise.  [Prohibition  of  Night 
IVork  of  Women  in  French  Industry.]  M.  P.  Pic,  University  of  Lyon. 
Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

The  question  of  evening  overtime  was  made  the  subject  of  a  thorough- 
going discussion  in  the  general  meeting  of  the  French  section  (of  the 
Association  for  Labor  Legislation),  and  it  was  the  conviction  of  the  very 
large  majority  of  those  present  that  the  suppression  of  evening  overtime 
would  not  encounter  insurmountable  practical  difficulties;  that  the  pros- 
perity of  dressmaking  and  similar  establishments  would  be  in  no  degree 
compromised  if  all  were  subjected  to  an  identical  and  invariable  regulation 
permitting  no  exceptions,  for  the  clientele  would  be  compelled  to  moderate 
its  demands  and  submit  to  a  law  socially  important,  before  which  individual 
caprice  must  give  way.     (Page  210.) 


GERMANY  Schriften  der  Gesellschaft  fiir  So^iale  Reform,  Heft  7-8.  [Publications  of 
the  Social  Reform  Society,  Nos.  7-8.]  Die  Herahset^ung  der  Arbeits- 
leit  fiir  Frauen  und  die  Erhobung  des  Schutialters  fiir  jugendliche 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTLME:     DANGER   TO    HEALTH  4II 

Arheiter  in  Fabriken.     [The  Reduction  of  Women's  Working  Hours  and   GERMANY 
the  Raising  of  the  Legal  F/orking  Age  for  Young  Factory  Employees] 
Dr.  August  Pieper  and  Helene  Simon.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

In  Germany  .  .  .  since  1893,  there  are  employers  who,  after  the  enact- 
ment of  legal  restrictions  upon  overtime  gave  it  up  altogether  and  have 
given  assurances  that  their  businesses  have  remained  prosperous.  "  Many 
employers  (1894)  put  a  stop  to  overtime,  because  it  had  absolutely  no 
advantages. ' '  Moreover,  the  objections  made  to  giving  up  overtime  have 
been  refuted  by  experience.  Many  of  the  German  inspectors  .  .  .  have 
expressed  their  conviction  that  overtime  in  factories  should  be  completely 
abolished  and  that  industry  would  be  able  to  adapt  itself  without  detri- 
ment to  such  a  regulation.     (Page  119.) 


V.     UNIFORMITY  OF  RESTRICTION 

A.     Allowance  of  Overtime  Dangerous  to  Health 

All  the  dangers  of  long  working  hours  to  the  health  of 
workingwomen  are  increased,  and  the  need  of  limiting 
such  hours  emphasized,  by  the  system  of  overtime,  when 
evening  work  is  required  after  the  regular  day's  work. 
The  special  dangers  to  health  from  overtime  are: 

(1)  The  Excessive  Length  of  Hours  great 

BRITAIN 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXVIII.  1844.  Reports  of  Inspectors 
of  Factories.  Quarterly  Report  for  Period  ending  30th  September, 
1843. 

I  am  equally  well  satisfied  that  persons  are  employed  as  adults,  for 
very  long  hours,  physically  unfit  for  the  work  they  are  called  upon  to  do, 
and  often  unwillingly  on  their  part.  In  this  remark  I  refer  principally  to 
females  who  have  just  completed  the  age  of  18.  I  have  seen  many  such 
employed  for  13,  14,  or  15  hours  a  day.  .  .  .  Some  of  these  were  em- 
ployed in  a  room  at  a  high  temperature.  What  constitution  can  stand 
against  such  labour?  Its  effects  may  not  immediately  be  seen  on  all,  but 
the  evidence  of  every  medical  man  I  have  consulted  pronounces  it  must 
result  in  the  most  serious  consequences  to  them  in  after-life.     (Page  8.) 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


412  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII.     1893.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

Much  of  the  good  done  by  the  Factory  Act  is  undone  by  allowing  deli- 
cate women  and  girls  to  work  from  8  a.  m.  to  10  p.  m.  for  2  months  of  the 
year.     (Page  92.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII.     1897.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops  for  the  Year  1896. 

Of  the  terrible  injury  resulting  from  the  excessive  hours  which  it  is  now 
so  extremely  difficult  to  control  effectively  in  the  South  one  example 
may  suffice.  I  visited  one  hand  laundry  in  London  where  a  packer  and 
sorter  had  been  driven  into  a  hospital  with  sores  on  her  legs  from  long 
standing.  .  .  .  The  girl  eventually  left  the  hospital  on  crutches,  and  at 
that  time  I  found  her  successor  on  a  fair  way  to  losing  her  health  also. 
In  this  case  it  has  been  possible  to  lessen  the  hours  and  improve  the  con- 
ditions to  a  certain  extent.     (Page  68.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XI.     1900.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops  for  the  Year  1898. 

Early  in  1898  Miss  Squire  made  a  full  enquiry  into  the  circumstances 
of  employment  in  millinery  workrooms  attached  to  retail  shops  in  South 
Wales.  .  .  .  She  reported  that  workers  regarded  service  in  the  shop  after 
a  day  in  the  workroom  as  most  exhausting  and  "more  than  any  one  ought 
to  be  allowed  to  do."  She  received  numerous  complaints  from  }'oung 
women  who  gave  evidence  of  being  at  the  present  time  employed  on  Satur- 
days habituall\-  in  shop  and  workshop  from  8  a.  m.  till  11  p.  m.  and  very 
frequently  until  midnight  and  12.30  a.  m.  Other  persons  complained  that 
their  friends  had  been  so  employed,  and  in  two  cases  the  girls  were  said  to 
have  returned  to  their  homes  in  distant  villages  with  health  shattered, 
their  condition  being  attributed  by  the  doctor  to  overwork.     (Page  180.) 

Complaint  is  constantly  made  to  me  by  employees,  their  parents  and 
friends,  of  the  exhausting  and  injurious  effect  of  work  carried  on  in  fac- 
tories and  workshops  without  intermission  from  the  end  of  dinner  time 
until  evening,  that  is  either  from  1  till  6  or  2  to  7.  There  is  of  course  in 
these  cases  no  breach  of  the  Factory  Act;  the  law  allows  a  five-hours  spell 
without  a  break,  and  this  is  not  exceeded;  often,  indeed,  the  period  of 
employment  in  the  day  is  one  hour  short  of  the  legal  limit,  and  yet  this 
five  hours  continuous  work  is  a  strain  which  I  am  convinced  does  tell 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTIME:     DANGER   TO    HEALTH  413 

seriously  (especially  where  the  work  is  done  standing)  upon  the  physical  great 
powers  of  girls  and  young  women.  Their  energy  begins  to  flag  about  the  ^^^ain 
middle  of  the  afternoon,  and  work  drags  on  with  ever  decreasing  speed  and 
efficiency  until  6  or  7  o'clock  sets  them  free,  outdoor  things  are  put  on,  and 
the  girls  trudge  home  with  half  an  hour's  walk  to  the  tea  which  they  are 
too  exhausted  then  to  relish.  In  some  factories  the  making  and  taking  of 
a  cup  of  tea  during  the  five  hours'  spell  of  an  afternoon  is  allowed  while 
work  goes  on,  and  the  brief  change  of  attitude  is  appreciated  no  less  than 
the  refreshment,  but  where  neatness  and  order  are  considered  this  picnic 
is  naturally  not  permitted.  That  it  is  possible  with  good  management  to 
allow  a  break  of  fifteen  minutes  without  interfering  with  work  or  discipline 
has  been  proved,  and  managers  who  have  tried  it  have  told  me  that  the 
increased  quantity  and  quality  of  the  work  done  in  the  closing  hours  of 
the  day  have  more  than  repaid  the  time  expended  in  partaking  of  refresh- 
ment.    (Page  181.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  VI.     1901.     Report  from  the  Select  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Lords  on  Early  Closing  of  Shops. 

Witness,  Sir  William  S.  Church,  President  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians : 

2309.  .  .  .  There  is  one  form  of  ailment  which  is  aggravated  by  work 
such  as  shop  assistants  have  to  do.  Those  come  rather  under  the  observa- 
tion of  surgeons  and  physicians  who  practice  more  especially  in  diseases  of 
women.  But  there  is  another  great  group  which  fall  under  the  observa- 
tion of  the  ordinary  physician,  and  of  which  we  see  a  very  great  deal  in  our 
London  hospitals,  and  that  is  anaemic  condition,  which  is  produced  partly 
by  long  hours  of  work,  and  still  more  so  by  the  confinement  that  this  em- 
ployment entails.  They  do  not  get  sufficient  opportunity  for  being  in  the 
fresh  air  and  in  the  sunlight,  and  the  evil  is,  of  course,  greatly  aggravated 
by  late  hours  at  night.  .  .  .  (Page  108.) 

2319.  .  .  .  The  longer  the  hours  the  greater  the  detriment.  (Page 
109.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XII.     1903.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector  of 
Factories  and  Workshops  for  1902. 

Great  discontent  still  exists  among  the  laundry  hands  at  the  long  hours 
which  are  legal.  Quite  recently  I  visited  a  laundry  at  9.30  p.  m.,  and 
found  three  young  persons  just  leaving  work,  having  been  at  it  from  8  a.  m. 
with  \}4  hours  for  meals,  and  there  were  a  number  of  women  left  to  go  on 


414  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  for  another  hour.     I  know  the  weekly  total  of  hours  is  the  same  for  laun- 

BRITAIN  jj.jgg  ^g  |-Qj.  ordinary  factories,  but  it  is  the  abnormally  long  working  day 

that  is  most  trying  to  the  workers.     (Page  29.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  X.  1904.  Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

"A  point  of  some  importance  which  was  mentioned  to  me  by  the  medi- 
cal attendant  at  one  factory  (cigar)  was  that  the  number  of  cases  under 
treatment  for  sickness  varied  pari  passu  with  the  amount  of  overtime 
work,"  i.  e.  over  ten  hours  in  one  day.     (Page  286.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  X.  1907.  Report  of  Chief  Inspector  of 
Factories  and  Workshops.  Appendix  II.  Report  on  Tobacco,  Cigar 
and  Cigarette  Industry. 

The  question  of  the  health  of  the  workers  has  been  the  main  object  of 
our  enquiry,  and  we  have  therefore  given  our  attention  chiefly  to  this 
point.  It  is  impossible  to  consider  the  industry  an  unhealthy  one.  With 
the  exception  of  one  or  two  processes  there  has  been  little  or  no  evidence 
to  prove  that  the  manufacture  of  tobacco  is  in  itself  injurious  to  health. 
.  .  .  In  six  of  the  largest  factories  visited,  a  very  complete  system  of 
preliminary  medical  examination  was  found  to  be  carried  out  by  the  doc- 
tors specially  appointed  by  the  firms.  .  .  .  We  have  gained  a  great  deal 
of  information  from  these  doctors,  whose  experience  is  almost  unique. 
Our  attention  was  drawn  to  a  very  interesting  and  important  point  by 
two  of  the  doctors;  their  experience  (which  in  one  case  has  been  tabulated) 
had  led  them  to  form  the  opinion  that  overtime  has  a  very  marked  bearing 
on  the  normal  health  of  the  workers.  They  had  noted  an  increase  during 
and  just  after  periods  of  overtime  work  of  from  one  third  to  one  half  in 
the  number  of  workers  coming  to  them  for  treatment;  the  matters  com- 
plained of  were  not  anything  special,  but  simply  an  increase  in  the  usual 
form  of  ailment,  such  as  indigestion,  anaemia,  heavy  colds  (in  winter), 
gastric  disorders  in  summer.  When  one  considers  that  overtime  here 
means  simply  employment  up  to  the  normal  legal  period,  that  is,  ten  and 
ten  and  a  half  hours  a  day,  and  does  not  mean  overtime  as  permitted  in  a 
large  number  of  industries  (in  the  case  of  women  over  eighteen)  and  which 
extends  to  twelve  hours  in  the  day,  the  result  is  all  the  more  striking,  and 
one  feels  that  a  similar  record  in  one  of  the  industries  in  which  overtime  is 
allowed  would  produce  more  noticeable  statistics  of  the  results  of  over- 
fatigue.    The  conclusion  seems  to  us  clear  that  eight  and  a  half  to  nine 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTLME :     DANGER    TO    HEALTH  415 

hours'  work  a  day  cannot  be  exceeded  by  women  and  girls  without  over-   great 
strain  and  fatigue  resulting  in  a  lower  standard  of  health.     (Pages  253- 
254.) 


Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  a  Dispute  Respecting  Hours  of  Employ-   CANADA 
ment.     The  Bell  Telephone  Company  of  Canada,  Ltd.,  and  Operators 
at  Toronto,  Ont.     The  Department  of  Labour.     Ottawa,  Canada,  1907 . 

Mr.  Dunstan: 

To  the  girl  working  a  good  deal  of  overtime  it  (the  wage)  was  all  right 
but  the  overtime  was  most  objectionable  from  the  standpoint  of  her 
health.     (Pages  29-30.) 

Documents  Parlementaires.  Chamhre  des  Deputes,  10^  Jiiin,  1890.  An-  FRANCE 
nexe  649.  [Parliamentary  Documents  of  the  French  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  June  10,  1890.  Annex  649.]  Rapport  sur  le  travail  des 
enfants,  des  Jilles  mineures  et  des  femmes  dans  les  etablissements  in- 
dustriels.  [Report  on  the  Labor  of  Children,  Young  Girls  and  Women 
in  Industrial  Establishments.]     Senator  Rich.\rd  W'addington. 

In  sewing  rooms,  florists,  dressmaking  establishments,  etc.,  the  evening 
hours  are  continually  added  on  to  the  working  day;  the  working  girls  are 
quite  unable  to  foresee  the  occasions  when  late  overtime  will  be  required 
of  them,  and  the}-  dare  not  refuse  to  stay  for  fear  of  immediate  dismissal. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  insist  upon  the  grave  injury  to  health  suffered  by 
women  whose  working  day  is  thus  prolonged  to  fifteen,  sixteen,  even 
eighteen  hours;  it  is  self-evident,  not  to  speak  of  the  disorganization  of 
family  life  which  results  from  this  compulsory  employment  of  the  daughter, 
the  wife,  or  the  mother.     (Page  1087.) 

Documents  Parlementaires.  Senat,  22^  Jtiin,  1891.  Annexe  138.  [Par- 
liamentary Documents  of  the  French  Senate,  June  22,  1891.  Annex 
138.]  Rapport  fait  sur  le  travail  des  enfants,  des  filles  mineures,  et  des 
femmes  dans  les  etablissements  industriels.  [Report  on  the  Labour  of 
Children,    Young  Girls,   and   Women   in   Industrial   Establishments.] 

M.  TOLAIN. 

As  to  the  evening  overtime  its  special  characteristic  is,  as  the  inspector 
of  the  department  of  the  Seine  pointed  out,  that  it  is  imposed  upon  women 
who  have  already  been  working  all  day.  It  differs,  therefore,  from  regular 
night  work,  in  that  it  is  carried  on  by  workers  who  have  already  performed 


4i6 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


FRANCE  a  day's  full  task,  and  not  by  a  fresh  set  who  have  been  able  to  arrange 

systematically  for  their  regular  night  hours  by  taking  at  least  some  rest 
by  day  and  by  making  arrangements  for  their  expected  night  of  work. 
It  is,  therefore,  upon  women  already  fatigued  that  this  extra  burden  is 
laid  by  the  prolongation  of  the  day's  labor  and  this  overtime  may  be  in  all, 
sixteen  and  seventeen  hours'  continuous  labor — sometimes  even  more. 
(Page  205.) 


BELGIUM  Royaume  de  Belgique.  Rapport  present e  a  M.  le  Ministre  de  V Industrie 
et  du  Travail.  [Report  to  the  Belgian  Minister  of  Commerce  and  Labor.] 
Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Ouvrieres  de  V Industrie  dans  les  Pays  Etrangers. 
[Night  Work  of  Women  in  Industry  in  Foreign  Countries.]  Maurice 
Ansiaux,  Brussels,  1898. 

Evening  work  is  not  prohibited  in  Austria  in  small  establishments. 
It  will  be  of  very  great  interest  to  inquire  into  the  use  made  of  this  liberty. 
But  it  is  disheartening  to  find  that  the  development  attained  by  author- 
ized evening  work  is  very  great. 

It  is  especially  at  Vienna  that  abuses  are  very  numerous,  and  some- 
times very  grave. 

Here,  as  elsewhere,  it  is  a  matter  of  additional  or  overtime  work  suc- 
ceeding and  superimposed  upon  the  normal  activity  of  the  working  day 
and  prolonged  to  a  late  hour  of  the  night:  to  midnight,  1  or  2  o'clock,  and 
even  later  in  some  cases. 

M.  von  Klein  recognized  that  the  lot  of  working  women  subject  to  this 
overwork  is  very  unhappy.     (Page  178.) 

According  to  an  official  inquiry  made  in  March  and  April,  1896,  "the 
abuse  varied  in  gravity  according  to  trades.  It  must  be  recognized  that 
in  the  majority  of  cases  (the  'inquiry  extended  to  fifty-eight  distinct 
trades')  the  evil  was  of  wide  extent.  All  the  testimony  given  during  the 
course  of  the  inquiry  had  a  monotonous  and  saddening  similarity.  Almost 
always,  the  evening  work — during  the  season — continued  until  1  or  2 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  next  day  it  was  necessary  to  be  at  work  at 
an  early  hour,  under  penalty  of  a  serious  deduction  from  wages."  (Pages 
180-181.) 


GERMANY 


Le  Travail  de  Nuit  dans  I'Industrie.  Rapports  siir  son  importance  et  sa 
reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer.  [Night  Work 
of  Women  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  importance  and  legal  regulation. 
Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]     Interdiction  du  Travail  de  Nuit  des 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTLME:     DANGER    TO    HEALTH  417 

Femmes   en  Allemagne.     [Prohibition   of  Night   IVork   of  Women   in   GERMANY 
Germany.]     Dr.  .Max  Hirsch.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

Especiall}-  is  the  complaint  made  that  the  overtime  and  night  work  of 
women  bring  on  abdominal  troubles,  jaundice,  pulmonar}-  affections 
developing  into  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  and  weaknesses  of  the  eyes; 
with  reference  to  these  latter  effects  it  is  stated  that  female  workers  in 
textile  mills  very  soon  have  their  sight  affected.     (Page  29.) 


Retort  of  the  Minnesota  Bureau  of  Labor,  Industries  and  Commerce.     1907-  united 
^         ■  •  STATES 

1908. 

Repeatedly  has  there  been  brought  to  the  attention  of  this  office  the 
common  practice  of  women  working  overtime. 

At  first  it  would  seem  that  this  was  a  question  that  was  entirely-  op- 
tional with  the  worker,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  when  the  machines  are 
ready  for  operation  the  employee  who  is  not  at  her  post  must  forfeit  her 
position  and  make  wa_\'  for  some  one  who  will  be  willing  to  work  as  oc- 
casion requires. 

Physicians,  nurses,  anxious  mothers  and  ailing  girls  have  appealed, 
but  until  there  is  a  law  that  positiveI_\'  forbids  the  emplo\'ment  of  women 
more  than  a  specified  time  such  establishments  as  must  run  overtime  to 
fill  the  "rush  orders"  will  work  at  night.  .  .  .  The  long  period  of  standing 
on  their  feet,  the  shortened  time  for  meals,  all  combine  to  militate  strongly 
against,  not  only  her  own  health,  but  the  health  of  those  who  shall  come 
after  her. 

This  particularl}'  applies  when  we  realize  that  the  work  that  is  done  b\' 
women  in  so  many  departments  of  industr}'  is  "piece"  work,  where  the 
nervous  strain  is  at  its  highest  tension. 

It  is  therefore  urged  that  ^Minnesota  follow  the  good  example  of  her 
sister  States  and  place  a  time  limit  upon  the  number  of  hours  when  a 
woman  may  be  emplo\'ed.     (Pages  243-244.) 


(2)  Evening  Work  in  Addition  to  Day  W'ork 

A  second  danger  to  the  health  of  working  women  from 
overtime  is  the  excessive  exertion  needed  to  keep  up  even- 
ing work  after  and  in  addition  to  the  fatigue  of  the  day's 
work. 

2/ 


4i8 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  Archiv  fur  Unfallheilkunde,  Gewerhehygiene  und  Gewerbekrankheiten. 
Bd.  I.  Uber  den  Gesundheitsschuti  der  Gewerblichen  Arbeiter.  [Pro- 
tection of  the  IVorkingman  s  Health.]  Dr.  Schaefer.  Stuttgart, 
Enke,  1896. 

...  In  many  cases  ordinary  working  hours  are  extended  by  the 
system  of  overtime. 

The  results  are  disturbances  of  nutrition,  premature  decrease  of 
eificiency,  increase  in  the  numbers  of  accidents,  lowering  of  organic  re- 
sistance to  sickness  and  dangers  of  occupation  in  general;  last,  but  not 
least,  arrested  physical  and  mental  development  in  the  offspring  of  our 
working  population.     (Page  204.) 


Das  Verbot  der  Nachtarbeit.  Bericht  erstattet  an  dem  internationalen 
Kongress  fiir  geset^lichen  Arbeiterschuti  in  Paris,  1900.  (Schmoller's 
Jahrbuch,  25  "^.)  [Prohibition  of  Night  JVork.  Report  presented  to 
the  International  Congress  for  Labor  Legislation  at  Paris,  1900. 
(Schmoller's  Yearbook,  25^'*.)]  Dr.  Max  Hirsch,  Germany.  Leipiig, 
1901. 

When  estimating  the  danger  to  health,  however,  not  only  night  work 
itself  must  be  considered,  but  the  entire  working  time  within  the  24  hours 
and  in  one  week.  Even  a  short  working  time  at  night  after  a  long  day, 
or  even  after  a  normal  working  day,  must  be  regarded  as  harmful.  Here 
the  generally  recognized  evil  of  overtime  complicates  the  question  of 
night  work.  Prof.  Dr.  Erismann  of  Zurich  rightly  stigmatizes  this  re- 
curring "overtime"  lasting  into  the  hours  of  the  night  as  a  cruel  exploita- 
tion of  the  worker  and  as  a  lamentable  evasion  of  factory  laws.  (Pages 
1263-1264.) 


AUSTRIA 


Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I'Industrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im- 
portance et  sa  reglemeniation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Night  Work  of  Women  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  importance  and 
legal  regulation.  Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]  Le  Travail  de  Nuit 
des  Femmes  dans  V Industrie  en  Autriche.  [Night  Work  of  Women  in 
Industry  in  Austria.]     Ilse  von  Arlt.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

What  we  have  just  said  (regarding  evils  of  night  work)  is  equally  ap- 
plicable to  establishments  less  important  than  factories,  with  this  added 
circumstance,  that  the  fatigue  arising  from  the  day's  work  is  increased  by 
late  overtime,  making  the  task  still  more  arduous. 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTIME:     DANGER   TO    HEALTH  419 

Here,  after  a  day's  work  already  too  long,  when,  after  12  or  14  hours  of  Austria 
toil,  "night  work"  must  be  accomplished  in  addition,  the  body  becomes 
incapable  of  enduring  the  more  intensive  demands  which  are  unremittingly 
made  upon  it.  This  overtime  is  the  most  destructive  form  of  night  work, 
and  it  is  found  in  all  those  establishments  that  are  not  classed  as  factories. 
(Page  82.) 

Report  of  Ohio  Inspector  of  Workshops  and  Factories.     1890.  united 

^  -^  ^  •>  ^  STATES 

...  If  there  can  be  raised  any  objection  to  the  employment  of  women 
in  factories,  etc.,  it  certainly  should  be  their  employment  for  unreasonable 
hours,  and  especially  after  night.  The  employment  of  women  in  factories 
implies  that  the  great  majority  are  compelled  to  remain  standing  more  or 
less  of  the  time  while  engaged  at  their  daily  avocation.  It  is  a  well  es- 
tablished fact  that  for  a  woman  to  remain  standing  for  any  length  of 
time,  and  especially  for  such  practice  to  extend  from  day  to  day,  will 
eventually  result  to  her  physical  detriment.  So  apparent  has  this  fact 
been  established  that  Ohio  has  already  placed  a  law  on  her  statute  books 
compelling  that  all  employers  of  women  furnish  comfortable  seats  for 
their  use,  but  it  is  absolutely  impossible  for  most  factory  employees  to 
receive  much  relief  from  this  law,  being,  through  necessity  caused  from 
the  nature  of  their  work,  compelled  to  remain  standing  a  greater  portion 
of  the  time;  and  when  they  have  been  so  employed  for  a  period  of  ten 
hours,  is  it  not  barbarous  that  they  should  be  compelled  to  work  still 
longer  hours,  and  sometimes  far  into  the  night?  This  department  has 
received  many  pathetic  appeals  for  relief  from  women  employed  in  fac- 
tories, who,  through  fear  of  being  discharged  from  their  positions,  have 
been  compelled  to  work  long  and  irregular  hours.     (Pages  37-38.) 


(3)  Injury  from  Gas  and  Bad  Air 

The  air  of  workrooms  in  which  evening  work  is  carried 
on  is  usually  bad,  vitiated  by  the  presence  of  workers  during 
the  whole  day,  and  by  gas  required  at  night. 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XV.     1831-32.     Report  from  the   Select  great 
Committee  on  the  "Bill  to  Regulate  the  Labour  of  Children  in  the  Mills  "^'^^^ 
and  Factories  of  the  United  Kingdom." 

Sir  George  Leman  Tuthill,  F.R.S.,  physician  to  the  Westminster  Hos- 
pital and  Bethlem  Hospital: 


420  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  11314.     You  have  already  given  your  opinion  as  to  the  labour  pursued 

during  the  night  being  probably  more  prejudicial  than  that  undergone  in 
the  daytime;  do  you  conceive  that  the  having  to  work  by  artificial  lights 
during  the  night  may  also  tend  to  render  labour  more  insalubrious,  and 
also  prejudicial  to  the  eyes,  as  the  operatives  now  being  to  allege? — Work- 
ing during  the  night  involves  the  necessity  of  using  artificial  light;  and 
artificial  light  contributes  to  render  unfit  for  respiration  the  air  of  the 
factory  in  which  the  light  is  used.  Where  artificial  light  is  used  to  any 
extent,  there  must  be  a  considerable  quantity  of  carbonic  gas  mixing 
with  the  air  of  the  apartment,  which  is  prejudicial  to  health.     (Page  580.) 

Joseph  Henry  Green,  Esq.,  F.R.S.,  a  surgeon  of  St.  Thomas'  Hospital 
and  Professor  of  Surgery  at  King's  College: 

11392.  What  effect  has  the  long  continued  burning  of  artificial  lights 
upon  the  purity  of  the  atmosphere? — It  removes  the  oxygen,  and  renders 
it  chemically  unfit  for  respiration.     (Page  588.) 

Charles  Aston  Key,  Esq.,  surgeon  at  Guy's  Hospital: 

11416.  Would  not  the  artificial  lights  by  which  the  labour  must  be 
pursued  have  a  prejudicial  influence  upon  the  health  by  destroying  to  a 
certain  degree  the  salubrity  of  the  atmosphere? — Undoubtedly  they  must 
tend  to  deteriorate  the  quantity  of  the  air,  and  render  it  unfit  for  the  pur- 
poses of  respiration. 

11417.  Some  of  the  operatives  have  alleged  that  the  gas  lights  have  a 
tendency  to  injure  the  sight  when  they  have  to  labour  by  them  for  so  long 
a  period;  do  you  consider  that  that  might  be  a  result  produced  by  labour 
under  those  circumstances? — Yes;  I  conceive  that  that  is  a  very  natural 
consequence.     (Page  591.) 

James  Guthrie,  Esq.,  F.  R.  S.,  Vice-President  of  Royal  College  of 
Surgeons,  surgeon  to  Westminster  Hospital  and  to  Westminster  Eye 
Hospital: 

11479.  In  addition  to  other  effects  it  might  be  likely  to  produce,  does 
not  this  labour,  when  pursued  by  night,  and  consequently  by  gas  or  other 
artificial  lights,  tend,  as  the  operatives  allege  it  does,  to  injure  sight? — 
Yes.     (Page  595.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XII.     1886.     Reports  from  Select  Com- 
mittee on  Shop  Hours  Regulation  Bill. 

Witness,  A.  Redgrave,  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories: 
24.     Is  it  not  the  case  that,  although  many  of  the  shops  are  very  well 
ventilated,  and  there  is  no  objection  upon  that    score,  there  are  a  large 
number  of  shops  in  which  the  atmosphere  is  no  better  than  that  in  a 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTIME:     DANGER   TO    HEALTH  42 1 

factory?  ...  At  night,  unquestionably  in  large  drapers'  shops,  with  a   great 
very  large  quantity  of  gas  burning,  the  air  is  vitiated  and  bad.     (Page  3.)     ^"^^^ 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVIII.     1889.     Report  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories. 

It  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  is  not  only  the  length  of  the 
hours  worked  which  is  productive  of  so  much  harm,  but  the  fact  that 
especially  in  the  winter  time  so  large  a  proportion  of  these  hours  is  passed 
in  an  atmosphere  vitiated  by  gas  and  other  impurities  which  have  con- 
tinued to  accumulate  during  the  day,  which  atmosphere  the  workers  in- 
hale at  a  time  when  the  body  is  fatigued  by  a  full  day's  work.     (Page  96.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII.     1893.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

.  .  .  Our  experience  as  factory  inspectors  goes  more  to  the  question  of 
physical  evil,  and  I  have  seen  many  a  girl  toiling  away  in  a  workroom, 
where  the  gas  has  been  burning  for  5  hours,  upon  whose  face  it  did  not 
want  the  eye  of  a  doctor  to  discover  the  traces  of  the  irremediable  mischief 
which  was  going  on.     (Page  92.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  VI.     1901.     Report  from  the  Select  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Lords  an  Early  Closing  of  Shops. 

Witness,  Secretary  Scottish  Shopkeepers'  Association: 
1034.  .  .  .  Then  Dr.  Cowan  Lees  is  not  an  officer  of  our  Union,  but 
his  practice  is  in  a  large  and  populous  shopkeeping  district  of  Glasgow, 
and  knowing  that  he  was  peculiarly  situated  as  regards  experience  we 
wrote  to  him,  and  this  is  his  reply:  "...  I  may  state  that  I  am  of 
opinion  that  the  long  hours  and  confinement  in  the  vitiated  atmosphere 
of  the  great  majority  of  shops,  especially  during  the  evening  and  night 
hours,  are  decidedly  injurious  to  the  health  of  shop  assistants.  During 
the  long  hours  after  dark  shops  are  brilliantly  lit  .  .  .  and  it  is  in  this  that 
perhaps  the  greatest  damage  is  done.  If  it  were  possible  to  lessen  the 
evening  hours,  which  I  believe  could  be  done  without  loss  to  the  employers, 
a  great  blessing  would  be  secured  for  the  shop  assistants."     (Pages  75-76.) 

Report  of  the  New  York  Department  of  Labor.     1911.  united 

In  my  previous  reports,  the  question  of  artificial  lighting  in  its  rela- 
tion  to   air   vitiation   has   been   fully  discussed.     Its  efi"ects  upon  the 


UNITED 
STATES 


422 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


eyes  of  the  workers,  if  too  dim,  or  too  glaring,  are  to  cause  eye  strain, 
nervous  disorders,  dimness  of  vision  and  the  loss  of  eyesight,  which 
latter  is  the  greatest  calamity  that  can  befall  anyone. 

it  has  been  impossible  to  undertake  an  intensive  investigation  into  the 
subject,  but  as  a  result  of  general  injuries  among  the  workers,  1  find 
there  are  a  number  who  suffer  from  the  effects  of  faulty  lighting.  I 
have  observed  many  workers  employed  with  unshaded  gas  and  electric 
light  directly  on  a  level  with  the  eyes,  and  from  my  own  experience 
with  such  means  of  lighting,  1  am  fully  convinced  of  the  harmfulness  of 
such  illumination.     (Page  73.) 


(4)  Lack  of  Sleep 

The  lack  of  sleep,  due  both  to  the  inadequate  resting 
time  allowed  between  working  days  when  evening  work 
is  required,  and  to  the  impossibility  of  getting  sleep  after 
an  exhausting  and  excessively  long  working  day,  causes 
serious  injury  to  the  health  of  workingwomen. 


FRANCE  Rapports  presentes  a  M.  le  Ministre  de  Commerce,  de  V Industrie,  des  Pastes 

ei  des  Telegraphes  par  les  Inspedeurs  du  Travail.  [Reports  presented 
to  the  {French)  Minister  of  Commerce,  Labor,  etc.,  etc.,  by  the  Factory 
Inspectors.]  La  Question  de  V Interdiction  du  Travail  de  Nuit.  [The 
Question  of  Prohibiting  Night  Work.]     Paris,  1900. 

Late  hours  of  work,  as  well  as  actual  night  work,  are  destructive  to  the 
health  of  girls  and  women.  We  have  had  occasion  more  than  once  to  ob- 
serve the  mjurious  effect  of  evening  overtime.  When  night  hours  are 
added  to  those  of  the  day's  labor  the  result  is  overwork  which  directly 
saps  the  strength  and  promotes  the  craving  for  alcoholic  stimulant. 
During  an  inquiry  made  in  Marseilles  a  number  of  sewing  girls  complamed 
that  after  a  certain  number  of  evenings  with  late  overtime  they  found  it 
impossible  to  sleep.  Though  overcome  by  fatigue,  they  lay  awake  until 
early  morning,  when  it  was  nearly  time  to  go  to  work  again.  In  conse- 
quence, they  did  not  have  the  seven  hours  of  sleep  imperatively  necessary 
for  an  adult.  Failing  to  have  restful  nights  after  the  days'  work,  insomnia 
supervenes  with  all  its  terrors.  Sleep  has  so  vast  an  importance  with 
regard  to  health  that  there  is  perhaps  no  function  deserving  of  more  serious 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTLME!     DANGER   TO    HEALTH  423 

consideration.     Everything  that  interferes  with  the  h\'giene  of  sleep  is   france 
dangerous,  because  the  equilibrium  of  the  nervous  system  is  imperilled. 
The  overworked  women  who  have  been  employed  overtime  in  the  evenings 
absolutely  need  the  period  of  unemployment  to  re-establish  their  shattered 
health  as  best  they  may.     (Pages  71-72.) 

La  Revue  de  Paris.     September-October,  1904.     Le   Travail  de  Nuit  des 
Femmes.     [Night  Work  of  Women.]     Georges  Alfassa. 

Of  what  value  can  the  sleep  be  that  comes  between  2  and  7  a.  m.  after 
an  exhausting  day  and  evening?  Thus,  aggravated  by  conditions  more 
or  less  unhygienic,  night  work  for  women  has  always  resulted  in  depriva- 
tion of  sleep.     (Page  369.) 

A  physician,  Dr.  Rochard,  sa\-s  on  this  subject:  "...  Work  at  night 
is  pernicious  in  itself,  and  has  serious  objections  even  when  the  workers 
can  rest  by  day.  The  loss  of  sleep  causes  one  of  the  most  painful  forms  of 
suffering  that  human  beings  can  be  called  upon  to  endure;  it  becomes  more 
distressing  when  it  is  accompanied  by  monotonous  labor  and  a  repetition 
of  the  same  motions  over  and  over.  It  is  above  all  fatal  to  the  health  of 
women."     (Page  369.) 

Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  V Tndustrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im-  AUSTRIA 
portance  et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Night  Work  of  Women  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  importance  and 
legal  regulation.  Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]  Le  Travail  de  Nuit 
des  Femmes  dans  V Industrie  en  Autriche.  [Night  Work  of  Women  in 
Industry  in  Austria.]     Ilse  von  Arlt.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

.  .  .  The  injury  to  the  eyes  caused  by  white  goods  .  .  .  and  the  bent 
position  in  sewing  .  .  .  require  specially  a  sufficient  night's  sleep,  for  it 
is  only  this  that  can  counterbalance  the  stooped  posture  and  eye  weari- 
ness of  the  day,  and  combat  the  anaemia  resulting  from  under- 
nutrition.    (Page  87.) 


(5)  Irreparable  Overstrain 

The  excessive  strain  of  "rush"  work  makes  such  great 
demands  upon  the  worker's  strength  at  certain  seasons 
or  days  of  the  week,  that  no  relief  is  afforded  by  the  shorter 


424 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


hours  succeeding,  which  are  supposed  to  compensate  for  the 
strain.  The  health  of  workingwomen  has  been  wrecked 
even  by  isolated  instances  of  such  excessive  exertion. 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XIX.     1873.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1873. 

To  my  mind  it  seems  very  fallacious  reasoning  to  attempt  to  justify 
overtime  amongst  females  ...  on  the  ground  that,  taking  the  years 
through,  the  hours  of  work  average  less  than  sixty  weekly.  A  girl  is  not 
a  whit  less  likely  to  be  injured  physically  and  morally  by  working  fourteen 
hours  a  day  in  May  and  June  because  she  has  not  to  work  more  than  seven 
hours  in  September  and  October.     (Page  43.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XIV.     1898.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

Sixty  hours'  actual  work  in  a  normal  week  may  be  considered  as  a 
reasonable  amount  by  the  average  laundry  girl,  but  when  one  day  in  the 
week  is  a  whole  holiday,  prescribed  by  the  Factory  Act,  and  she  is  still 
required  to  work  sixty  hours  in  the  remaining  five  days,  she  apparently 
seems  to  feel  that  she  is  not  being  fairly  dealt  by,  and  that  the  law  is  taking 
away  with  one  hand  what  it  gave  with  the  other.  Several  complaints 
have  been  received  of  sixty  hours'  employment  in  a  laundry  on  the  five 
consecutive  days  following  a  statutory  holiday,  as  of  something  illegal, 
and  a  visit  paid  in  response  to  one  of  these  on  a  Saturday  following  a 
Monday  Bank  (holiday)  found  manageress,  women,  and  girls  tired  out 
and  murmuring  that  a  holiday  which  had  to  be  made  up  for  as  they  had 
made  it  up  was  no  holiday.     (Page  107.) 


GERMANY  AmtUche  Mittheihingen  aiis  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  Gewerhe-Aufsichts- 
beamten.  XXI.  1896.  [Official  Information  from  Reports  of  the 
{German)  Factory  Inspectors.]     Berlin,  Bruer,  1897. 

The  complaints  of  laundrywomen  in  Beuel  of  bad  conditions  and  over- 
work gave  the  inspector  in  Bonn  opportunity  to  investigate  the  laundries. 
He  found  deplorable  conditions.  .  .  .  The  hours  of  work  were  varied  and 
often  permitted  grave  abuses  of  the  strength  of  employees.  In  some 
establishments  .  .  .  the  hours  of  work  were  prolonged  from  midnight 
until  6  or  even  8  of  the  following  evening,  or  from  12  to  20  hours  broken 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTIME:     DANGER   TO    HEALTH  425 

only  by  short  and  irregular  pauses.     Even  if  this  only  occurred  two  or   GERMANY 
three  times  a  week  it  could  not  fail  to  injure  the  strongest  constitution. 
Unfortunately  it  is  impossible  at  present  to  interfere,  as  this  industry 
does  not  come  under  the  factory  laws.     Cologne.     (Page  264.) 


Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Berlin, 
September,  1907.  Vol.  II.  Sec.  IV.  Die  Ermudung  durch  Berufsar- 
heit.  [Fatigue  resulting  from  Occupation.]  Dr.  Emil  Roth.  Berlin, 
Hirschwald,  1908. 

My  experience  and  observations  do  not  permit  me  to  feel  any  uncer- 
tainty in  believing  that  the  injury  to  health  inflicted  upon  even  fully 
capable  workers  by  the  special  demands  of  a  periodically  heightened  rush 
of  work  is  never  compensated  for.  Under  this  head  we  must  consider 
the  demands  of  all  seasonal  work,  and  those  industries  where  piece-work 
with  overtime  is  the  rule  during  several  months  in  the  year,  as  also  the 
special  rush  seasons  in  shops,  before  Christmas,  etc.,  etc.  We  observe 
toward  the  end  of  such  periods  a  marked  increase  in  the  amount  of  sick- 
ness, and  with  a  frequent  repetition  of  forced  drafts  upon  strength  the 
injurious  results  can  no  longer  be  repaired  by  longer  pauses,  or  reduction 
of  hours,  or  diminished  demands  upon  the  working  capacity.  Similarly 
in  laundries  the  overstrain  of  the  last  part  of  the  week  is  so  great  that  it 
cannot  possibly  be  balanced  by  the  relatively  easier  work  of  the  first  part. 
(Page  610.) 


Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  V Industrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im-  Austria 
parlance  et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Night  IVork  of  IVomen  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  importance  and 
legal  regulation.  Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]  Le  Travail  de  Nuit 
des  Femmes  dans  l' Industrie  en  Autriche.  [Night  IVork  of  Women  in 
Industry  in  Austria.]     Ilse  von  Arlt.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

.  .  .  The  suitable  limits  of  working  time  vary  with  individuals  but  it 
is  acknowledged  that  not  only  is  a  regularly  long  day  of  work  injurious, 
but  also  that  a  single  isolated  instance  of  overstrain  may  be  harmful  to  a 
woman  all  the  rest  of  her  life, — a  fact  that  is  of  importance  for  workers  in 
seasonal  trades,  and  all  the  more  so  because  the  general  ignorance  of 
people  as  to  hygiene  for  women  gives  no  reason  to  anticipate  any  initia- 
tive for  reform  among  the  workers  themselves.     (Page  86.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


426 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.  1907- 
1908.  Part  VII.  IVornen  Workers  in  Milwaukee  Tanneries.  Irene 
Osgood,  Special  Agent. 

During  overtime  work  conditions  are  especially  bad.  A  twelve-hour 
day  with  a  light  breakfast,  a  long  walk,  and  a  cold  and  insufficient  lunch 
and  supper,  with  intense  work  throughout  the  whole  time,  is  not  conducive 
to  the  physical  well-being  of  a  girl.  Emergencies  of  this  kind  leave  a 
permanent  impress  upon  the  health  of  women.     (Page  1062.) 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


B.     Allowance  of  Overtime  Dangerous  to  Morals 

(1)  Loss  OF  Family  Life 

Overtime  work  for  women  inevitably  demoralizes  all 
family  life.  When  working  hours  are  so  long  that  the 
evening  is  invaded  by  labor  the  exhausted  worker  who  does 
not  reach  home  until  late  in  the  evening  must  unavoidably 
neglect  all  family  duties,  and  lose  all  the  elevating  influence 
of  family  life. 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXIV.     1866.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  31st  October,  1865. 

We  may  be  told,  indeed,  that  to  repeal  this  lost-time  clause,  and  to 
substitute  for  it  a  strict  adherence  to  factory  hours,  would  be  injuriously 
to  affect  the  bleachers'  and  dyers'  interests.  But  let  us  consider,  too,  the 
workers'  interests,  their  powers  of  endurance,  their  loss  of  social  comfort, 
the  intellectual  degradation  of  their  families;  and  let  us  remember  that 
these  are  considerations  of  a  higher  order  than  mere  overwork,  and  of  more 
enduring  consequences.     (Page  82.) 


An  Essay  on  the  Nine  Hours  Movement. 
Truelove,  1861. 


John  Bedford  Leno.     London, 


But  overtoil]]means  even  more  than  this:  it  means  disreputable  homes. 
How  can  a  man  have  that  regard  and  that  control  over  his  household  which 
it  is  desirable  he  should  possess,  if  every  hour  of  the  daylight  be  spent  in 
the  workshop?     His  children  grow  up  without  his  supervision,  he  has 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTLME!     DANGER   TO    MORALS  427 

neither  the  desire  nor  the  time  to  instruct  them;  and  hence  those  deplor-   great 
able  results  which  we  too  often  witness. 

...  Or  if  we  look  at  the  question  from  an  intellectual  point  of  view. 
Do  we  not  perceive  that  mental  improvement  is  almost  rendered  an  im- 
possibility, for  those  who  have  idleness  thrust  upon  them  have  neither 
the  desire  nor  the  motive  for  so  improving  themselves,  while  those  who 
are  overworked  are  unfitted  for  the  display  of  the  mental  activity  required 
for  intellectual  improvement.     (Page  10.) 

Problems  of  Poverty.     John  A.  Hobson,  M.A.     London,  Methuen,  1891. 

One  of  the  chief  social  dangers  of  the  age  is  the  effect  of  industrial 
work  upon  the  motherhood  of  the  race.  So  long  as  we  refuse  to  insist  as 
a  nation,  that  along  with  the  growth  of  national  wealth  there  shall  be 
secured  those  conditions  of  healthy  home  life  requisite  for  the  sound, 
physical,  moral,  and  intellectual  growth  of  the  young,  at  whatever  cost  of 
interference  with  so-called  private  liberty  of  action,  we  are  rendering  our- 
selves as  a  nation  deliberately  responsible  for  the  continuance  of  that 
creature  whose  appearance  gives  a  loud  lie  to  our  claim  of  civilization, — 
the  gutter  child  of  our  city  streets.     (Page  169.) 

The  Economic  Journal.     Vol.  XIV.     1904.     The  Employment  of  IVomen 
in  Paper  Mills.     B.  L.  Hutchins. 

With  regard  to  home  life,  the  only  employer  seen  who  was  of  an  age 
to  remember  conditions  before  the  Act  stated  emphatically  that  legal 
regulation  had  been  of  greatest  benefit  to  women  workers.  The  old 
state  of  things  in  which  women  worked  irregular  hours,  and  in  some  cases 
all  through  the  night,  in  relays,  as  men  did,  was  demoralizing,  and,  as 
scarcely  needs  proving,  fatal  to  any  orderly  home  life.     (Page  247.) 

Report  of  the  New  Zealand  Bureau  of  Industries.     1896.  ZE^ANE 

One  very  great  drawback  upon  overtime  labour,  especiallv  for  girls, 
is  that  they  have  to  work  at  night,  and  this  is  for  many  reasons  undesir- 
able. Parents  complain  that  proper  supervision  of  their  children's  con- 
duct is  impossible,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  night  work  of  an\-  kind 
for  women  is  open  to  grave  objection.     (Page  iii.) 

Rapports  presentes  a  M.  le  Ministre  de  Commerce,  de  V Industrie,  des  Pastes  FRANCE 
et  des  Telegraphes,  par  les  Inspecteurs  dii  Travail.     [Reports  presented 
to  the  {French)  Minister  of  Commerce,  Labor,  etc.,  etc.  by  the  Factory 


428 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


FRANCE  Inspectors.]     La  Question  de  V Interdiction  du  Travail  de  Nuit.     [The 

Question  of  Prohibiting  Night  IVork.]   Paris,  Imprimerie  Nationale,  1900. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  wholesome  organization  of  family  life  the 
evening  overtime  endangers  or  destroys  the  morals  of  young  girls  so  that 
this  overtime  is  almost  worse  than  regular  night  work  .  .  .  she  must 
practically  renounce  her  family.     (Pages  84-85.) 

L'Jnterdiction  du  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  V Industrie  Fran^aise. 
[The  Prohibition  of  Night  IVork  for  Women  in  French  Industry.] 
A.  Chazal.     Paris,  Pedone,  1902. 

A  labor  inspector  deplores  the  physical  and  moral  effects  of  overtime 
evening  work:  "The  amount  of  work  required  during  12  hours  is  indeed 
for  girls  and  women  an  effort  which  they  can  frequently  renew  only  at  the 
price  of  their  health.  .  .  .  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  family,  overtime 
work  in  the  evening  is  detrimental;  first,  for  young  girls  who  escape  thus 
the  oversight  of  parents  and  who  are  exposed  to  the  dangers  of  the  street; 
secondly,  to  women  and  to  mothers  whose  presence  at  home  is  so  necessary. 

"Overtime  work  at  the  mill  does  not  permit  them  to  care  for  their 
husbands,  whose  work  almost  always  ends  by  7  p.  m.,  nor  for  their  chil- 
dren, who  are  left  to  themselves  and  do  not  have  even  the  indispensable 
material  care,  consequently  their  intellectual  and  moral  needs  are  entirely 
neglected.  The  result  of  evening  overtime  work  on  the  woman  without 
regard  to  age  is  physical  decline,  even  when  it  does  not  bring  moral  de- 
cline."    (Pages  99-100.) 

La  Revue  de  Paris.  September-October ,  1904.  Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des 
Femmes.     [Night  IVork  for  Women.]     Georges  Alfassa. 

Late  evening  work  is  as  dangerous  as  night  work  for  the  younger  women. 
Late  hours  in  the  shop  remove  the  girl  from  the  protection  of  her  parents. 
(Page  372.) 

GERMANY  Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  VIndustrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im- 
portance et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Night  IVork  of  Women  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  importance  and 
legal  regulation.  Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]  Interdiction  du  Tra- 
vail de  Nuit  des  Femmes  en  Allemagne.  [Prohibition  of  Night  Work  of 
Women  in  Germany.]     Dr.  Max  Hirsch.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

But  if  .  .  .  the  family  cannot  be  united  in  the  evening,  then  the  full 
measure  of  evil  is  suffered;   then  as  a  rule  everything  within  the  family 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTLMEl     DANGER   TO    MORALS  429 

is  set  adrift.     It  may  be  objected  that  overtime  work  can  be  authorized    GERMANY 

for  only  fort\-  days.     When  during  forty  evenings,  or  even  less,  during 

the  year,  the  woman,  prolonging  her  absence  beyond  the  usual  working 

day,  must  slight  her  home  duties,  fail  to  insure  the  comfort  of  her  husband 

and  the  physical  and  moral  well-being  of  her  children,  such  a  practice 

well  may,  it  even  necessarily  must,  cause  an  irreparable  injury,  even  to 

sapping  and  destroying  the  family  life.     (Page  34.) 

Proceedings  of  the  First  International  Convention  on   Industrial   Diseases.    ITALY 
Milan,  1906.     Frenastenia  e  delinqueyiia  in  rapporto  a  taluni  ordina- 
menti  del  lavoro.     [Imbecility  and  Criminality  in  Relation  to  Certain 
Forms  of  Labor.]     Prof.  Crisafulll 

When  both  parents,  because  of  their  need  to  work,  pass  the  entire  day 
away  from  home,  the  children,  with  few  exceptions,  grow  up  in  a  state  of 
moral  abandonment,  and  it  is  very  rare  that,  in  their  moments  of  leisure, 
the  parents  can  dedicate  themselves  to  their  education,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  the  heavy  incessant  toil  in  factor}-  or  workroom  reduces  them  to  a 
state  of  physical  and  mental  exhaustion.     (Page  147.) 

Evidence  submitted  to  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  in  Favor  of  the  Enact-   united 
mejit  of  a  Ten-hour  Lau.     Laurence.     1870. 

Comparative  merits  ...  of  the  ten-hour  system  over  the  present 
(i.  e.,  11  hours). 

2d.  Heads  of  families  are  less  crowded  in  the  discharge  of  family 
duties — hence  less  irritated  and  passionate  m  directing  the  affairs  of  their 
households.  The  passionate  treatment  of  wearied  children  b}"  overworked 
parents,  it  is  to  be  feared,  has  much  to  do  m  rendering  home  influences 
in  some  cases  a  curse  instead  of  a  blessing,  }'ea,  in  driving  both  parents  and 
children  into  habits  of  dissipation.     E.  A.  Buck.     (Pages  19-20.) 

Cmigressional  Record.      Vol.  XXI.     Part  X.      Pages  9300-9301.     August 
28,  1890.     Remarks  of  Mr.  McKinley  upon  the  Eight-hour  Bill. 

The  tendency  of  the  times  the  world  over  is  for  shorter  hours  for  labor; 
shorter  hours  in  the  interest  of  health,  shorter  hours  in  the  interest  of 
humanity,  shorter  hours  in  the  interest  of  the  home  and  the  famil\'. 
.  .  .  Cardinal  Manning  in  a  recent  article  spoke  noble  words  on  the  gen- 
eral subject  when  he  said: 

"But  if  the  domestic  life  of  the  people  be  vital  above  all;   if  the  peace. 


430 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 


UWITED 
STATES 


the  purity  of  homes,  the  education  of  children,  the  duties  of  wives  and 
mothers,  the  duties  of  husbands  and  of  fathers,  be  written  in  the  natural 
law  of  mankind,  and  if  these  things  are  sacred  far  beyond  anything  that 
can  be  sold  in  the  market,  then  I  say  if  the  hours  of  labor  resulting  from 
the  unregulated  sale  of  a  man's  strength  and  skill  shall  lead  to  the  de- 
struction of  domestic  life,  to  the  neglect  of  children,  to  turning  wives  and 
mothers  into  living  machines,  and  of  fathers  and  husbands  into,  what 
shall  1  say,  creatures  of  burden?  I  will  not  say  any  other  word — who  rise 
up  before  the  sun,  and  come  back  when  it  is  set,  wearied  and  able  only  to 
take  food,  and  lie  down  and  rest,  the  domestic  life  of  man  exists  no  longer 
and  we  dare  not  go  on  in  this  path."     (Pages  8-9.) 


(2)  Danger  of  the  Streets  at  Night 

Overtime  work  subjects  working  women  to  the  dangers 
of  the  streets  at  night.  When  work  is  continued  until 
late  night  hours,  the  return  home  is  fraught  with  physical 
and  moral  peril. 

FRANCE  Documents    Parlementaires.      Chamhre    des    Deputes,    10^    Juin,     1890. 

Annexe  649.  {Parliamentary  Documents  of  the  (French)  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  June  10,  1890.  Annex  649.]  Rapport  fait  sur  le  travail  des 
enfants,  des  filles  mineiires  et  des  femmes  dans  les  etablissements  in- 
dustriels.  [Report  on  the  Labor  of  Children,  Young  Girls,  and  Women 
in  Industrial  Establishments.]    Senator  Richard  Waddington. 

In  dressmaking  establishments,  etc.  the  work  is  often  prolonged  to  a 
late  hour;  sometimes  it  lasts  all  night.  The  women,  dismissed  at  mid- 
night or  later,  are  exposed  to  inconveniences,  often  to  danger,  in  regaining 
their  often  distant  homes.     (Page  1087.) 


Rapports  presentes  a  M.  le  Ministre  du  Commerce  de  V Industrie,  des  Postes 
et  des  Telegraphes  par  les  Inspecteurs  du  Travail  dans  I'Industrie. 
[Reports  of  the  {French)  Factory  Inspectors  to  the  Minister  of  Labor, 
etc.]  La  Question  de  l' Interdiction  du  Travail  de  Nuit.  [The  Question 
of  the  Prohibition  of  Nightwork.]  M.  Despeaux,  Inspector.  Paris, 
1900. 

For  young  girls,  nightwork  means  the  destruction  of  family  influence, 
the  promiscuity  of  the  workplace,  the  deserted  street,  and  at  last  prostitu- 
tion.    (Page  11.) 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTIME:     DANGER   TO    MORALS  43 1 

L'Ouvrtere  au  XX^  Siecle.     Questions  Pratiques  de  Legislation  Ouvriere.   FRANCE 
Vol.  III.     [Practical  Questions  of  Labor  Legislation.]     J.  Benzacar. 
Paris,  1902. 

Work  at  night  should  be  completely  prohibited;  not  only  does  it  ex- 
haust women,  but  it  exposes  them,  upon  leaving  the  place  of  employment, 
to  encounters  that  are  dangerous  both  to  safety  and  to  morality.  (Page 
174.) 

La  Revue  de  Paris.     Sept.-Oct.,  1904.     Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes. 
[Night  Work  J  or  IVomen.]     Georges  Alfassa. 

In  going  home  late  at  night  they  (workingwomen)  are  often  insulted, 
and  told  that  no  decent  woman  is  abroad  at  such  an  hour.  On  reaching 
their  homes,  they  go  to  bed  without  food,  and  the  next  day  their  work 
recommences  at  the  usual  hour.  Only  the  most  considerate  employers 
give  them  some  moments  of  grace  in  the  morning.     (Page  369.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXXIV.     1893.     Royal  Commission  on   great 

BRITAIN 

Labour.     Group  C.     Appendix  CXXIX.     Summary  of  Evidence  of 
Mr.  C.  B.  Bowling  {Her  Majesty's  Inspector  of  Factories). 

I  have  discussed  this  matter  (overtime)  with  numbers  of  all  classes 
concerned.  .  .  .  They  admit  the  evils,  and  these  can  be  spoken  to  by  all 
my  colleagues,  and  I  think  in  all  large  towns  by  the  police,  who  have  seen 
some  of  the  results  of  turning  a  number  of  girls  out  into  the  streets  at 
times  of  the  night  when  there  are  comparatively  few  respectable  people 
about.     (Page  725.) 

journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society.     Vol.  LV.     1892.     Female  Labour  Australia 
in  New  South  Wales.     Abstract  of  "New  South  Wales:    Census  and 
Industrial  Returns  Act  of  1891."     London,  Stamford,  1892. 

Millinery  is  a  much  more  attractive  trade;  the  work  is  lighter,  and  the 
hours  of  labour  (usually  9  a.  m.  to  6  p.  m.,  and  1  p.  m.  on  Saturdays) 
appear  to  be  strictly  observed.  This  last  point  is  a  serious  consideration 
with  parents,  who  prefer  to  apprentice  their  girls  to  this  trade,  knowing 
they  will  not  be  compelled  to  return  home  alone  at  almost  any  time  of 
night.     (Page  490.) 


Report  of  the  New  Zealand  Department  of  Labour.     1897. 

That  girls  and  women  should  be  compelled  by  overtime  work  to  return 
to  their  homes  late  at  night  is  most  undesirable,  not  only  from  the  tempta- 


NEW 
ZEALAND 


432 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


NEW 
ZEALAND 


tions  and  annoyances  to  which  they  are  thereby  subjected,  but  also  for 
the  home  itself  left  too  long  neglected  or  unvisited.     (Page  iii.) 


CANADA 


GERMANY 


UNITED 
STATES 


Toronto  University  Studies  in  Political  Science.  First  Series.  No.  3. 
The  Co7iditions  of  Female  Labour.  Jean  Thompson  Scott,  Toronto, 
1892. 

Another  objection  to  the  custom  of  long  hours  is  that  girls  have  often 
to  find  their  way  home  alone  at  late  hours,  along  lonely  streets.  (Page 
15.) 

Die  Jahresberichte  der  k.  Bayerischen  Fabriken-  iind  Gewerbe-Inspektoren 
jiir  das  Jahr  1901.  [Report  of  the  Royal  Bavarian  Factory  Inspectors 
for  1901.]     Munich,  Ackermann,  1902. 

The  overlong  evening  working  hours,  resulting  from  the  exceptions 
permitted  by  the  law  as  overtime  react  harmfully  upon  the  health  of  the 
women.  Beside  that,  young  women,  returning  late  at  night  to  their 
homes  are  exposed  to  insult  and  danger.     (Page  8.) 

Report  of  New  York  State  Factory  Inspectors.     1887. 

It  is  not  in  accord  with  the  fitness  of  things  that  females  should  be 
required  to  labor  through  the  long  hours  of  the  night,  or  to  such  a  late 
hour  that  they  will  be  likely  to  suffer  insult  or  bodily  harm  while  returning 
to  their  homes.     (Page  28.) 


Report  of  the  Nebraska  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.     1907- 
1908. 

...  10  o'clock  at  night  is  too  late  an  hour  to  keep  female  workers 
away  from  home.  In  the  cities,  it  means  that  such  workers  will  get 
home  not  earlier  than  10:30  to  11,  because  a  majority  of  them  live  far 
from  the  business  centre.  Temptation  to  "suspend  the  rules"  is  always 
offered  in  cities  to  tired  and  discouraged  workers,  men  and  women,  and 
the  latter  must  also  face  the  wiles  and  insults  of  loafers  and  mashers  when 
out  alone  late  at  night.  Attacks  on  young  girls  returning  from  work 
late  at  night  are  not  infrequent;  and  since  this  is  so,  the  state  ought  to 
protect  them  to  the  limit  of  its  unquestioned  power.     (Page  33.) 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTIME:     INJURY    TO    OUTPUT  433 

C.     Allowance  of  Overtime  Injurious  to  Output 

(1)  Evening  Work  Results  in  Inferior  Output 

The  system  of  working  overtime  is  not  only  disastrous 
to  healthi,  but  economically  indefensible.  After  a  very 
short  period  of  evening  work,  output  declines  in  amount 
and  quality,  while  the  efficiency  of  the  workers  is  perma- 
nently injured  by  the  overexertion  required. 

The  most  enlightened  employers  therefore  have  found 
that  overtime  does  not  pay;  that  it  entails  higher  expenses 
than  regular  work,  and  results  in  progressively  inferior  out- 
put. 


British   Sessional   Papers.     Vol    XX.     1878.     Reports   of  Inspectors   of  great 

„     ,      .  ^  1/  J  t  .     BRITAIN 

tactories. 

The  same  person  informed  me  that  she  at  times  doubted  the  value  of 
working  even  the  overtime  allowed  under  the  Act.  The  women  at  the 
dose  of  the  12  hours,  which  period  constitutes  the  usual  day's  work,  were 
tired  and  exhausted  and  hardly  did  enough  after  that  to  pay  for  the  gas 
consumed.     (Page  14.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXI.     1894.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  (Vorkshops. 

The  arguments  against  overtime  seem  to  me  to  be: 
1.  That  the  work  done  during  overtime  is  not  equal,  in  amount  or 
quality,  to  that  done  in  regular  hours.     (Page  17.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.     1901.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector  of 
Factories. 

I  hope  and  believe  that  employers  are  at  least  beginning  to  recognize 
that  employment  of  their  hands  overtime  is  a  short-sighted  policy  and 
really  bad  economy.  Some,  I  know,  think  so.  There  is  also  a  waning 
inclination,  I  believe,  on  the  part  of  the  employed  to  grasp  at  the  chance 
of  making  extra  wages  by  overtime.  If  so,  it  is,  I  think,  a  healthv  sign 
28* 


434  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  on  both  sides;  health  and  full  efficiency  while  at  work  being  better  than 

extra  wages  and  long  hours,  better  also  in  its  results  to  the  employer. 
(Page  158.) 


The  Eight  Hours  Day.  Report  on  a  Year's  Work  with  a  Forty-eight  Hours 
Week  in  the  Saljord  Iron  Works,  Manchester.  {Mather  and  Piatt, 
Ltd.)  William  Mather,  M.P.  Manchester,  Guardian  Printing 
Works,  1894. 

I  attribute  the  full  maintenance  of  our  production  through  the  trial 
year  solely  to  the  unimpaired  and  cheerful  energy  on  the  part  of  every 
man  and  boy  throughout  the  day.  .  .  . 

The  total  abolition  of  overtime,  excepting  in  the  rarest  cases,  is  es- 
sential to  the  success  of  the  shorter  hours,  if  my  conclusions  as  to  the  cause 
of  increased  production  be  correct. 

This  custom  is  a  delusion  on  the  part  of  workpeople  and  employers 
alike. 

The  extra  wages  are  obtained  by  the  men  at  too  great  a  cost.  The 
extra  work  is  not  worth  to  the  employers  the  price  they  pay  for  it. 

The  double-shift  system,  which  the  Trade  Unions  have  readily  ap- 
proved, has,  on  the  other  hand,  many  advantages  in  cases  of  exceptional 
pressure. 

Employment  is  afforded  thereby  to  more  men,  and  the  work  they  do 
is  not  paid  for  at  an  abnormal  rate.  .  .  . 

But  of  this  I  am  assured,  that  the  most  economical  production  is  ob- 
tained by  employing  men  only  so  long  as  they  are  at  their  best.  When 
this  stage  is  passed,  there  is  no  true  economy  in  their  continued  work. 
(Pages  25-26.) 


The  Women's  Industrial  News.  London,  March,  1902.  Women  Polishers. 
{An  enquiry  made  by  the  Technical  Training  Committee.)  Grace 
Oakshott. 

The  much  discussed  question  of  the  effect  of  legislation  on  women's 
position  is  of  too  much  importance  and  interest  ever  to  be  neglected  in  an 
enquiry.  Overtime  in  polishing  plays  such  a  small  part  in  any  case, 
women  are  scarcely  affected  by  the  law,  but  employers  in  discussing  the 
desirability  of  protection  are  unanimous  in  their  opinion  that  overtime  is 
bad  economy  and  that  night  work  on  moral,  humane,  and  expedient 
grounds  is  to  be  condemned.     (Page  292.) 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTIME:     INJURY    TO    OUTPUT  435 

Report  of  the  72nd  Meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  great 


Science.  1902.  London,  Murray,  1903.  IV omen's  Labor:  Second 
Report  of  the  Committee  .  .  .  appointed  to  investigate  the  Economic 
Effect  of  Legislation  Regulating  IVomen's  Labor. 

.  .  .  The  Factory  Acts,  after  being  bitterly  opposed  by  the  manu- 
facturers, taught  them  a  valuable  practical  lesson  of  the  bad  economy  of 
excessive  work.  Mr.  Baker  has  recorded  a  case  of  a  Birmingham  firm 
of  button-makers  who  in  1866  became  so  dissatisfied  with  the  conditions 
and  mode  of  life  of  their  workpeople  that  they  voluntarily  applied  the 
provisions  of  the  Factory  Act  for  textiles  (1844)  to  their  own  factory  and 
found  its  advantage.  .  .  .  The  tendency  is  evidently  in  the  direction  of  a 
still  further  shortening  of  hours  in  some  quarters.  "There  may  be  a 
limit  to  which  hours  can  be  profitably  reduced,  but  we  haven't  found  it 
yet"  was  one  remark.  .  .  .  The  development  of  industrial  efficiency  in 
women  may  itself  be  due  to  the  regulations  of  the  Acts.  If  the  conditions 
of  women's  work  have  been  humanized,  and  the  strain  of  it  diminished, 
industry  itself  may  have  been  made  more  attractive,  and  drawn  a  larger 
number  of  recruits  from  good  homes  and  healthy  families  than  would 
otherwise  have  been  the  case.     (Pages  296-297.) 

Report  of  the  73rd  Meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science.  1903.  London,  Murray,  1904.  IVomen's  Labor:  Third 
Report  of  the  Committee  .  .  .  appointed  to  investigate  the  Economic 
Effect  of  Legislation  Regulating  IVomen's  Labor. 

.  .  .  There  is  a  general  consensus  of  opinion  that  overtime  is  wasteful 
and  expensive,  entailing  higher  wages  and  fixed  expenses  for  inferior  work, 
and  hence  its  diminution  tends  to  efficiency.  Very  few,  indeed,  seriously 
desire  to  increase  the  length  of  the  week's  work,  and  many  by  their  action 
have  shown  that  it  is  best  kept  below  the  legal  maximum.  (Page 
339.) 


Women's  IVork  and  Wages.     Edward  Cadbury,  M.  Cecile  Matheson, 
and  George  Shann.     London,  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  1906. 

It  is  a  matter  of  general  experience  that  long  hours  deteriorate  the 
quality  of  the  work,  and  where  power  machines  are  used,  the  power 
is  too  valuable  to  be  provided  for  slack  or  tired  workers.  (Page 
91.) 


BRITAIN 


436 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


CANADk  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  a  Dispute  Respecting  Hours  of  Employ- 

ment, between  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  of  Canada,  Ltd.,  and  Opera- 
tors at  Toronto,  Ont.     The  Department  of  Labour,  Ottawa,  Canada,  1907- 

To  pay  the  present  high  rate  per  hour  for  much  overtime  is  most  un- 
economical, and  results  are  not  secured  if  there  is  any  foundation  for  the 
idea  that  the  service  suffers  when  operators  become  tired.  Service  may 
not  be  materially  depreciated  at  the  end  of  the  day  when  operators  have 
been  working  under  ordinary  pressure,  but  it  certainly  must  suffer  when 
operators  work  overtime  after  being  subjected  to  a  heavy  strain  for  the 
preceding  5  hours.     (Signed)  K.  J.  Dunstan.     (Page  13.) 

GERMANY  j ahresberichte  der  Gewerbe-Anfsichtsheamten  im  Konigreich  fViirttemberg 
fiir  das  Jahr  1900.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  fViirttemberg  for  1900.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1901. 

As  regards  overtime  many  employers  agree  that  the  output  of  the 
women  is  only  large  for  the  first  few  days  of  overtime  and  that  after  that 
it  falls  back  again,  so  that  one  sees  plainly  the  ill  effects  of  overstrain. 
(Page  135.) 

J  ahresberichte  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichtsbeamten  und  Bergbehorden  fiir  das 
Jahr  1904.  Bd.  /.  Preussen.  [Reports  of  the  {German)  Factory  and 
Mine  Inspectors  for  1904.     Vol.  I.     Prussia.]     Berlin,  Decker,  1905. 

The  majority  of  employers  are  becoming  more  and  more  convinced 
that,  when  overtime  is  worked  regularly,  the  output  does  not  increase  in 
proportion  to  the  lengthened  hours  of  work  and  additional  wages.  On 
the  contrary,  it  tends  to  decrease  gradually  so  that  finally  overtime  be- 
comes too  expensive  to  be  worth  while.     (Page  I^^^.) 

J  ahresberichte  der  Gewerbe-Aufsichtsbeamten  im  Konigreich  IViirttemberg 
fiir  das  Jahr  1905.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  IViirttemberg,  1905.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1906. 

Employers  agree  that  overtime  work  is,  essentially,  irrational,  because 
as  a  rule  wages  for  overtime  are  higher,  while  the  productivity  of  the 
worker  retrogrades  with  longer  hours.     (Page  53.) 


Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I' Industrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im- 
portance et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Night  Work  of  fVomen  in  Industry.     Reports  on  its  importance  and 


ALLOWANCE    OF   OVERTIME:     INJURY    TO    OUTPUT  437 

legal  regulation.     Preface  by  EriEfWEBAVER.]    Interdiction  du  Travail  GERMANY 
de  Nuit  des  Femmes  en  Allemagne.     [Prohibition  of  Night  Work  for 
Women  in  Industry  in  Germany.]     Dr.  Max  Hirsch.     Jena,  Fischer, 
1903. 

The  report  for  the  district  of  Cologne  says,  "No  appreciable  economic 
damage  would  result  from  the  absolute  prohibition  of  overtime  work,  for 
it  is  not  the  custom,  at  least  here,  to  pay  female  workers  higher  wages 
for  overtime  than  for  regular  work;  and  furthermore,  it  is  recognized  that 
the  working  capacity  of  female  laborers  falls  to  a  very  low  level,  after  a 
labor  period  of  eleven  hours."  These  facts  agree  with  the  fact  very  fre- 
quently, and  many  a  time  officially  established,  that  among  men  also  the 
reduction  of  time  by  one  or  even  two  hours  does  not  lessen  the  output. 
Where  therefore  is  the  advantage  of  overtime  work,  especially  of  that 
imposed  on  women,  even  if  we  consider  only  the  interests  of  the  employer? 
(Page  40.) 


Gesammelte  Ahhandlungen.  Bd.  III.  [Complete  Works.  Vol.  III.] 
Die  Volkswirthschaftliche  Bedeutung  der  Verkiiriung  des  Industriellen 
Arbeitstages.  [The  Economic  Significance  of  a  Shorter  Working  Day.] 
Ernst  Abbe.  Paper  read  at  the  meeting  of  the  Political  Society  at 
Jena  in  1901.     Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 

The  more  clearsighted  of  our  overseers  had  often  said  that,  when  there 
was  great  pressure  of  work  and  overtime  was  necessary — perhaps  rising 
from  9  to  10  hours  daily,  the  results  were  only  satisfactory  for  a  short 
time — perhaps  14  days,  not  longer.  After  that  a  corresponding  rate  of 
output  was  not  obtainable  even  though  there  was  a  25  per  cent  increase 
in  the  rate  of  wages.  The  men  got  listless  and  surly  and  things  did  not 
go  well. 

1  had  doubted  this,  and  made  an  experiment  to  test  it.  .  .  .  The  men 
were  anxious  to  please  me,  and  had  promised  to  work  overtime  .  .  . 
being  glad  of  the  extra  income  before  Christmas.  .  .  .  After  one  week 
the  extra  output  began  to  fall,  and  by  the  third  and  fourth  week  it  had 
practically  fallen  to  nothing. 

It  is  therefore  impossible,  even  with  good  will  and  self-stimulation 
to  increase  output  over  and  above  the  regular  day's  work,  except  for  a 
short  time. 

I  am  glad  to  see  that  this  is  corroborated  by  the  factory  inspector  of 
Brandenburg  in  1900.  In  his  report  we  find  the  testimony  of  a  factory 
owner,  who  had  found  that  it  was  only  worth  while  to  work  overtime  when 


438 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY  work  pressed,  for  about  14  days.  After  that  the  working  capacity  flagged. 
Fourteen  days  was  our  limit  also,  as  we  found. 

From  all  this  I  estimate  the  importance  of  good  will  and  initiative  as 
follows:  Workmen  are  incapable  of  maintaining  increased  productivity 
during  a  lengthened  working  day,  be\ond  a  certain  short  time;  and  like- 
wise, the  individual's  ill  will  alone  does  not  cause  a  lessened  output  under 
shorter  hours.     (Page  220.) 

The  English  examples  of  work  under  trades  unionism  have  shown  that 
even  when  the  men  felt  an  interest  in  doing  less  work  in  a  given  time,  from 
the  viewpoint  of  making  more  work  for  the  unemplo\ed,  their  efficiency 
and  output  under  reduced  hours  were  nevertheless  the  same.  I  therefore 
regard  it  as  settled,  that  no  motive  is  necessar}',  no  will  power,  no  driving 
of  self  interest  is  needed,  to  bring  about  this  adjustment  of  rapidity  of 
work  to  the  shortened  working  hours,  but  that  it  is  automatic  and  would 
occur  even  if  the  workers  were  discontented.     (Page  221.) 

Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography.  Berlin, 
1907.  Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV.  Ermiidung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  [Fatigue 
resulting  from  occupation.]  Dr.  Emil  Roth.  Berlin,  Hirschwald, 
1908. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  output  of  overtime,  when  the  latter  is 
of  frequent  occurrence,  is  always,  according  to  my  observations,  from  25 
per  cent  to  50  per  cent  below  the  average.     (Page  610.) 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


Berichte  der  eidg.  Fabrik-  iind  Bergwerkinspektoren  Uber  ihre  Amtstdtig- 
keit  in  den  jahren  1898-1899.  [Reports  of  the  {Swiss)  Factory  and 
Mine  Inspectors  for  1898-1899.]     Aaraii,  Sauerlander,  1900. 

The  upholders  of  a  shorter  maximum  working  day  all  energetically 
oppose  the  frequent  and  widespread  legal  exemptions  for  overtime,  and 
in  this  campaign  they  are  often  supported  by  emplo>'ers  who  have  come 
to  regard  overtime  as  unprofitable  and  who  therefore  do  not  use  it.  (Page 
57.) 

It  is  impossible  for  women  and  girls  to  maintain  uniform  production 
throughout  all  their  work  when  they  are  kept  busy  13  hours  daily  for  any 
considerable  period  of  time.  Hence  from  the  standpoint  of  output  alone 
overtime  could  be  done  away  with.  But  health  considerations  condemn 
overtime  even  more  strongly,  and  these  reasons  have  prevailed  in  some  of 
the  cantons  in  discouraging  the  practice  of  permitting  exemptions.  (Page 
59.) 


ALLOWANCE   OF   OVERTIME:     INJURY   TO   OUTPUT  439 

Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  l' Industrie:  Rapports  sur  son  impor-  FRANCE 
tance    et    sa    regie-mentation    legale.     Preface   par  Etienne    Bauer. 
[Night  fVork  of  IVomen  in  Industry.     Reports  on  its  importance  and 
legal  regulation.     Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

At  present  indeed,  overtime  work,  at  night  or  otherwise,  serves  partly 
to  fill  orders  that  have  become  more  abundant  but  serves  also  quite  as 
much  to  fulfill  the  lively  desire  on  the  part  of  promoters  to  reduce  net  cost 
by  large  output.  But  yet  the  rapid  decline  of  price  renders  illusory,  in 
many  cases,  the  gain  which  the  manufacturer  derives  from  the  night  work 
of  women.     (Page  xxxi.) 

Debats  et  Documents  Parlementaires.  Chambre  des  Deputes,  23^  Mars, 
1881.  [Parliamentary  Debates  and  Documents  (French)  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  March  23,  1881.]  Suite  de  la  discussion  des  propositions  de 
hi  concernant  la  duree  des  heures  de  travail  dans  les  usines  et  les  manu- 
factures. [Discussion  of  the  Sections  of  the  Law  relating  to  the  Length 
of  Hours  of  Work  in  Work  Shops  and  Factories.] 

Senator  Waddington: 

The  workman  who  works  fewer  hours  in  the  day  will  produce  more 
per  hour,  yet,  even  so,  he  will,  of  course,  in  a  considerably  shorter  day  not 
produce  as  much  as  under  a  12-hour  day. 

Nevertheless  this  loss  has  compensations.  In  many  manufactures, 
slack  seasons  or  no  work  at  all,  at  times,  is  the  rule,  and  a  shop  or  factory 
which  at  some  season  works  12,  13  or  14  hours,  at  other  times  of  the  year 
has  only  7,  8  or  9  hours'  work. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  restriction  proposed  would  have  the  effect  of 
equalizing  the  hours  of  labor.  There  is  nothing  worse  for  the  worker 
than  to  be  obliged,  at  times,  to  work  under  abnormal  pressure  and  put 
forth  exhausting  efforts  to  keep  up  with  overwork,  and  then,  two  or  three 
months  after,  to  be  subjected  to  a  relative  loss  of  work.  .  .  .  We  can 
perfectly  well  arrive  at  a  juster  and  better  division  of  labor,  better  for 
every  one,  and  that  without  any  of  those  dangers  to  production  which 
our  opponents  fear  .  .  .  the  same  predictions  of  ruin  have  been  made 
when  the  labor  of  children  has  been  restricted,  but  they  have  not  come 
true.     (Page  613.) 

Rapports  sur  V Application  pendant  V Ann'ee  1899  des  Lois  {1892-1893) 
reglementant  le  Travail;  par  les  Inspecteurs  Divisionnaires  du  Travail. 
[Reports  on  the  Working  of  the  (French)  Factory  Laws  of  1892  and 


FRANCE 


UNITED 
STATES 


440  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

JS93,  in  the  year  1899.     By  the  French  Factory  Inspectors.]     Paris, 
1900. 

1  insist  upon  it  that  those  employers  who  overwork  their  employees 
do  not  understand  their  own  best  interests.  Can  good  work  really  be 
done  by  a  young  girl,  who  in  case  of  rush,  works  fifteen  hours  a  day? 
The  best  dressmakers  understand  this.     (Page  64.) 

Women  and  the  Trades.  Elizabeth  Beardsley  Butler.  The  Pitts- 
burgh Survey.  Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication.  New  York, 
Charities  Publication  Committee,  1909. 

Manufacturers  complain  that  overtime  is  a  loss  to  them.  They  say  that 
their  employees  do  poorer  work  at  night,  and  that  the  cost  in  wasted  ma- 
terial, in  light  and  heating,  is  more  than  the  profit  gained  by  a  lengthened 
day;  but  that  they  are  forced  to  work  overtime  by  customers  who  will 
not  send  in  orders  ahead.  Night  work,  they  say,  is  a  means  of  holding 
their  trade  rather  than  increasing  their  profits.  Perhaps  a  universal 
legal  prohibition  would  prove  effective  in  overcoming  the  dilatoriness  of 
customers  in  these  seasonal  trades,  as  well  as  in  the  trades  where  work 
pressure  is  irregular.  Unquestionably,  much  overtime  has  been  eliminated 
in  states  that  have  stringent  laws;  much  has  been  voluntarily  avoided 
by  manufacturers  who  have  come  to  realize  that  night  hours  are  in  the 
long  run  a  financial  loss.     (Pages  353-354.) 


(2)  Output  Impaired  on  Day  Succeeding  Evening  Work 

Not  only  does  evening  work  result  in  inferior  output, 
but  it  injures  the  output  of  the  next  day  as  well.  After 
evening  work,  the  workers  are  apt  to  come  late  the  follow- 
ing day.  They  are  often  obliged  to  do  over  again  in  the 
morning  what  was  done  the  night  before,  and  their  effi- 
ciency is  so  much  impaired  by  overexertion  that  the  days 
following  evening  work  show  a  steadily  inferior  output. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XXIX-XXX. 
Workshops  Acts  Commission. 


1876.     Factories    and 


Witness,  A  Manufacturer.     Vol.  XXX. 

10,947.  ...   I  think  there  is  very  little  advantage  in  overtime,  people 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTIME:     INJURY    TO   OUTPUT  44I 

are  worn  out  at  night  and  do  not  work  with  the  same  vigour  in  the  morn-  great 

/D  cc!c  ^  BRITAIN 

mg.     (Page  535.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXIII.     1877.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories. 

.  .  .  There  was  a  brisk  demand  for  bricks,  that  they  wanted  to  in- 
crease their  production,  and  determined  to  work  half  an  hour  overtime  3 
nights  a  week.  After  trying  it  some  little  time  they  found  the  number  of 
bricks  turned  off  decreased,  that  on  mornings  succeeding  the  days  on 
which  they  worked  half  an  hour  after  the  usual  time  for  ceasing  work  the 
men  invariably  came  late,  and  worked  less  time  and  less  assiduously  than 
when  they  worked  regularlv,  that  they  returned  to  regular  hours.  (Page 
15.) 


British   Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XXI.     1894.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

Some  employers,  too,  hold  the  opinion  that  in  proportion  as  the  work- 
people suffer  in  health  their  work  suffers  in  execution,  and  that  in  addition 
to  this  consideration  has  to  be  reckoned  that  of  an  extra  expenditure  in 
gas,  which  considerably  weakens  an  already  doubtful  advantage.  (Page 
11.) 

It  is  not  likely  that  work  done  during  these  .  .  .  hours  of  overtime, 
or  on  days  following  overtime,  will  equal  either  in  quantity  or  quality  that 
done  when  regular  hours  only  are  worked.     (Page  15.) 

In  connection  with  overtime  I  think  that  very  often  the  occupiers  and 
managers  of  works  object  to  it  while  they  take  advantage  of  the  privilege. 
They  naturally  recognize  that  after  a  spurt  comes  reaction  and  that  late 
hours  tell  against  good  work  the  next  day.     (Page  301.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XII.     1902.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories. 

I  think  employers  are  beginning  to  look  askance  at  overtime  because 
it  has  to  be  paid  for  and  sometimes  at  enhanced  rates,  resulting  often  in 
poorer  work  and  less  output  the  following  days,  and  damage  to  the  power 
of  the  workpeople.     (Page  34.) 


442  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.     73rd  Meeting.     1903. 

BRlTAln  IVomen's  Labor:    Third  Report  of  the  Committee  .  .  .  appointed  to  in- 

vestigate the  Economic  Effect  of  Legislation  Regulating  IVomen's  Labor. 
London,  Murray,  1904. 

Very  many  employers  say  that  overtime  on  one  evening  has  the  effect 
of  tiring  the  women  so  as  to  spoil  their  next  day's  work;  and  there  are 
many  instances  where  a  shortened  or  more  regular  week  has  resulted  in  a 
better  output  per  worker.     (Page  339.) 

IVomen  in  the  Printing  Trades.     A  Sociological  Study.     Edited  by  J.  Ram- 
sey MacDonald.     London,  King,  1904. 

It  is  evident  that  protection  is  viewed  favorably  by  many  employers, 
on  the  specific  ground  that  it  prevents  systematic  overtime.  On  the 
whole  they  are  of  the  opinion  that  after  overtime  the  next  day's  work 
suffers.     (Page  82.) 

B.  used  to  work  from  8  a.  m.  to  8  p.  m.  regularly,  including  Saturdays. 
.  .  .  She  disliked  overtime,  was  tired  out  at  the  end  of  a  day's  work,  and 
thought  the  other  women  were  too,  and  she  had  often  noticed  how  badly 
the  work  was  done  after  eight  or  nine  hours  at  it.  Later  on,  as  a  fore- 
woman, she  noticed  that  the  girls  after  overtime  always  loafed  about  the 
next  day  and  did  not  work  well.     (Page  84.) 

Another  forewoman  gave  it  as  her  deliberate  opinion  that  when  over- 
time is  worked  the  piece  workers  do  not  make  more,  as  a  rule,  for  they  get 
so  tired  that  if  they  stay  late  one  night,  they  work  less  the  next  day. 

This  is  the  unanimous  view  held  by  the  forewomen,  and  it  comes  with 
considerable  force  from  them,  as  it  is  they  who  have  to  arrange  to  get 
work  done  somehow  within  a  certain  time.  They  are  the  people  who 
have  to  put  on  the  pressure,  and  are  in  such  a  position  as  to  see  how  any 
particular  system  of  getting  work  done  answers.     (Page  87.) 

The  Economic  Journal,  Vol.  XIV.     1904.     The  Employment  of  fVomen  in 
Paper  Mills.     B.  L.  Hutch  ins. 

The  relatively  short  hours  now  customary  are  generally  felt  to  make 
for  efficient  work.  ...  In  envelope  making  overtime  may  be  worked 
thirty  times  per  annum;  and  in  a  large  envelope  and  account  book  works 
the  foreman,  whilst  regretting  that  the  girls  should  not  be  free  to  earn 
more  extra  money  in  this  way,  almost  in  the  same  breath  stated  that  over- 
time was  of  little  use  from  his  point  of  view,  as,  if  the  girls  stayed  late  one 
day,  they  were  sure  to  come  late  the  next.     (Pages  246-247.) 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTLME!     INJURY   TO    OUTPUT  443 

Rapports  sur  V Application  pendant  I'Annee  1899  des  Lois   {1892-1893)    FRANCE 
reglementant  le  Travail;  par  les  Inspecteurs  Divisionnaires  du  Travail. 
[Reports  on  the  JVorking  of  the  (French)  Factory  Laws  of  1892  and 
1893,  in  the  year  1899.     By  the  French  Factory  Inspectors.]     Paris, 
1900. 

The  later  work  lasts  into  the  night,  the  more  fatigued  is  the  working 
woman,  and  as  a  result  her  work  is  poorly  done,  so  that  she  is  often  obliged 
to  do  over  in  the  morning  what  she  had  done  the  night  before. 

We  repeat,  therefore,  the  recommendations  that  we  make  every  year: 
that  a  good  organization  of  work  with  plenty  of  workers  would  be  more 
profitable  to  the  employers  than  overtime.  M.  Lagard,  Marseilles. 
(Page  xxxix.) 

First  International  Conference  of  the  Consumers'  Leagues.  Geneva,  1908. 
La  Veillee:  Ahus  et  Responsabilites.  [Overtime:  Abuses  and  Re- 
sponsibilities.] Mme.  A.  Paul  Juillerat,  French , Factory  Inspector. 
Fribourg,  1909. 

Overtime  in  all  trades  is  worked  at  certain  times  of  the  year,  but  no- 
where is  it  longer  and  more  burdensome  than  in  the  clothing  trades. 
(Page  48.)  ...  In  general,  it  is  a  loss  to  the  emplo\'ers;  over-hours  are 
almost  always  paid  at  higher  rates;  and  the  cost  of  them  is  enhanced  by 
higher  running  expenses, — heat,  light,  etc.  The  fatigue  from  the  day's 
work  already  performed  makes  the  workers  slower,  and  less  careful  in 
performing  the  extra  tasks,  and  the  work  of  the  next  day,  taken  up  after 
insufficient  rest,  will  drag  still  more  and  be  still  more  imperfect.  This, 
true  even  of  the  first  2  or  3  days  of  overwork,  will  become  more  and  more 
true  as  the  sewing  women  become  more  and  more  fatigued  and,  finally, 
exhausted.     (Page  49.) 

Report  of  the  Nebraska  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.     1907-   UNITED 
1908.  "^^^^ 

Of  his  experience  .  .  .  one  manufacturer  .  .  .  says: 
"When  the  business  first  came  under  my  control,  the  men  were  work- 
ing a  nominal  nine-hour  day.  But  the  real  day  was  much  longer.  Re- 
course was  had  to  overtime  on  the  slightest  provocation,  and  during  the 
months  of  October  and  November  overtime  was  the  daily  rule.  In  those 
months  we  have  to  get  ready  our  goods  for  Christmas  consumption,  and 
the  men  used  to  be  at  work  night  after  night  till  8  or  9  o'clock.  I  have 
known  them  to  leave  the  factorv  as  late  as  11  o'clock.     When  I  com- 


UNITED 
STATES 


444 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


plained  of  the  system  I  was  told  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary;  that 
the  work  could  not  be  gotten  through  otherwise.  However,  1  knew  that 
it  was  bad  for  myself  as  well  as  for  the  men.  A  man  who  has  done  a 
reasonable  day's  work  is  not  fit  to  give  good  work  at  night,  and  if  he  makes 
the  attempt  his  work  next  morning  suffers.  So  I  put  my  foot  down  and 
stopped  the  practice  almost  entirely."     (Page  189.) 


D.     Uniformity  of  Restriction  Essential  for  Regular  Distribu- 
tion of  Employment 

(1)  Prohibition  of  Overtime  Promotes  Better  Organization 

OF  Industry 

Wherever  the  employment  of  women  has  been  prohibited 
for  more  than*  ten  hours  in  one  day,  the  requirement  of 
dangerously  long  and  irregular  hours  in  the  season  trades 
is  shown  to  be  unnecessary.  In  place  of  alternating 
periods  of  intense  overwork  with  periods  of  idleness,  em- 
ployers have  found  it  possible  to  avoid  such  irregularities 
by  foresight  and  management. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII .     1893.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

As  far  as  this  district  is  concerned,  the  only  demand  for  this  overtime 
comes  from  an  inconsiderable  minority  of  manufacturers.  .  .  .  Although 
there  are  more  than  4000  who  could  claim  to  make  it  (overtime)  not  more 
than  200  .  .  .  apparently  do  so.  I  am  persuaded  that  in  a  majority  of 
instances  in  which  overtime  has  been  made  by  these  200  employers,  it 
has  been  brought  about  either  by  the  greed,  tyranny,  or  incompetence  of 
the  managers  or  employers.  .  1  believe  that  much  of  the  apparent  necessity 
for  working  overtime  is  simply  the  result  of  want  of  forethought  and  or- 
ganization on  the  part  of  the  employers  and  their  managers.  ...  I  came 
across  a  very  large  firm  employing  several  hundred  workpeople  on  work 
of  an  exceptionally  important  and  public  nature.  It  has  been  the  custom 
in  the  works  at  the  end  of  each  month  to  keep  all  hands,  young  and  old, 
at  work  for  two  days  and  nights.  .  .  .  They  said  their  arrangements  could 
not  possibly  be  interfered  with  without  causing  serious  public  incon- 


OVERTIME    AND    ORGANIZATION    OF    WORK  445 

venience.  ...  I  answered  that  I  would  allow  them  two  months  to  re-  great 
arrange  their  system  of  working.  .  .  .  Before  the  two  months  were  over 
I  met  the  manager  of  the  works,  who  said  that  my  visit  had  been  the  best 
thing  that  had  happened  to  them  for  years,  that  the  strain  of  working 
under  the  old  system  had  been  almost  unbearable  as  much  to  the  managers 
as  to  the  workpeople,  that  since  my  visit  they  had  gone  carefully  into  the 
whole  matter,  had  laid  the  facts  before  their  customers  and  had  so  re- 
arranged the  system  of  working  that  they  could  commence  their  under- 
takings early  in  the  month,  and  that  there  was  now  no  further  necessity 
for  the  great  strain  at  the  end.  If  such  a  change  as  this  could  be  brought 
about  in  a  case  of  such  apparently  exceptional  difficulty,  it  is  fair  to 
assume  that  most  of  the  seasons  of  pressure  which  beset  certain  trades  can 
be  provided  for  by  forethought  and  arrangement,  but  I  am  afraid  that 
such  forethought  and  arrangement  will  never  be  exercised  while  the  mis- 
chievous expedient  of  overtime  is  made  so  easy.     (Pages  89-90.) 

How  little  actual  demand  there  is  for  overtime  on  the  part  of  protected 
hands,  I  think  the  return  of  this  district  will  show.  Out  of  nearly  9000 
occupiers  of  factories  and  workshops,  only  about  200  apparently  avail 
themselves  of  the  permission  to  work  overtime.     (Page  91.) 

British    Sessional   Papers.     Vol    XXXIV.     Appendix   CXXIX.     1893. 
Royal  Commission  on  Labour.     Group  C.     Summary  of  Evidence  of 
.  Mr.  C.  B.  Bowling,  Her  Majesty's  Inspector  of  Factories. 

...  I  am  persuaded  that  in  the  majority  of  instances  in  which  over- 
time has  been  made  by  these  200  employers  (out  of  4000  in  the  district 
who  could  claim  it),  it  has  been  brought  about  either  by  the  greed,  tyranny, 
or  incompetence  of  the  managers  or  employers. 

1  believe  a  large  proportion  of  it  results  from  want  of  forethought  and 
organization;  a  good  deal  from  an  insatiable  greediness  and  striving  to  steal 
a  march  on  their  neighbours,  which  prompts  many  manufacturers  never 
to  refuse  an  order,  however  unprepared  they  may  be  to  fulfill  it.     .     .     . 

Of  course  the  principal  argument  in  support  of  this  allowance  of  over- 
time to  the  trades  named  in  the  schedule,  is  that  they  are  season  trades, 
subject  to  recurring  pressure  at  certain  times. 

To  a  more  or  less  degree  this  may  be  urged  with  regard  to  the  vast 
bulk  of  manufacturing  industries  of  the  country,  and  if  under  a  law  framed 
for  the  protection  of  young  people  from  an  undue  strain  on  their  mental 
and  physical  powers,  you  are  going  to  sanction  any  overtime  at  all,  I 
confess  1  cannot  see  where,  without  great  injustice,  you  can  draw  the  line. 
(Page  724.) 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


446  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

British  Sessional   Papers.     Vol.   XIX.     1895.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

.  .  .  Where  organization  and  economy  of  management  exist,  the  neces- 
sity for  overtime  does  not  exist;  and  that  workrooms  conducted  under  the 
apparent  necessity  for  overtime  can  prosper  under  its  withdrawal  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  overtime  has  entirely  ceased,  under  the  control  of  a  new 
manager,  in  workrooms  in  which  under  other  management  it  had  been 
excessive,  and  that  the  development  of  business  rather  than  its  diminution 
had  been  the  result. 

Complaints  1  have  received  from  women  employed  in  book-binding 
and  kindred  trades  show,  that  in  many  instances  where  overtime  is 
worked,  its  necessity  has  been  due  to  grave  mismanagement.  Women 
and  girls  are  kept  without  work  for  several  hours,  sometimes  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  day,  they  are  then  worked  at  full  pressure  during  the  remaining 
hours,  and  to  the  limit  of  overtime  exception. 

Various  emplo\'ers  of  labour  have  shown  it  to  be  possible  to  satisfy 
the  demands  of  a  thoughtless  public  and  at  the  same  time  to  guard  the 
health  of  their  work-people,  which  should  remove  the  seeming  conflict 
between  the  gratification  of  some  few  hundreds  of  inconsiderate  people 
on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  hand  the  health  of  several  thousands  of 
women  and  girls.     (Page  12.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XII.     1903.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  IVorkshops. 

There  is  a  growing  disposition  on  the  part  of  a  number  of  employers 
to  relinquish  the  habit  of  overtime  as  not  "worth  the  candle."  .  .  . 
It  is  significant  that  where  one  occupier  in  a  given  trade  avails  himself 
of  the  permission,  there  are  several  others,  apparently  engaged  in  identical 
work,  who  never  work  overtime  from  yea-r's  end  to  year's  end.  There 
may  sometimes  be  exceptional  circumstances  to  account  for  this,  but  I  am 
inclined  to  believe  that  it  is  more  often  a  question  of  management  and 
methodizing  work.     (Page  29.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.     1905.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector  of 
Factories  atid  IVorkshops. 

I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  report,  however,  that  many  employers  are  be- 
ginning to  aim  at  better  economic  conditions  for  those  they  employ. 
They  recognize,  and  rightly,  that  it  is  better  if  possible  to  spread  their 


OVERTIME    AND    ORGANIZATION    OF    WORK  447 

orders  over  a  longer  period  for  execution  and  to  induce  their  clients  to  fall   great 

BRITAIN 

in  with  this  idea,  than  to  have  a  tremendous  rush  for  a  short  time  and  then 
be  forced  to  turn  away  many  of  their  better  trained  and  more  highly 
skilled  workers  at  short  notice.     (Page  232.) 

The  Eight-Hours  Day.     Sidney  Webb  and  Harold  Cox,  B.A.     London, 
Walter  Scott,  1891. 

"Press  of  work  arising  at  recurring  seasons  of  the  year"  does  not 
necessarily  involve  the  permission  of  overtime.  Such  press  can  also 
generally  be  met,  either  by  taking  more  people  into  employment  when  the 
pressure  comes  or  by  getting  stock  ready  beforehand.  Either  of  these 
ways  is  preferable  to  overtime  working.  Moreover,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  superstition  about  the  necessity  for  overtime 
working  at  certain  seasons.  No  better  illustration  of  this  could  be  found 
than  that  of  Mr.  Beaufoy,  related  in  the  Appendix.  An  important  part 
of  Mr.  Beaufoy's  business  is  the  manufacture  of  British  wines,  and,  as 
everyone  knows,  British  wines  are  consumed  more  freely  at  Christmas 
than  at  any  other  time  of  the  year.  Consequently,  here  appears  a  clear 
case  for  a  season  of  overtime.  And  in  fact  when  Mr.  Beaufoy  succeeded 
to  the  business  there  was  no  limit  to  the  amount  of  overtime  worked  during 
the  months  of  October  and  November.  But  Mr.  Beaufoy  on  general 
grounds  thought  the  system  was  bad,  and  determined  to  put  it  down. 
He  has  put  it  down  absolutely  and  completely,  and  his  business  has 
benefited  by  the  alteration.     (Page  160.) 

The  Economic  Journal.     Vol.  XIV.     London,  1904.     The  Employment  of 
IVomen  in  Paper  Mills.     B.  L.  Hutchins. 

The  restriction  of  overtime  is  chiefly  felt  in  the  processes  of  finishing 
the  manufactured  article,  and  may  give  a  certain  stimulus  to  the  develop- 
ment of  machinery,  as  appears  indirectly  from  the  statement  of  a  manu- 
facturer to  the  Commission,  that  overtime  was  required  because  he  had 
only  one  pair  of  rollers.  "We  ought  to  have  two."  (Report,  page  309.) 
In  a  large  envelope  mill  a  great  deal  of  machinery  has  been  introduced  to 
save  woman's  labour;  the  reason  assigned  by  the  employer  was  that  there 
is  locally  a  deficiency  of  labour  of  this  class,  and  a  scarcity  of  women  and 
girls.  It  was,  however,  stated  later  on  by  a  foreman  in  the  same  mill, 
that  the  restriction  of  overtime  had  previously  been  found  very  incon- 
venient, and  more  machines  having  been  introduced,  any  sudden  pressure 
of  business  could  now  be  successfully  dealt  with.  .  .  .  Yet  the  demand  for 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


448 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


women's  work  is  keen  and  still  increasing  in  the  same  mill.     (Pages  246- 
247.) 


The    Economic    Journal. 
Factory  Legislation. 


Vol.    XVIII.     London,   1908.     Gaps    in    our 

B.   L.   HUTCHINS. 


Another  highly  desirable  reform  in  regard  to  hours  of  work  would  be 
the  abolition  of  overtime. 

Overtime  has  also  been  made  illegal  for  young  persons  in  all  trades, 
and  also  for  women  in  textile,  and  in  some  non-textile,  industries.  Ex- 
emptions are  still  permitted  in  industries  in  which  the  nature  of  the  em- 
ployment is  supposed  to  require  elasticity,  as,  for  instance,  the  making  of 
wearing  apparel,  Christmas  gifts,  etc.,  etc.  The  workers  in  these  em- 
ployments are  thus  liable  to  be  kept  for  very  long  speeds  of  work  at  cer- 
tain seasons.  Considering  how  long  the  daily  hours  under  the  Factory 
Act  still  are,  it  appears  utterly  unreasonable  to  require  overtime  as  well. 
A  master  once  said  to  me:  "In  nine  hours  the  girls  have  done  as  much 
work  as  is  in  them  to  do."  The  permission  of  overtime  is  simply  a  pre- 
mium on  irregularity  and  bad  organization.  Permission  to  make  up 
"lost  time"  and  work  overtime  used  to  be  granted  in  the  textile  industry, 
but  it  has  gradually  been  recognized  as  a  source  of  weakness,  the  exceptions 
have  been  shut  off  one  by  one,  and  the  "normal  day"  has  become  more 
and  more  the  standard.  The  trend  is  unmistakably  to  the  prohibition 
of  overtime,  and  the  sooner  the  better,  if  we  value  the  health  of  working 
girls  and  women.     (Pages  224-225.) 

GERMANY  Jahresberichte  der  Gewerhe-Aujsichtsheamten  im  K'dnigreich  IViirttemherg 
fiir  das  Jahr  190L  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  fVUritemberg,  1901.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1902. 

It  is  our  opinion  that,  in  all  trades  where  overtime  has  become  the  rule 
at  definite  seasons  of  the  year,  ways  and  means  should  have  been  dis- 
covered by  this  time  for  eliminating  it,  either  by  doing  work  ahead  in  the 
dull  season  or  by  taking  on  additional  hands  in  the  busy  season.  (Page 
11.) 


Drucksachen  des  Kaiserlichen  Statistischen  Amis,  Ahth.  fiir  Arheiter  Statis- 
tik,  Erhehungen  Nr.  3,  Teil  I.  1903.  [Puhlications  of  the  German 
Imperial  Office  of  Statistics,  Department  of  Labor  Statistics,  Inquiry 
No.  3,  Part  I.     1903.]     Ober  die  Arbeits^eit  der  Gehilfen  und  Lehrlinge 


OVERTIME    AND   ORGANIZATION    OF    WORK  449 

in  Handelsgewerhe  und  Kaufmannischen  Betrieben.     [On  the  Hours  of  GERMANY 
Shop    Assistants  and  Apprentices.]     {Investigation   made    in    1901.) 
Berlin,  1904. 

The  blame  for  many  bad  conditions  must  be  ascribed  to  the  absence  of 
adequate  legal  restrictions  on  length  of  working  time.  So  long  as  working 
hours  are  not  limited,  the  employer  does  not  meet  extra  work  by  bringing 
in  extra  help,  but  by  overworking  his  staff  by  overtime  ...  for  the  work 
must  be  done.     (Page  34.) 

It  is  often  hard  to  define  "overtime."  The  line  between  "working 
time"  and  "overtime"  is  not  easily  drawn  unless  "working  time"  is 
specifically  limited  by  law.  .  .  .  The  testimony  shows  that  many  business 
firms  keep  their  employees  busy  until  near  midnight  or  even  1  a.  m. 
Such  overtime  is  often  due  to  inadequate  accommodation  or  to  poor 
management,  and  disappears  when  these  are  improved.  From  Diissel- 
dorf  the  reports  stated  that  this  excessive  overtime,  often  persisting  for 
months  and  running  until  late  in  the  night,  was  complained  of  by  all  who 
were  affected  by  it  as  the  greatest  hardship  they  had  to  endure.  (Page 
41.) 

The  chief  complaint  of  employees  as  to  late  overtime  is  not  entirely 
of  the  overwork  itself,  but  of  the  fact  that  it  is  almost  always  avoidable. 
The  causes  of  late  work  are  actually  poor  arrangements  or  insufficient 
personnel.     (Page  43.) 


Rapports  sur  V Application  pendant  I'Annee  1899  des  Lois  {1892-1893)   FRANCE 
reglementant  le  Travail;  par  les  Inspecteurs  Divisionnaires  du  Travail. 
[Reports  on  the  Working  of  the  {French)  Factory  Laws  of  1892  and 
1893,  in  the  Year  1899.     By  the  French  Factory  Inspectors.]     Paris, 
1900. 

Would  the  suppression  of  overtime  be  difficult  of  execution  and  of  a 
nature  to  disorganize  the  industries  that  now  benefit  by  it?  The  facility 
with  which  certain  establishments  have  voluntarily  abolished  it  must 
dissipate  all  fears  on  this  subject. 

According  to  the  report  of  M.  Laporte,  an  inspector  in  Paris,  most  of 
the  great  furriers'  establishments  have  stopped  evening  overtime,  and 
they  have  arranged  to  have  their  employees  come  (in  the  rush  season)  an 
hour  or  two  earlier  in  the  morning. 

The  11th  and  12th  hours  are  paid  at  night-work  rates,  and  all  work 
stops  at  9  p.  M.     They  find  this  arrangement  satisfactory.     (Page  xl.) 
29* 


450 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


BELGIUM 


UNITED 
STATES 


Royaume  de  Belgique.  Rapport  presente  a  M.  le  Ministre  de  V Industrie 
et  du  Travail.  [Report  made  to  the  Belgian  Minister  of  Commerce  and 
Labor.]  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Ouvrieres  de  I'lndustrie  dans  les  Pays 
Etrangers.  [Night  Work  Jor  Women  in  Industry  in  Foreign  Countries.] 
Maurice  Ansiaux.     Brussels,  1898. 

Nevertheless,  where  the  law  limiting  the  frequency  and  extent  of 
evening  work  is  enforced,  has  it  not  at  least  caused  considerable  incon- 
venience? Is  it  not  a  source  of  incessant  embarrassment  in  the  execution 
of  orders? 

I  have  asked  most  competent  persons  these  questions:  the  very  in- 
teresting observations  which  they  have  made  may  be  summarized  in  the 
following  manner: 

Under  the  influence  of  regulation,  a  more  wholesome  organization  of 
work  has  come  about.     (Page  60.) 

Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor.  No.  80.  January,  1909. 
Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  Great  Britain.  Victor  S.  Clark, 
Ph.D. 

Factory  administration  is  now  more  intelligent  than  heretofore,  ele- 
ments of  cost  are  more  closely  watched,  future  markets  are  more  con- 
fidently and  accurately  estimated,  all  of  which  makes  it  more  economical 
to  anticipate  the  stress  season  by  preparing  in  advance  for  its  demands 
than  to  allow  work  to  accumulate  and  introduce  confusion  into  the  factory 
organization.  This  effect  of  the  factory  laws  first  began  to  be  felt  strongly 
after  the  Act  of  1867  was  passed.     (Page  52.) 


(2)  Prohibition  of  Overtime  Promotes  Regularity  of 
Employment 

Wherever  the  employment  of  women  has  been  prohibited 
for  more  than  ten  hours  in  one  day,  a  more  equal  distribution 
of  work  throughout  the  year  has  followed.  Regular  em- 
ployment replaces  alternation  of  overwork  and  non-employ- 
ment. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     Vol.  92.     1847. 

Bishop  of  Oxford : 

.  .  .  But  the  question  was  not,  what  was  the  portion  of  time  deducted 


OVERTIME    AND    REGULARITY    OF   WORK  45 1 

in  the  course  of  a  single  day,  but  what  was  the  amount  of  prohibition  from   great 

.  .  .  BRITAIN 

labour  for  the  year  round?  He  considered  it  to  be  only  a  prohibition 
against  uncertain  labour,  and  that  taking  the  period  of  the  last  10  years, 
it  would  be  found  though  at  some  intervals  men  were  idle,  and  at  others 
they  were  overworked,  that  upon  the  average  the  work  actually  performed 
was  not  more  than  10  hours  a  day.  What  was  the  result?  It  showed 
that  there  existed  a  great  desire  on  the  part  of  the  manufacturers  to  em- 
ploy large  bodies  of  men  extra  hours  at  uncertain  periods,  to  meet  sudden 
demands,  instead  of  being  willing  to  share  the  market  with  others  by 
employing  men,  for  limited  hours,  thereby  keeping  up  a  continued  stroke 
of  work,  and  a  continued  average  demand  of  labour.     (Pages  937-938.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XV.  1870.  Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  October  31,  1869. 

Irregularity  is  bad  for  all  parties;  for  the  adult  and  married  females, 
because  they  rise  late  and  waste  their  time,  and  consequently  have  to 
work  such  late  hours  that  they  have  no  time  to  attend  to  their  domestic 
duties  in  the  evenings,  much  less  to  mental  improvement,  and  also  be- 
cause under  irregular  hours  they  make  less  time  and  earn  less  wages  per 
week  than  under  fixed  hours.     (Page  217.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vols.  XXIX-XXX.  1876.  Factory  and  Work- 
shops Acts  Commission.  Vol.  XXIX.  Report.  Appendix  E.  Re- 
port of  Conference  of  Members  of  Women's  Trade  Unions  on  the  Factory 
and  Workshops  Acts,  1875. 

.  .  .  The  permission  granted  to  season  trades  for  the  extension  of  the 
hours  to  fourteen  per  day,  during  certain  periods  of  the  year,  should 
be  withdrawn,  with  the  view  of  equalizing  the  work  throughout  the 
year.     .     .     . 

Bookbinders  complained  that  the  trade  was  most  unnecessarily  con- 
sidered by  the  law  a  season  trade.  .  .  .  The  existence  of  the  modification 
made  employers  careless  of  due  economy  in  time.     (Page  193.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XXI.     1894.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

Why,  then,  allow  overtime?  The  result  of  overtime  is  essentially  in- 
jurious; there  is  a  great  push  for  time,  people  work  long  hours,  often  too 
long  hours;  then  all  is  over  for  a  time,  the  workpeople  have  made  money 


452  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  and  stent  it,  over-production  is  encouraged,  and  the  rest  of  the  vear  there 

BRITAIN  ...  . 

is  nothing,  comparatively  speaking,  to  do.     (Page  299.) 

British   Sessional   Papers.     Vol.    XII.     1902.     Report  of  the   Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

It  is  often  said  that  the  rigidly  fixed  hours  for  work  and  meals  in  fac- 
tories tend  to  make  of  the  worker  a  machine,  taking  no  actual  personal 
interest  in  her  work,  while  actually  the  effect  is  to  help  her,  if  the  work 
does  not  occupy  too  great  a  part  of  the  day,  to  be  a  person  of  some  vigour 
interested  in  the  work,  but  not  entirely  to  the  exclusion  of  other  things, 
for  which  she  can  count  on  regular  periods  of  leisure.     (Page  178.) 

English  Factory  Legislation.     Ernst  von   Plener.     London,   Chapman 
and  Hall,  1873. 

By  establishing  a  uniform  and  restricted  working  day,  the  Legislature 
exerted  a  most  beneficial  influence  over  the  whole  working  class;  the  com- 
pulsory fixed  time  for  commencing  and  leaving  off  work  acted  as  a  salu- 
tary check  upon  idleness  as  well  as  against  excessive  zeal,  both  which  are 
alike  injurious  to  morals  and  health.  Fortunately  both  working  men  and 
masters  alike  are  generally  beginning  to  appreciate  the  advantages  which 
regularity  in  the  working  system  and  in  the  mode  of  living,  resulting  from  a 
judicious  adjustment  of  the  working  hours,  confers  on  all  concerned,  and 
thus  it  has  come  to  pass  that  factory  legislation,  which  on  its  first  intro- 
duction was  ridiculed  as  a  monstrosity  and  prima  facie,  an  abortive  ex- 
periment, and  which,  moreover,  was  attacked  and  set  at  nought  as  an 
infringement  on  personal  and  industrial  liberty,  is  today  recognized  in 
England  as  one  of  the  soundest  foundations  of  social  reform  and  one  of  the 
most  beneficial  institutions  of  the  State.     (Pages  114-115.) 

The  Case  for  ihe  Factory  Acts.     Edited  by  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.     London, 
Richard,  1901. 

The  direct  and  constant  result  of  enforcing  standard  conditions  of  em- 
ployment is,  .  .  .  to  raise  the  capacity  of  the  workers.  The  prevention 
of  excessive  or  irregular  hours  of  work,  the  requirement  of  healthy  con- 
ditions, and  the  insistence  on  decency  in  the  factory  or  workshop — the 
direct  results  of  factory  legislation — represent  exactly  what  is  required  to 
extricate  the  mass  of  working  women  from  the  slough  of  inefficiency  in 
which  they  are  unfortunately  sunk.  Hence,  so  far  from  regulation  being 
any  detriment  to  the  persons  regulated,  it  is,  as  all  experience  proves,  a 
positive  good.     (Page  210.) 


OVERTIME    AND    REGULARITY    OF    WORK  453 

British   /Association    for    the   Advancement    of    Science.      72nd    Meeting,   great 

BRIXAIN 

1902.  Women's  Labour:  Second  Report  of  the  Committee  .  .  .  ap- 
pointed to  investigate  the  Economic  Effect  of  Legislation  Regulating 
Women  s  Labour.     London,  Murray,  1903. 

It  is  an  important  but  very  difficult  problem  to  decide  what  hours 
would  now  be  worked  in  the  factories  if  there  were  no  Acts.  The  follow- 
ing instances  go  to  show  that  the  hours  would  be  longer;  the  cases  above 
given  where  the  women  stop,  but  their  work  is  carried  on;  the  attempt  of 
the  women  to  put  in  extra  work  at  meal  times,  the  frequent  cases  of  over- 
time worked  by  men  in  various  parts  of  the  factories;  .  .  .  the  longer 
hours  said  to  be  worked  by  non-regulated  home  workers.  .  .  .  Employers 
and  workers  often  admit  that  overtime,  when  allowed  is  not  economical, 
and  that  S6%  hours  is  as  long  as  women  can  work  eificiently.  Employees 
are  very  anxious  to  get  off  in  the  evening.  .  .  .  Without  the  Acts  it  seems 
certain  that  less  uniformity  would  have  been  obtained,  and  that  in  many 
cases  excessive  hours  would  now  be  worked;  and  it  is  not  easy  to  instance 
any  occupation  where  the  hours  would  probably  have  been  shorter.  .  .  . 
There  is  no  direct  evidence  as  to  the  effect  on  women's  industrial  or  social 
efficiency,  but  there  is  general  agreement  that  longer  hours  would  be 
harmful  and  that  the  existing  restrictions  are  beneficial.  .  .  .  Their 
effects  on  the  comfort,  health,  and  regularity  of  the  lives  of  the  workers 
have  been  great  and  beneficial.     (Pages  293-295.) 


British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  73rd  Meeting.  1903. 
Women's  Labour:  Third  Report  of  the  Committee  .  .  .  appointed  to 
investigate  the  Economic  Effect  of  Legislation  Regulating  Women's  La- 
hour.     London,  Murray,  1904. 

Employees,  so  far  as  their  opinions  have  been  gathered,  are  unanimous 
in  approving  the  restriction  to  the  maximum  allowed.  .  .  .  The  Acts 
have  had  considerable  effect  in  spreading  work  more  uniformly  through 
the  week,  month,  or  year,  where  there  is  occasional  pressure.  .  .  . 

There  is  some  evidence  that  the  regularization  of  hours  has  promoted 
the  efficiency  of  women  as  productive  agents.     (Pages  340-341.) 

Women's  Work  and  Wages.  Edward  Cadbury,  M.  Cecile  Matheson, 
and  George  Shann.     London,  T.  Eisher  Unwin,  1906. 

On  the  whole,  however,  employers  are  beginning  to  recognize  that  over- 
time "  does  not  pay."     "  Loss  of  overtime  is  not  necessarily  a  loss  of  work. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


454 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


but  a  redistribution  (and  an  economic  one,  too)  of  the  times  at  which 
work  is  done  and  does  not  therefore  mean  a  loss  of  income,  but  a  steadying 
and  regulation  of  income."     (Page  38.) 


GERSiAmr  Jahresherichte  des  Gewerbe-Aufsichtsbeamten  im  Konigreich  IVurUemberg 
fiir  das  Jahr  1902.  [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  Kingdom 
of  IViirttemberg  for  1903.]     Stuttgart,  Lindemann,  1904. 

But  it  is  urgently  necessary  that  the  abuses  (of  overtime)  which  have 
become  common  should  be  prevented  and  that  the  habit  of  some  employers 
of  working  overtime  to  the  utmost  legal  limits,  should  be  stopped  by  the 
gradual  restriction  and  ultimate  prohibition  of  all  overtime.  .  .  .  These 
abuses  are  repeatedly  spoken  of  in  the  reports,  .  .  .  employers  compelling 
their  women  to  work  at  times,  with  feverish  intensity  for  13  hours,  while 
perhaps  a  little  later  there  is  no  work  or  scarcely  any.     (Page  194.) 

Handworterbuch  der  Staatswissenschaft.  Bd.  I.  {Compendium  of  Political 
Science.  Vol.  /.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of  Political 
Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Ober  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin;  W.  Lexis, 
Professor  of  Political  Science  in  Gbttingen  and  Edg.  Loening,  Pro- 
fessor of  Law  in  Halle.  Arbeits^eit.  [Hours  of  Work.]  Dr.  H. 
Herkner,  Berlin.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

A  rigid  limitation  of  the  daily  hours  of  work  is  often  advocated,  to  be 
only  relaxed  under  circumstances  of  extraordinary  urgency,  with  the  idea 
that  thus  the  extremes  in  the  lives  of  workers,  the  evil  alternation  between 
forced  production  and  crises  might  be  obviated.     (Page  1204.) 

FRANCE  Rapports  presentes  a  M.  le  Ministre  du  Commerce,  de  V Industrie,  des  Postes 

et  des  Telegraphes  par  les  Inspecteurs  du  Travail.  [Reports  of  the 
{French)  Factory  Inspectors  to  the  Minister  of  Labor,  etc.]  La  Question 
de  V Interdiction  du  Travail  de  Nuit.  [The  Question  of  the  Prohibition 
of  Nightwork.]     M.  Legard,  Inspector.     Paris,  1900. 

The  working  class  demands  two  things;  regularity  in  the  distribution 
of  working  time,  and  a  living  wage.  .  .  .  Night  work  means  superactivity 
at  certain  seasons,  followed  by  periods  of  unemployment.     (Page  62.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  the  Illinois  Factory  Inspectors.     1893. 

A  valuable  result  of  the  new  law  already  to  some  extent  obtained,  is  the 
greater  uniformity  of  work  and  rest  insured  to  girls  and  women.     Formerly 


OVERTIME    AND    REGULARITY    OF    WORK  455 

the  custom  prevailed  of  working  overtime  in  many  trades  during  a  part  united 
of  the  year  and  then  closing  the  factory  outright,  or  working  three  or  four 
very  long  days  a  week.     This  irregularity  is  one  of  the  most  cruelly  de- 
moralizing experiences  of  the  working  girl's  life,  injurious  alike  to  health 
and  to  every  habit  of  thrift  and  persevering  effort.     (Pages  18-19.) 

Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.  1907- 
1908.  Part  VII.  Women  Workers  in  Milwaukee  Tanneries.  Irene 
Osgood,  Special  Agent. 

These  illustrations  are  sufficient  to  indicate  the  importance  of  con- 
sidering irregularity  of  employment,  overtime,  and  undertime,  in  any 
study  of  wages.  It  affects  the  wages,  habits,  and  morals  of  employees 
more  than  any  other  factor  in  the  industry.  Certainty  of  an  occupation, 
and  regularity  of  work  are  practically  essential  to  the  welfare  and  happi- 
ness of  those  who  earn  their  living  day  by  day.     (Page  1060.) 

Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor.  No.  80.  January,  1909. 
Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  Great  Britain.  Victor  S.  Clark, 
Ph.D. 

Though  in  many  factories  the  later  laws  have  not  reduced  hours  of 
work,  they  have  exercised  an  important  influence  in  making  these  hours 
more  regular.  Irregularity  is  due  principally  to  two  causes,  both  of  which 
are  in  great  part  remediable.  The  first  is  the  bad  working  habits  of  the 
operatives  themselves.  In  the  old  days  workmen  would  lay  off  the  first 
part  of  the  week  and  then  try  to  make  up  wages  by  excessive  hours  just 
before  pay  day.  This  is  still  an  evil  where  manufacturing  is  carried  on  in 
the  homes.  The  second  cause  is  the  seasonal  demand  for  goods  in  some 
industries,  which  presses  manufacturers  for  heavy  deliveries  at  certain 
times  of  the  year.  They  used  to  meet  this  by  putting  on  extra  employees, 
sending  work  to  outworkers,  and  by  overtime.  These  were  uneconomic 
expedients,  and  under  the  influence  of  the  factory  regulations  a  better 
distribution  of  work  throughout  the  year  has  in  many  trades  already 
been  accomplished.  Of  course  when  factories  are  working  fewer  than  the 
maximum  number  of  hours  allowed  by  law,  they  may  employ  women  and 
children  up  to  that  maximum,  in  case  of  emergency,  without  restriction. 
This  is  done  in  many  instances.  Factory  accommodations  are  more 
adequate  than  formerly,  so  that  extra  hands  can  be  taken  on  when  needed. 
This  causes  some  irregularity  of  employment  for  these  temporary  em- 
ployees; or  rather  it  might  be  said  that  they  are  given  an  opportunity  for 


456 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


ITNITED 
STATES 


emplo}  ment  that  would  not  exist  if  the  regular  hands  worked  longer  hours. 
(Page^52.) 

The  great  effect  of  this  act  (1867)  stipulating  a  normal  day  was  to 
lessen  irregularity  rather  than  to  lessen  hours  worked  per  week,  for  even 
before  1867  the  hours  of  work  in  a  week  often  would  not  exceed  60.  The 
need  for  alteration  was  not  so  much  due  to  the  number  of  hours  as  to  the 
irregularity  of  work.  At  times  of  pressure  employers  worked  their  em- 
ployees any  number  of  hours  they  pleased,  and  the  irregular  habits  of 
the  work  people  themselves  often  compelled  employers  to  work  long  hours 
to  make  up  for  lost  time.     (Page  53.) 

.  .  .  There  are  some  material  and  moral  benefits  to  be  traced  directly 
to  the  factory  laws.  They  have  made  the  hours  of  work  more  regular, 
relieving  workers  of  the  tyranny  of  their  own  bad  habits  and  of  inefficient 
industrial  administration,  whereby  formerly  they  experienced  alterna- 
tions of  idleness  and  excessive  labor,  injurious  alike  to  their  health  and 
morals.     (Page  72.) 


(3)  Effect  on  Wages 

The  additional  wages  of  overtime  work  are  often  urged 
as  reasons  for  allowing  such  work  after  the  regular  hours 
of  labor.  But  such  wages,  even  where  they  are  obtained, 
are  earned  at  too  dear  a  cost  to  the  workers.  Extra  living 
expenses  cut  down  the  slight  extra  income,  while  the  in- 
juries to  health  received  in  overtime  work  more  than  out- 
weigh the  small  pecuniary  balance.  Often,  too,  after  over- 
time is  established,  the  longer  hours  become  the  rule,  and 
are  paid  no  higher  than  the  original  shorter  day. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.     1840.     First  Report  from  Select  Com- 
mittee  on  the  Ad  for  the  Regulation  of  Mills  and  Factories. 

Witness,  L.  Horner,  Inspector  of  Factories: 

1616.  You  are  aware  that  the  persons  working  in  factories  have  for 
a  succession  of  years  petitioned  Parliament  for  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of 
labour  in  factories  to  10;  are  you  also  aware  that  in  all  the  petitions  they 
have  ever  sent  they  have  never  expressed  any  opinion  whatever  as  to 
what  the  wages  would  be,  but  they  have  constantly  complained  of  the 
hardship  they  had  to  endure  by  being  worked  longer  than  their  physical 
powers  afforded  them  means  of  doing  compatibly  with  their  health,  and 


OVERTIME    AND    WAGES  457 

that  thev  have  been  willine  to  make  the  experiment  of  limiting  it  to  10  great 

BRITAIN 

instead  of  12,  provided  an  Act  was  passed  for  that  purpose  regardless  of 
the  consequences  that  might  befall  them  in  the  rate  of  wages? — I  am 
strongl}-  impressed  with  the  belief  that  the  workers  who  have  come  for- 
ward in  that  wa\',  have  done  so  under  a  conviction  that  there  would  be  no 
reduction  in  wages  eventually,  although  it  might  take  place  at  first,  but 
that  they  would  get  in  a  short  time  as  much  for  10  hours'  labour  as  they 
at  present  get  for  12  hours'  labour.     fPage  121.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XX.  1878.  Reports  of  the  Inspectors 
of  Factories  and  IVorkshops. 

The  women  at  the  close  of  the  twelve  hours,  which  period  constitutes 
the  usual  day's  work,  were  tired  and  exhausted,  and  hardly  did  enough 
after  that  to  pay  for  the  gas  consumed.  Book  sewers  and  folders  are  all 
paid  by  piece  work,  and  if  overtime  were  continued  for  a  few  weeks  to- 
gether their  earnings  would  soon  fall  to  about  the  same  amount  as  when 
they  worked  the  regular  hours.     (Page  14.) 

Documents  Parlementaires.  Chamhre  des  Deputes,  10  Juin,  1890.  Annexe  FRANCE 
649.  Rapport  sur  le  travail  des  enjants,  des  filles  mineiires  et  des 
femmes  dans  les  Hahlissements  industriels,  par  M.  R.  Waddington. 
[Parliamentary  Documents,  French  Chamber  of  Deputies,  June  10, 
1890.  Annex  649.  Report  on  the  labor  of  Children,  Young  Girls, 
and  JVomen  in  Industrial  Establishments.]  Senator  Richard  Wad- 
dington. 

Supper  and  carfare  (after  overtime  work)  often  exhaust  the  additional 
pay.  Fatigue  and  sickness  resulting  from  overvv'ork  compel  absence  and 
corresponding  loss  of  wages.  A  better  organization  of  work  would  remedy 
this  and  make  over  hours  unnecessary  without  harm  to  business.  (Page 
1087.) 

Documents  Parlementaires.  Senat,  22  Juin,  1891.  Annexe  138.  Rap- 
port sur  le  travail  des  enfants.  des  filles  mineures,  et  des  femmes 
dans  les  Hahlissements  industriels.  [Parliamentary  Documents  of  the 
French  Senate,  Jtine  22,  1891.  Annex  138.  Report  on  the  labor  of 
Children,    Young   Girls   and    Women   in    Industrial   Establishments-] 

M.   TOLAIN. 

The  abuses  of  such  a  s>"stem  of  overtime  are  flagrant,  and  the  womicn 
subjected  to  them  complain  bitter!}-.     If,  even,  this  burden  of  over-fatigue 


458  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

FRANCE  brought  some  improvement  in  general  welfare      But  it  does  not,  for  the 

increased  incidental  expenses  completely  wipe  out  the  increased  payment 
of  wages  for  overtime.  And,  if  the  employee  is  late  in  arriving  at  her 
working  place  the  next  morning  as  a  result  of  exhaustion  the  evening 
before,  she  loses  a  part  of  her  wages  by  fine.     (Page  205.) 

Rapports  sur  l'Applicaiio7i  pendant  I'Annee  1899  des  Lois  {1892-1893) 
reglementant  le  Travail;  par  les  Inspecteurs  Divisionnaires  du  Travail. 
[Reports  on  the  Working  of  the  {French)  Factory  Laws  of  1892  and 
1893  in  the  year  1899.  By  the  French  Factory  Inspectors.]  Paris, 
1900. 

Overtime  necessitates  extra  expenses  for  the  worker  who  has  to  sub- 
mit to  it;  it  is  more  taxing  to  the  human  system  and  is  in  actual  practice 
rarely  paid  for  at  a  higher  rate  than  regular  work.     (Page  368.) 

Whatever  arrangement  of  work  might  finally  be  agreed  upon,  we  are 
certain  that  evening  overtime  should  be  stopped.     (Page  428.) 

Minister e  du  Commerce,  de  V Industrie,  des  Pastes  et  des  Telegraphes.  Office 
du  Travail.  [French  Labor  Department.]  Legislation  Ouvriere  et 
Sociale  en  Australie  et  Nouvelle  Zelande.  [Social  and  Labor  Legisla- 
tion in  Australia  and  New  Zealand.]  Dr.  M.  Albert  Metin. 
Paris,  1901. 

The  experience  of  England  has  shown  that,  if  overtime  is  agreed  to  by 
some,  it  is  soon  imposed  upon  others.  Those  who  decline  it  are,  in  one 
way  or  another,  forced  out  of  their  jobs. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  employer  tends  to  regard  the  day  with  over- 
time as  the  normal  day;  he  inclines  toward  a  return  to  the  former  scale  of 
wages  but  without  reducing  the  length  of  working  time.  Thus  the  too 
frequent  practice  of  overtime  tends  in  the  end  to  a  reduction  of  wages. 
The  conclusion  is  self-evident  that  adult  workers  should  submit  to  a 
regulation  of  working  time  in  their  own  interest.     (Page  88.) 

First  International  Conference  of  Consumers'  Leagues  at  Geneva,  1908. 
La  Veillee:  Abus  et  Responsabilites.  [Overtime:  Abuses  and  Re- 
sponsibilities.] Mme.  A.  Paul  Juillerat,  French  Factory  Inspector. 
Fribourg,  1909. 

After  the  excessive  rush  of  the  "season"  there  is  another  evil,  which 
is  partly  the  result  of  the  first  and  is  no  less  real  a  hardship,  this  is  the 


OVERTIME    AND    WAGES  459 

unemployment  of  the  dull  season.  .  .  .  (Page  61.)  There  are  workers  FRANCE 
who  are  willing  to  work  overtime  for  the  extra  gain  in  wages,  but  how  many 
of  them  are  able  to  lay  by  for  the  dull  season?  Very  few.  The  extreme 
fatigue  they  endure  often  reduces  their  vitality  to  such  a  point  that,  weak 
and  anaemic,  they  are  obliged  to  expend  all  the  little  surplus  gain  for 
medical  treatment  and  care.     (Page  62.) 

Royaume  de  Belgique.     Rapport  presents  a  M.  le  Ministre  de  V Industrie   BELGIUM 
et  dii  Travail.     [Report  to  the  Belgian  Minister  of  Commerce  and  Labor.] 
Travail  de  Nuit  des  Ouvrieres  de  V Industrie  dans  les  Pays  Etrangers. 
[Night  work  of  IVomen  in  Industry  in  Foreign  Countries.]     Maurice 
Ansiaux.     Brussels,  1898. 

The  unlimited  prolongation  of  labor  throughout  the  day  and  the  night 
is  humanly  impossible;  or  if  it  is  done  anyhow,  it  must  be  paid  for  dearly 
and  cruelly. 

A  woman  whose  health  is  ruined  and  whose  nervous  system  is  broken 
down  by  prolonged  and  frequent  evening  work  is  no  longer  able  to  furnish 
during  a  given  period  of  time  work  as  good  or  as  abundant  as  in  the  past. 
This  is  perhaps  the  explanation  of  the  fact  that  I  have  more  than  once 
heard  stated  and  confirmed,  that  the  level  of  total  wages  has  not  fallen 
appreciably  on  account  of  the  prohibition  of  night  work.     (Pages  146-147.) 

Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  V Industrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im-  AUSTRIA. 
portance  et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Night  Work  of  IVomen  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  importance  and 
legal  regulation.  Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]  Le  Travail  de  Nuit 
des  Femmes  dans  I'hidustrie  en  Autriche.  [Night  Work  of  Women  in 
Austrian  Industry.]     Ilse  von  Arlt.      Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

The  woman  who  passes  all  her  evenings  at  outside  work  can  hardly 
prepare  dinner,  accomplish  the  minor  daily  labors  of  her  housework,  and 
devote  part  of  her  time  to  her  children.     (Page  101.) 

If  there  is  indeed  ground  for  supposing  that  the  industrial  activity  of 
married  women  rarely  brings  in  certain  cases  more  than  sufficient  to  pay 
for  the  management  of  the  house  and  the  care  of  the  children,  it  is  cer- 
tainly beyond  dispute  that  the  majority  of  the  wages  obtained  by  over- 
time hours  will  not,  in  any  manner,  compensate  for  the  neglect  of  domes- 
tic duties.  .  .  .  It  is  necessary,  moreover,  for  mothers  to  take  account  of 
the  fact  that  they  are  without  doubt  able  to  place  their  children  in  safe 
places  during  the  day,  but  not  in  the  evening.     (Page  102.) 


460 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission  on  the  Relations  and 
Conditions  of  Capital  and  Labor  Employed  in  Manufactures  and  Gen- 
eral Business.     Vol  VII.     1900. 

Mr.  Samuel  Gompers,  President  American  Federation  of  Labor: 
I  am  opposed  to  overtime  work  except  in  a  case  of  absolute  necessity, — 
for  the  safety  of  life  and  the  preservation  of  property  from  destruction. 
Overtime  is  nothing  more  than  the  lengthening  of  the  day's  work.  It 
becomes  habitual,  and  when  it  becomes  the  habit  of  the  employers  the 
rule  is  that  the  wages  paid  for  overtime,  including  those  of  the  day's 
work,  do  not  exceed  the  wages  which  have  been  paid  for  the  regular  day's 
work;  that  is,  after  a  while  it  happens  that  overtime — overwork — be- 
comes the  rule  and  is  no  longer  overwork.  .  .  .  Overtime  makes  the  work- 
man slovenly,  deadens  his  senses,  makes  him  careless  of  himself  and  fellows. 
(Pages  613-614.) 


Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics.  1907- 
1908.  Part  VII.  IVomen  IVorkers  in  Milwaukee  Tanneries.  Irene 
Osgood,  Special  /I gent. 

The  bad  effect  of  overtime  work  on  wages  intensified  by  the  piece- 
rate  system,  can  be  illustrated  by  the  records  of  the  girls. 


Table  ill. — Hours,  Wages,  and  Rate  per  Hour  Basedow  Piece  Work  Wages 
FOR  the  Girls. — Showing  the  Effect  of  Overtime  on  Earnings. 


A 

B 

C 

Date,  1906 

a'2 

ges 
ned 
eeks) 

-■2 

^s 

0  0 

iVa 
Ear 

{2  1V 

0  ^ 

^  0 

0  0 

January  15  . 

120 

$22.50 

$.187 

120 

$24.14 

$.20 

120 

$18.65 

$.155 

January  31  . 

129 

18.50 

.14 

60 

6.05 

.10 

133 

19.33 

.145 

March  31... 

132 

20.67 

.157 

140 

19.63 

.14 

134 

14.65 

.107 

May  15  ... . 

133 

17.02 

.128 

133 

11.79 

.08 

130 

18.25 

.14 

The  earnings  of  A,  as  shown  in  Table  111,  under  the  piece  rate  system, 
ranged  from  12.8  to  18.7  cents  per  hour;  B  ranged  from  8.4  to  20  cents 
per  hour;  while  C's  hourly  earnings  ranged  from  10.7  to  15.5  cents.  In 
each  case  the  highest  wages  per  hour  were  received  on  those  days  when 


OVERTIME    AND   WAGES  461 

fewer  hours  were  spent  at  work.     Similar  variations  exist  in  the  earnings  united 

■  ■  STATES 

of  many  others.  But  when  the  attention  of  one  of  the  girls  who  had 
worked  in  the  tannery  for  more  than  four  years  was  called  to  this  apparent 
anomaly  in  her  own  earnings,  she  was  unable  to  explain  it.  Her  mother 
said:  "I  have  often  noticed  that  the  longer  she  works  the  less  she  gets." 
After  some  further  thought  the  girl  finally  concluded  that  her  exception- 
ally low  earnings  were  probably  occasioned  by  work  upon  a  class  of  skins 
for  which  a  lower  rate  was  received.  Of  course  it  might  be  possible  that 
she  worked  with  less  vim  or  intensity  on  those  particular  days.  Or  it 
might  easily  have  been  due  to  the  effect  of  overtime  as  expressed  by  a 
London  forewoman:  "when  overtime  is  worked  the  piece  workers  do  not 
make  more,  as  a  rule,  for  they  get  so  tired  that  if  they  stay  late  one  night 
they  work  less  the  next  day."  There  is  ample  evidence  to  show  that  when 
overtime  is  worked  for  several  weeks  under  the  piece  rate  system,  earnings 
inevitably  tend  to  fall  to  about  the  same  amount  received  for  regular  hours 
of  labor.  In  the  long  run,  therefore,  overtime  work  brings  them  no  extra 
reward  under  the  piece  rate  system.  It  brings  them  instead  lowered 
forces  of  vital  energy.     (Pages  1058-1059.) 


(4)  Effect  of  Requiring  Extra  Pay  for  Overtime 

In  those  communities  which  require  by  law  extra  high 
pay  for  overtime  the  system  tends  to  be  automatically  abol- 
ished. When  employers  are  not  able  to  keep  their  em- 
ployees for  evening  work  without  a  substantial  outlay  in 
wages,  they  have  found  it  possible  to  reduce  overtime  exten- 
sively by  better  organization  and  foresight. 


Report  of  the  Queensland  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories  and  Shops  for  the 
Period  from  1st  Jan.  to  30th  Sept.,  1901.     Brisbane,  1902. 

Objection  has  been  made  by  certain  occupiers  to  the  provision  insist- 
ing upon  a  minimum  payment  of  6d.  per  hour  for  overtime,  but  I  am 
strongly  of  opinion  that  there  is  no  more  just  or  effective  provision  in  the 
section  for  limiting  the  amount  of  overtime  worked  by  those  more  or  less 
helpless  employees.  It  is  unfortunate  that,  in  making  this  provision  for 
the  payment  for  overtime,  provision  was  not  also  specifically  made  in  the 
interests  of  piece  workers.  This  is  quite  obviously  an  oversight,  but, 
nevertheless,  full  advantage  is  being  taken  of  it,  and  the  unfortunate 


AUSTRALIA 


462  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

AUSTRALIA  effect  of  it  is  that,  while  a  young  employee  paid  by  weekly  wages  who  is 
working  overtime  receives  a  minimum  of  6d.  per  hour,  another  one  em- 
ployed by  piece  work  on  perhaps  very  similar  work  receives  the  ordinary 
rate  of  pay.  A  reference  to  the  table  showing  the  amount  of  overtime 
worked  will  at  once  reveal  part  of  the  effect  of  this  provision  in  the  re- 
duced amount  of  overtime  worked  by  boys  (who  are  mostly  time  workers) 
compared  to  that  worked  by  females.     (Page  7.) 

Report  of  the  Queensland  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories  and  Shops  for  1902. 
Brisbane,  1903. 

Overtime  must  not  be  worked  by  these  employees  more  than  two  nights 
in  succession,  and  must  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  time  and  a  half,  the 
minimum  payment  being  at  the  rate  of  6d.  per  hour.  This  makes  the 
employment  of  young  labour,  as  a  rule,  unremunerative,  and  conse- 
quently it  is  not  availed  of  except  in  pressing  cases.  These  provisions 
may  press  heavily  on  some  occupiers  for  whose  work  young  labour  is 
ordinarily  quite  suitable,  and  other  hands  cannot  be  engaged  to  work  the 
overtime  required,  but  when  all  occupiers  are  treated  alike  the  hardship 
is  a  small  one.     (Page  8.) 

Report  of  the  Victoria  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories,  IVork-Rooms  and  Shops 
for  1907. 

Although  the  hours  of  labour  for  males  over  16  years  of  age  are  not 
limited,  still  in  the  majority  of  trades  in  which  the  wages  are  fixed  by 
Wages  Boards,  the  wage  provided  is  for  a  week  of  48  hours,  and  overtime 
rates  have  to  be  paid  for  any  time  worked  in  excess  of  that  number.  This 
has  had  the  effect  of  making  48  hours  the  recognized  weekly  hours  for  a 
week's  work  where  the  Determinations  of  Wages  Boards  apply,  but  it 
has  also  affected  numbers  of  workers  that  are  employed  far  from  cities 
or  towns,  and  has  proved  beneficial  to  those  who  do  not  come  under  the 
Factories  Acts  at  all.  For  instance,  within  the  last  year  or  two  the  saw- 
millers,  whose  works  are  carried  on  chiefly  in  shires,  now  recognize  the  48 
hours  limit,  and  1  am  informed  on  good  authority  that  at  least  one  manager 
of  a  large  saw-mill  has  stated  that  he  has  found  by  experience  that  by 
conceding  the  48  hours  he  has  suffered  no  loss,  though  he  has  made  no  re- 
duction in  wages.     (Page  67.) 

My  experience  is  that  suspensions  to  be  allowed  to  work  overtime  are 
not  availed  of  unless  it  is  imperative.  The  stringent  conditions  as  to  pay- 
ment for  more  than  48  hours'  work  are  effective  in  minimizing  overtime, 


OVERTIME    AND   WAGES 


463 


as  also  does  the  fact  that  it  is  recognized  that  the  fatigue  which  results  Australia 
from  long  hours  of  night  work  prevents  the  ordinary  amount  of  work  being 
done  next  day.     (Page  68.) 


Report  of  the  New  Zealand  Department  of  Labour. 
MaKay,  1908. 


1908. 


IVellington  new 

ZEALAND 


There  has  been  comparatively  little  overtime  worked  in  shops  during 
the  year.  The  fact  that  a  permit  is  necessary  and  that  such  overtime 
has  to  be  paid  for  at  time  and  a  half  has  had  the  effect  of  reducing  the 
overtime  very  considerably.     (Page  xx.) 


Sweated  Industry  and  the  Minimum  Wage, 
don,  Duckworth,  1907. 


Clementina  Black.     Low- 


great 

BRITAIN 


Long  hours,  which  are  in  effect  one  form  of  low  wages,  have  been 
checked  by  the  Factory  Acts,  but  not  yet  ended.     (Page  29.) 

It  must  be  remembered  that,  in  the  case  of  workers  paid  by  the  day, 
as  is  usual  in  dressmaking  establishments,  and  in  some  departments  of 
laundry  work,  there  is  frequently  no  extra  payment  made  for  overtime. 
I  have  indeed  heard  a  West-end  working  woman  declare  that  overtime 
would  cease  if  the  law  made  payment  for  it  compulsory;  and  although 
that  assertion  was  much  too  sweeping,  the  experience  of  strong  trade 
unions  shows  that  when  employers  are  compelled  to  pay  at  a  higher  rate 
for  overtime,  that  necessity  for  overtime  of  which  so  much  is  heard  when- 
ever the  Factory  Acts  are  under  discussion,  does  diminish  in  a  very  re- 
markable manner.     (Pages  32-33.) 


La    Femme    dans    V  Industrie. 
Paris,  Colin,  1906. 


{IVoman    in    Industry.)     R.    Gonnard.   FRANCE 


The  inspector  of  labor  of  Lyons  says: 

"It  has  come  about  that  this  decrease  of  the  legal  maximum  limit  of 
hours  of  labor  (ten  hours  a  day),  which  went  into  effect  the  28th  of  March, 
1902,  obliging  the  employer  to  pay  a  higher  wage  for  overtime  hours,  has 
urged  the  manufacturers  to  replace  their  former  equipment  by  machines 
of  great  producing  power.  In  short,  for  the  manufacturers  in  question, 
the  regulation  has  become  a  powerful  stimulus,  which  has  driven  them  to 
do  away  with  methods  of  manufacture  already  somewhat  superannuated. " 
(Page  78.) 


BRITAIN 


464  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

E.     Uniformity  Essential  for  Purposes  of  Enforcement 

In  order  to  establish  enforceable  restrictions  upon  work- 
ing hours  of  women,  the  law  must  fix  a  maximum  working 
day.  Without  a  fixed  limit  of  hours,  beyond  which  em- 
ployment is  prohibited,  regulation  is  practically  nullified. 
Exemptions  of  special  trades  from  the  restriction  of  hours 
not  only  subject  the  workers  in  such  industries  to  injurious 
overwork,  but  go  far  to  destroy  the  whole  intent  of  the 
law.     The  difficulties  of  inspection  become  insuperable. 

GR^AT  British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  IX.     1841.     Report  from  the  Select  Com- 

mittee on  the  Act  for  the  Regulation  of  Mills  and  Factories. 

Your  Committee  .  .  .  wish  to  impress  upon  the  House,  in  the  language 
of  one  of  their  witnesses,  that  "wherever  there  is  the  power  of  making  up 
lost  time,  it  ought  to  be  guarded  by  every  possible  check;  it  is  so  easy  to 
evade,  and  so  difficult  to  detect  any  evasion,  that  every  possible  check 
that  can  be  devised  to  prevent  dishonest  working  ought  to  be  introduced. 

The  4th  Section  "provides  for  time  unavoidably  lost  in  cases  of  acci- 
dent," and  gives  permission  that,  whenever  anything  shall  happen  to  the 
machinery  of  the  mill,  whereby  not  less  than  three  hours  labour  at  any 
one  time  shall  be  lost,  such  time  may  be  worked  up  under  certain  re- 
strictions. It  was  urged  before  your  Committee,  that,  experience  having 
proved  the  facility  and  frequency  of  abuse  of  this  power,  it  ought  to  be 
taken  away  by  any  amended  Bill.  "It  is  a  Section,"  says  one  Inspector, 
"which  I  believe  has  been  productive  of  the  grossest  violations  of  the  law, 
without  the  possibility  of  our  checking  it."  Any  accident,  however 
minute,  to  any  part  of  the  mill-gear,  has  been  held  sufficient  to  justify 
the  making  up  of  lost  time  at  some  other  more  convenient  period.  .  .  . 
He  is  asked  whether  "it  would  not  be  rather  oppressive  upon  the  work- 
people, if  no  possible  accident,  under  any  circumstances,  should  be  al- 
lowed to  be  worked  up?"  He  replied,  "  1  conceive  hardship  may  arise  in 
particular  cases,  but  I  think  the  balance  is  decidedly  in  favour  of  there 
being  no  possibility  of  working  up  lost  time."     (Page  2.) 

Another  witness,  an  operative,  is  asked,  "Have  you  any  information 
as  to  the  feelings  of  the  working  people  in  regard  to  the  clause  which  per- 
mits working  to  make  up  lost  time? — That  is  the  source  of  grievance  to  a 


UNIFORMITY    ESSENTIAL   FOR    ENFORCEMENT  465 

vast  number,  both  of  children  and  adults;   I  have  heard  them  frequently  great 

BRITAIN 

say  when  lost  time  is  allowed  to  be  worked  up,  that  they  would  rather  lose 
their  wages  for  the  time  that  was  lost  than  make  it  up.  .  .  .  They  have 
expressed  themselves  strongly  on  that  point,  that  they  would  rather  lose 
their  wages  than  work  the  time  up.     (Page  3.) 

Your  Committee,  referring  to  the  evidence  of  the  witnesses  examined 
on  the  subject  of  making  up  lost  time  arising  from  accidents  to  the  ma- 
chinery, etc.,  are  of  the  opinion  that  great  abuses  have  arisen  under  the 
4th  Section  of  the  Act,  and  would  urge  upon  the  House  that  effectual 
means  should  be  taken  to  put  a  stop  to  this  evil.     (Page  4.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XXII.     1842.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  Half-year  ending  June  30,  1842. 

Night-work  no  one  fears,  because  it  entails  so  many  disadvantages; 
but  it  is  a  small  excess  which  we  have  most  to  complain  of,  as  it  does  not 
involve  the  necessity  of  two  sets  of  overlookers  and  managers  and  there  is 
consequently  none  of  the  difficulty  of  night-working  attendant  upon  it; 
and  it  is  all  clear  gain  to  the  party  practising  it.     (Page  9.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XIX.     1873.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  Half-year  ending  30th  April,  1873. 

The  difficulty  of  acquiring  evidence,  too,  of  this  overwork  is  very  great, 
for  the  danger  of  loss  of  employment  on  the  disclosure  of  facts  is  so  de- 
terrent of  exact  information  by  the  oppressed  workers  that  they  will  not 
appear  before  the  magistrates  to  support  the  Sub-Inspector  in  his  attempt 
to  protect  them,  however  urgently  or  indignantly  that  protection  has  been 
claimed.     (Page  44.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XIX.     1890-91.     Report  of  Inspector  of 
Factories. 

These  modifications  of  the  law  (allowing  overtime)  were  intended  to 
meet  bona  fide  cases  of  season  pressure  and  short-notice  orders,  arising 
from  unforeseen  events,  but  beyond  doubt  under  their  cover  much  illegal 
working  is  carried  on,  the  very  flimsiest  of  pretences  being  made  the  excuse 
for  continuing  work  after  the  prescribed  finishing  hour. 

Whenever  the  Act  comes  up  for  amendment  I  venture  to  think  that 
some  of  these  modifications  might,  without  causing  any  real  hardship, 
be  limited  in  their  scope,  if  not  altogether  repealed.     (Page  49.) 
30* 


466  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol   XXI.     1894.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 

BRITAIN  .  jr  J  J 

spector  of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

By  dressmakers  and  milliners,  .  .  .  legal  overtime  is  almost  univer- 
sally condemned.  A  dressmaker's  assistant,  whose  legal  working  day 
had  for  a  considerable  period  lasted  from  8  a.  m.  to  10  p.  m.  said  to  me  in 
the  presence  of  her  fellow  workers,  "the  overtime  exception  just  spoils 
the  Factory  Act."  .  .  .  The  popularly  supposed  compensation  of  extra 
overtime  seldom  exists,  and  the  young  apprentice,  improver,  or  assistant 
who  spends  14  hours  a  day  in  workrooms,  often  ill-ventilated  and  over- 
crowded, finds  it  difficult  to  understand  that  her  day  has  been  allotted 
to  her,  not  by  a  law-breaking  employer,  but  in  accordance  with  the  pro- 
visions of  a  protecting  Act.     (Page  11.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XIX.     1896.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  IVorkshops. 

I  most  cordially  approve  of  the  extensions  of  the  Act  in  the  various 
directions  in  which  these  have  been  made;  but  I  fear  that  the  regulations 
as  to  the  hours  of  work  permissible  in  laundries  will  be  of  little  avail  to 
avoid  overtime  so  long  as  the  somewhat  senseless  power  is  accorded  of 
daily  altering  the  period  of  employment.  In  connection  with  this  it  is 
only  necessary  for  anyone  having  the  most  rudimentary  acquaintance  with 
factory  life  to  reflect  how  absolutely  useless  the  Factory  Acts  would  have 
been  during  the  many  years  of  their  existence  if  the  hours  in  factories  and 
workshops  had  been  regulated  on  this  principle.  It  is  only  to  be  hoped 
that  their  power  may  be  rescinded  at  the  earliest  opportunity.     (Page  18.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII.     1897.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

Twelve  months'  work  among  the  laundries  in  London  and  the  neigh- 
bourhood, in  districts  devoted  to  this  industry,  has  afforded  special  oppor- 
tunities for  observing  the  working  of  section  22,  1895.     (Overtime.) 

The  result  cannot  be  said  to  be  satisfactory.  Employers  complain 
that  they  cannot  understand  the  provisions  governing  laundries,  and 
as  to  the  workers  themselves,  the  ironers,  washers,  machine  girls,  packers, 
and  sorters,  constant  intercourse  with  them  has  produced  a  painful 
impression  of  the  disappointment  they  have  experienced  with  regard  to 
what  the  Act  has  done  for  them.     (Pages  67-68.) 

A  year's  experience  of  the  working  of  the  sections  applicable  to  laundries 


UNIFORMITY    ESSENTIAL   FOR    ENFORCEMENT  467 

has  proved  the  value,  importance,  and  benefit  of  those  which  apply  to  a  great 
laundry  as  if  it  were  a  factory  or  workshop,  e.  g.  sanitation  and  safety, 
but  as  anticipated,  the  extreme  elasticity  of  the  rules  regarding  employ- 
ment has  not  only  made  evasion  easy,  but  has  given  legal  sanction  to  em- 
ployment for  an  excessive  period  on  certain  da}'s  if  other  da\'s  of  the  same 
week  are  correspondingly  short.     (Page  68.) 

In  general,  so  far  as  periods  of  employment,  specified  meal  times,  and 
all  matters  affecting  hours  of  work  are  concerned,  in  any  industry  of 
which  1  have  experience,  the  treatment  of  branches  of  work  as  separate 
factories  or  workshops,  except  with  rigid  enforcement  of  the  guarded 
conditions  laid  down  in  the  order  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  would  consti- 
tute a  serious  innovation  on  the  regulation  of  hours  by  the  Factory  Acts 
which  has  been  so  successful  in  the  past,  and  which  is  still  a  model  for 
other  industrial  countries.  Even  now  reformers  in  France,  after  ex- 
perience of  a  looser  system  of  control  of  such  exceptions  are  striving  for 
the  abolition  of  the  shift  s>'stem  which  has  there  often  made  limitation  of 
hours  for  protected  persons  a  matter  of  theory  rather  than  a  reality. 
(Page  70.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XIV.     1898.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  IVorkshops. 

Nothing  has  been  more  striking  than  the  difficulties  surrounding  the 
law  affecting  laundries.  The  immensely  long  hours,  the  absence  of  any 
conditions  as  to  mealtimes  other  than  that  there  shall  be  at  least  half  an 
hour  in  every  five  hours'  spell,  and  the  extraordinary  manner  in  which 
overtime  is  at  present  worked,  combine  to  make  the  inspection  of  laundries 
more  difficult  and  more  ineffectual  than  in  any  trade  I  have  had  under  my 
notice.     (Page  107.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XI.      1900.     Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  IVorkshops  for  the  Year  1898. 

To  visit  laundries  is  but  disheartening  work  in  most  cases.  The  law 
is  so  elastic  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  see  that  its  provisions  as  to 
hours  are  carried  out.  No  adherence  to  the  stated  period  on  the  abstract 
can  be  insisted  on,  as  a  substituted  period  can  be  worked  on  any  day. 
Over  and  over  again  one  hears  complaints  of  long  hours  and  late  hours  in 
laundries,  and  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  nothing  can  be  done  as  the  legal 
limit  has  not  been  infringed.  A  woman  may  work  from  8  in  the  morning 
till  11.30  at  night  for  three  nights  a  week,  and  for  30  days  in  the  year. 


468  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  provided  she  is  given  an  hour  and  a  half  for  meals  during  that  time.     The 

BRITAIN 

law  allows  her  to  stand  at  a  washtub  for  14  hours  in  one  day,  or  to  stand 
in  the  heated  ironing-room  pressing  heavy  irons  for  that  period.  It  is 
small  wonder  that  accidents  in  laundries  are  not  uncommon  under  such 
circumstances.  In  steam  laundries,  where  machinery  is  being  more  and 
more  used,  it  is  disquieting  to  hear  of  the  frequent  accidents  of  the  tops 
of  fingers  smashed  in  the  rollers  of  the  collar  machines,  and  the  more 
terrible  accidents  caused  by  the  calenders,  where  a  moment's  inattention 
may  result  in  the  loss  of  all  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  .  .  . 

The  want  of  a  definite  short  day  in  laundries  is  a  frequent  cause  of 
complaint.     (Pages  178-179.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.     1901.     Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

The  existence  of  an  exemption  (in  the  fish-curing  trade)  has  rendered 
the  administration  difficult  and  uncertain  in  result.  It  is  noteworthy 
that  in  this  trade,  in  which  overtime  is  permissible  to  women  on  sixty 
occasions  in  the  year,  I  have  never  found  overtirhe  notices  in  use  in  any 
workshop.  The  occupiers  do  not  find  them  necessary.  Starting  with  an 
exemption  for  one  process,  that  of  "gutting,  salting,  and  packing,"  the 
industry  would  seem  to  have  shaken  itself  gradually  free  from  control, 
until  now  we  find  fish  that  have  been  in  salt  for  several  weeks  dealt  with 
as  perishable  articles.  Given  plenty  of  time  and  unsuitable  surroundings, 
every  article  of  food  is  to  some  extent  perishable,  and  when  a  herring  has 
been  kept  in  salt  for  some  weeks  there  is  no  reason  for  working  on  it  at 
night  except  the  reason  that  the  day  will  bring  other  work,  and  in  this 
seems  to  lie  the  cause  of  much  of  the  late  and  irregular  hours  of  the  fish- 
curing  trade.     (Pages  388-389.) 

British  Sessional   Papers.     Vol.    XII.     1903.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  IVorhshops. 

After  six  years'  experience  of  the  efl'ect  of  the  present  regulations,  it  is 
impossible  not  to  feel  greatly  depressed  by  the  result;  the  elasticity  of  the 
law  has  tended  to  encourage  rather  than  check  these  unsettled  hours. 
(Page  174.) 

The  innumerable  loopholes  and  subterfuges  which  it  affords  to  a  sharp 
and  unscrupulous  employer  places  his  more  stupid  or  more  scrupulous 
competitor  at  an  unfair  disadvantage,  which  is  preventable,  and  therefore 


UNIFORMITY    ESSENTIAL   FOR    ENFORCEMENT  469 

should  be  prevented.     The  broad,  clear  limitations,  easily  understood  and   great 

-  •  '  BRITAIN^ 

capable  of  being  exactl\"  and  thoroughly  enforced,  which  apply  to  other 
industries  under  the  Act,  impose  the  same  obligations  and  provide  the 
same  protection  for  all  alike.  This  is  impossible  where  regulations  cannot  be 
properly  enforced  and  can  be  continualh'  evaded  with  success.    (Page  174.) 

Women's   Work.     A.   A.my   Bulley  and  Margaret  Whitley.   Lofidon, 
Metbuen,  1894. 

Evidence  given  before  the  Labour  Commission,  and  furnished  on  many 
occasions  in  the  annual  report  of  the  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories  b\-  Her 
Majesty's  factory  inspectors,  proves  conclusively  that  in  the  first  place 
overtime  is  injurious;  in  the  second  that  it  is  often  totally  unnecessary; 
and,  in  the  third  place,  that  it  is  impossible  to  keep  an  effective  check  on 
the  period  during  which  work  is  performed.     (Page  160.) 

The  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts.     Edited  by  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.     London, 
Richard,  1901. 

To  accede  to  the  demand  for  greater  elasticity  is  to  suppose  a  higher 
code  of  morals  on  the  part  both  of  employers  and  of  employed  than  ex- 
perience justifies,  and  it  would  also  render  necessary  a  far  more  elaborate 
and  irritating  system  of  inspection  than  at  present  exists.  The  efficiency 
of  modern  factory  industry  depends  very  greatly  upon  automatic  working 
— upon  its  standardization  of  conditions;  and  the  existing  factor}'  law 
with  its  inelastic  provisions  is,  in  reality,  a  great  aid  in  maintaining  those 
conditions  of  efficiency.     (Page  93.) 

The  fact  that  exceptions  lead  always  to  illegalities — that  a  permission 
to  work  till  ten  at  night  leads  constantly  to  work  till  one  or  two  in  the 
morning — appears  frequently.     (Page  153.) 

Rapports  sur  I' Application  pendant  I' Annie  1899  des  Lois  {1892-1893),    FRANCE 

reglementant  le  Travail;  par  les  Lnspecteurs  Divisionnaires  du  Travail. 
[Reports  on  the  Working  of  the  {French)  Factory  Laws  of  1892  and 
1893,  in  the  year  1899.    By  the  French  Factory  Inspectors.]    Paris,  1900. 

Inspectors  are  not  armed  to  resist  the  excessive,  even  though  legal 
demands  of  employers,  who,  with  their  repeated  claims  for  exemptions 
which  they  call  temporar\',  succeed  actually  in  freeing  themselves  per- 
manently from  the  obligations  of  the  law,  with  the  result  that  they  bring 
about  and  perpetuate  that  condition  of  partial  unemployment  of  which 
workers  rightly  complain.     (Page  32.) 


470  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

FRANCE  Demands  for  exemption  have  increased  steadily  since  1895,  and,  with 

rare  exceptions,  they  have  not  been  of  that  emergency  nature  which  was 
contemplated  by  the  law.     (Page  32.) 

.  .  .  The  privilege  given  to  employers  to  infringe  temporarily  the 
prohibition  of  night  work  continues  to  be  essentially  delusive,  and  per- 
petuates abuses  which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  reach  or  to  repress. 
(Page  112.) 

It  is  almost  impossible  for  employers  in  those  industries  which  permit 
work  to  go  on  until  11  p.  m.  not  to  break  the  law,  for  it  is  always  in  times 
of  rush  work,  that  the  necessity  for  overtime  arises,  yet  the  workers  have 
been  at  work  since  early  morning.  Evening  overtime  agrees  ill  with  the 
prohibition  of  more  than  12  hours  work,  for,  as  I  have  said,  overtime  is 
always  an  emergency  and  the  women  who  have  already  worked  their  full 
day  do  the  overtime.     Others  are  not  to  be  found.     (Pages  147  and  148.) 

Supervision  is  extremely  difficult,  not  to  say  impossible,  for,  if  the 
inspector  goes  after  9  p.  m.  the  door  is  not  opened.  It  has,  indeed,  only 
been  by  strategy  that  inspectors  have  succeeded  in  proving  violations  of 
the  law,  and  strategy  is  not  compatible  with  the  dignity  of  an  inspecting 
body.     (Page  148.) 

"In  general,  the  personnel  retained  for  overtime  are  the  experienced 
women.  .  .  .  From  the  time  when  the  law  went  into  effect  the  inspectors 
have  never  known  of  a  different  set  of  workers  being  employed  in  the  late 
evening  hours;  it  is  always  the  regular  staff  that  is  burdened  with  this 
supplementary  time."     (Page  195.) 

Control  of  evening  overtime  is  extremely  difficult,  not  to  say  impossible; 
we  must  have  some  effective  means  of  preventing  fraud,  or,  what  is  more 
to  the  point,  of  making  it  impossible  for  the  employers  to  commit  fraud. 
(Page  268.) 

Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  V Industrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im- 
portance et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Night  Work  oj  Women  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  importance  and 
legal  regulation.  Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]  L' Interdiction  du 
Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  V Industrie  Franfaise.  [Prohibition 
of  Night  Work  of  Women  in  Industry  in  France.]  Prof.  P.  Pic,  Uni- 
versity of  Lyon.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

It  is  absolutely  certain  that  legal  exemptions  directly  encourage  fraud. 
M.  Laporte,  division  inspector  in  Paris,  has  said  so  publicly,  and  no  one 
has  contradicted  him.     (Page  210.) 

All  the  annual  reports  of  the  Commission  supSrieure  du  travail  prove 


UNIFORMITY    ESSENTIAL    FOR    ENFORCEMENT  47 1 

that  the  system  of  evening  hours  stands  condemned,  both  by  reason  of  its  francb 
serious  sins  against  hygiene  and  morality  and  the  premium  it  places  upon 
fraud.     It  is  eminently  desirable  that  it  should  be  made  to  disappear  as 
soon  as  possible.     (Page  211.) 

Le  Travail  de  Niiit  des  Femnies  dans  V Industrie.     Rapports  siir  son  im-  SWITZER- 
portance  ei  sa  reglementation  legale.     Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Night  fVork  of  Women  in  Industry.     Reports  on  its  importance  and 
legal  regulation.    Preface  hy  Etienne  Bauer.]     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

The  following,  written  by  Inspector  Schuler  sixteen  years  ago,  is  still 
of  value:  "The  extraordinarily  rapid  weakening  of  resistance  to  a  normal 
working  day,  the  growing  disapproval  of  opposition,  and  the  absence  of 
any  ruinous  results  to  production  in  spite  of  very  grave  apprehensions  in 
this  regard,  justify  our  claim  that  to  grant  frequent  exceptions  for  over- 
time is  almost  equivalent  to  nullifying  the  regulations  of  the  duration  of 
work."     (Page  xxxiii.) 

Schriften  der  Gesellschaft  fiir  Soiiale  Reform,  Heft  7-8.  [Publications  of  GERMANY 
the  Social  Reform  Society,  Nos.  7  and  8.]  Die  Herabset-iing  der  Ar- 
beits^eit  fiir  Frauen  und  die  Erhbhung  des  Schut^alters  fiir  jugendliche 
Arhciter  in  Fabriken.  [The  Reduction  of  Women's  Working  Hotirs  and 
the  Raising  of  the  Legal  Working  Age  for  Young  Factory  Employees.} 
Dr.  August  Pieper  and  Helene  Simon.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

Legal  exemptions  for  overtime  .  .  .  increase  the  difficulties  of  in- 
spection and  offer  not  only  opportunities,  but  temptations  to  disobedience 
to  the  laws,  especially  as  the  inspecting  staff  is  never  large  enough,  the 
fines  for  infraction  are  much  too  small,  and  the  unorganized  workers  are 
usually  ready  partners  in  disregarding  legal  prohibitions.  Thence  arise 
unceasing  complaints  from  factory  inspectors  in  all  countries,  of  illegal 
overtime  carried  on  under  cover  of  the  exemptions  permitted.  (Pages 
283-284.) 

Legal  recognition  of  overtime  offers  a  dangerously  easy  method  of 
evading  the  law.  In  many  cases  the  benefits  of  a  maximum  working  day 
are  completely  nullified  by  exemptions,  and  in  all  cases  the  already  dif- 
ficult task  of  inspection  is  rendered  doubly  difficult.  "No  laws,  perhaps, 
are  so  often  disregarded  as  labor  laws,  and  every  legal  exemption  enhances 
the  difficulty  of  discovering  infractions." 

The  English  government  held  it  to  be  not  only  more  advisable,  but 
also  more  profitable,  to  put  a  stop  to  all  overtime  "except  in  cases  of 
national  emergency."    And  the  English  inspectors  oppose  it   uncondi- 


472 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GERMANY        tionally  on  the  basis  of  their  past  experience.     One  of  them  says:  "Legal 
permission  of  overtime  is  in  my  opinion  a  public  scandal."     (Page  117.) 

Labor  Laws  for  Women  in  Germany.     Dr.  Alice  Salomon.     Published  by 
the  IVomen's  Industrial  Council.     London,  1907. 

Unfortunately,  however,  the  law  provides  for  a  number  of  exceptions 
to  the  above  rules  respecting  the  hours  of  labor,  exceptions  which  render 
adequate  control  difficult  and  greatly  weaken  the  effect  of  the  law.  (Page 
5.) 

F.     Uniformity  Essential  to  Justice  to  Employers 

Few  employers  are  able  to  grant  their  employes  re- 
ductions of  hours,  even  if  they  are  convinced  of  its  advan- 
tages, while  their  competitors  are  under  no  such  obligation. 
The  uniform  requirement  of  limited  working  hours,  there- 
fore, not  only  checks  the  unscrupulous  employer,  but  makes  it 
possible  for  the  enlightened  and  humane  employer  to  shorten 
the  working  day  without  fear  of  underbidding  competitors. 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


GERMANY 


(1)  To  Encourage  the  Best  Employers 

British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  73rd  Meeting.  1903. 
tVomen's  Labour:  Third  Report  of  the  Committee  .  .  .  appointed  to 
investigate  the  Economic  Effect  of  Legislation  Regulating  IVomen's  La- 
bour.    London,  Murray,  1904. 

So  far  as  legislation  has  furthered  the  reduction  of  hours  to  the  period 
of  greatest  output,  it  has  promoted  efficiency;  and  in  many  cases  the  Acts 
have  only  made  generally  compulsory  what  the  firms  with  most  capital 
and  best  management  had  already  practised.     (Page  339.) 

Handworterbuch  der  Staatswissenschaften.  Bd.  /.  [Compendium  of 
Political  Science.  Vol.  /.]  Edited  by  Drs.  J.  Conrad,  Professor  of 
Political  Science  in  Halle;  L.  Elster,  Oher  Reg.  Rath  in  Berlin;  W. 
Lexis,  Professor  of  Law  in  Halle.  Arbeitsieit.  [Hours  of  Work.] 
Dr.  H.  Herkner,  Berlin.     Jena,  Fischer,  1909. 

As  reduction  of  hours,  under  some  circumstances,  is  entirely  in  the 
interests  of  intelligently  managed  enterprises,  it  has  not  been  uncommon 
for  employers  to  establish  a  shorter  day  of  their  own  accord. 


UNIFORMITY    FOR   JUSTICE    TO    COMPETITORS  473 

It  is  doubtful  whether  the  State  would  have  arrived  at  the  restriction  germahy 
of  hours  so  soon,  had  it  not  been  for  the  experiments  of  such  enlightened 
men.  Nevertheless,  it  would  not  do  to  leave  the  whole  domain  of  hours 
entirely  to  the  growing  insight  and  good  intentions  of  employers.  They 
are  not  alwa_\'s  enlightened,  and  furthermore  there  are  many  cases  which 
need  reduced  hours,  but  where  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  employers 
would  think  so.     (Page  1217.) 

Re-bort  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1881.  united 

STATES 

As  a  further  result,  we  have  found  that  a  large  majorit}'  of  the  manu- 
facturers would  prefer  ten  hours  to  any  greater  number,  "if  only  all 
would  agree  to  it."  Repeatedly  has  it  occurred,  when  our  agents  have 
made  known  their  errand,  that  almost  the  first  words  of  the  manufacturer 
would  be,  "It  (ten  hours)  would  be  better  for  manufacturer  and  operative, 
if  it  could  only  be  made  universal";  and  these  words,  alwa\s  spoken  so 
spontaneously  as  to  show  that  they  were  the  expression  of  a  settled  con- 
viction, may  be  fairly  taken  to  express  the  united  wisdom  of  the  manu- 
facturers of  textile  fabrics  in  New  York  and  New  England.     (Page  458.) 

As  one  reason  for  this  it  was  constantly  said,  that,  if  all  worked  but  ten 
hours,  then  it  would  be  the  same  for  all,  and  so  everybody-  would  have 
just  as  fair  a  chance  for  success  under  ten  as  now  under  more  hours. 
(Page  459.) 

Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  80.  January,  1909. 
IVoman  and  Child  iV age-earners  in  Great  Britain.  Victor  S.  Clark, 
Ph.D. 

Two  distinctions  need  to  be  made  at  the  outset — between  the  average 
and  the  abnormal  day  in  all  establishments,  and  between  the  average  and 
the  abnormal  establishment.  For  instance,  in  a  clothing  factory,  the 
average  working  hours  throughout  the  }.'ear  ma_\'  be  54  a  week;  but  during 
the  spring  and  autumn  these  hours,  unless  regulated,  may  rise  to  66  or 
72  a  week.  Likewise,  of  several  boot  and  shoe  factories  a  majority,  and 
those  generally  the  largest  and  best  establishments,  may  have  a  54-hour 
week,  while  a  number  of  small  shops,  ranking  as  factories  under  the  law, 
may  work  their  hands  60  hours  a  week.  Furthermore,  of  a  number  of 
clothing  factories,  several  may  be  able  to  keep  ver_\-  near  the  54-hour  weekly 
average  throughout  the  year,  while  supplying  the  same  trade  and  com- 
peting successfully  with  factories  that  work  short  hours  some  months  in 
the  year  and  excessively  long  hours  the  remaining  months. 

These  time  variations,  as  well  as  the  wage  variations  described  later. 


474 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


UNITED 
STATES 


found  in  competing  industries  in  the  same  vicinity,  indicate  a  margin 
within  which  the  condition  of  workers  might  be  improved  without  in- 
creasing the  maximum  labor  cost  of  production,  so  as  to  raise  the  market 
price  of  the  articles  manufactured.  For  it  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  mills  which  regularly  work  fewer  hours  at  higher  wages  than  estab- 
lishments which  compete  with  them  are  working  at  a  loss.  Indeed,  they 
are  general!}'  making  a  satisfactory  profit.  If  so,  it  follows  that  the  other 
establishments  are  either  making  an  excessive  profit  out  of  their  employees 
or  that  they  are  operating  under  uneconomic  conditions.  If  the  entire  pro- 
ductionof  the  articles  in  question  could  be  centered  in  the  best-organized 
mills,  the  articles  could  be  sold  at  the  same  price,  and  the  workers  enjoy 
the  advantage  of  shorter  hours  and  higher  wages.  So  far  as  legislation  is 
able  to  hasten  the  uniform  application  of  these  superior  conditions  of 
production  in  any  industry,  by  requiring  the  conditions  observed  in  the 
best  mills  to  be  enforced  in  all,  it  is  serving  the  workers  without  taxing 
the  rest  of  the  community,  unless  it  be  a  few  incompetent,  over-grasping, 
or  it  may  be  merely  unfortunate  employers.  English  factory  legislation — 
at  least  the  modern  acts — has  followed  the  principle  of  bringing  average 
conditions  of  emplo\'ment  up  to  the  best  conditions  of  employment  in 
each  industry.     (Page  48.) 


Convention  of  the    National  Women's    Trade    Union    League.      Chicago, 
September,  1908. 

Miss  Mary  Anderson,  of  the  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers  Union: 
I  heard  a  rumor  the  other  day  that  one  of  the  manufacturers  I  know  is 
going  back  to  the  ten-hour  day.  It  is  a  sad  thing,  and  it  is  just  that  kind 
of  a  manufacturer  that  sets  the  pace  for  the  manufacturer  who  wants  to 
do  the  right  thing  by  the  worker.  Some  do  it  of  their  own  accord — only  a 
few,  I  will  say — and  some  have  done  it  through  the  force  of  organization. 
When  a  manufacturer  like  this  goes  back  to  the  ten-hour  day  and  a  lower 
wage,  he  undersells  the  other  manufacturer,  and  the  consequence  is  he  has 
the  bulk  of  the  work.  And  you  see  by  that  we  are  affected  as  well.  It 
is  really  the  competition  which  sets  the  pace.     (Page  35.) 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


(2)  To  Check  the  Backward  Employers 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XX.     1834.     Factories  Inquiry.     Queries 
addressed  by  the  Central  Board  of  Commissioners  to  Manufacturers. 

H.  Houldsworth  and  Sons  (cotton  spinning): — 

A.  26. — It  is  our  opinion  that  the  moving  power  driving  cotton  ma- 


UNIFORMITY    FOR   JUSTICE    TO    COMPETITORS  475 

chinen-  should  be  limited  under  all  circumstances,  to  a  stated  time  dail}',  great 
and  no  lost  time,  from  whatever  cause,  worked  up;  other.vise  an\-  legis- 
lative measure  will  be  as  inoperative  as  the  present  and  previous  Acts 
have  been,  and  any  other  clause  a  new  Act  may  contain  will  not  only  be 
ineflfectual,  but  will  greatly  lessen  the  advantages  which  the  promoters 
intend,  by  affording  the  avaricious  opportunities  of  evasion,  b\-  working 
longer  time  and  thereby  obtaining  an  advantage  over  those  who  are 
anxious  to  conform  to  the  law.     A.  1.     C.Page  134.) 

Robert  Dick  (cotton  spinning) : — • 

A.  26. — We  are  of  opinion  that  all  excess  be\'ond  the  regular  hours  of 
work  is  not  onl_v  a\'oidable,  but  should  be  put  a  stop  to.  D.  1.  (Page 
144.) 

Daniel  M'Laurin  (woolen  mill) : — 

A.  26. — I  consider  it  quite  avoidable  in  all  spinning  factories  be\-ond 
the  regular  hours,  and  conceive  it  would  be  an  advantage  to  the  trade  if 
none  were  permitted,  as  it  gives  unprincipled  masters  an  undue  advantage. 
A.  1.     (Page  163.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXVI.  1847-1848.  Reporis  of  In- 
spectors of  Factories  for  the  half-year  ending  April  30,  1848. 

Justice  requires  that,  when  the  law  interferes  with  the  productive 
power  of  capital,  all  who  are  in  the  restricted  trade  should  be  kept  to  one 
rule  as  to  time;  and  it  was  upon  the  urgent  representation  of  Mill-owners 
that  such  was  notoriously  not  the  case,  that  in  the  amended  Bill  of  1844, 
restrictions  were  proposed  to  check  such  fraudulent  over-working  .  .  . 
declaring  that  the  hours  of  the  work  of  children  and  _\'oung  persons  fand 
women,  by  sec.  32)  in  ever\-  factory  shall  be  reckoned  from  the  time  when 
any  child  or  young  person  shall  first  begin  to  work  in  the  morning  in  such 
factory.     (Page  7.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXII.  1849.  Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories.  Appendix.  Evidence  of  the  Opinions  of  Persons  employed 
in  Factories,  respecting  the  Ten  Hours'  Act,  collected  in  September, 
October  and  November,  1848. 

R.  J.  Saunders,  Inspector: 

Former  reports  from  some  of  m\'  colleagues  and  from  m\-self,  declare 
clearly  the  opinion,  that  nothing  but  one  uniform  set  of  hours  for  all  the 
persons  emplo\-ed  in  the  same  mill,  in  each  of  the  protected  classes,  can 
effectuall}'  guard  such  operatives  from  overwork.     (Page  107.) 


47^  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  The  humane  and  sound  Christian  principles  which  have  governed  the 

BRITAIN 

conduct  of  many  factory  occupiers  and  operatives,  have  been  compara- 
tively valueless  to  them  as  a  body  or  to  the  nation  at  large,  in  consequence 
of  the  prevalence  of  selfish,  sordid  and  sensual  interests,  under  no  control, 
or  only  such  regulations  as  have  acted  generally  to  the  prejudice  of  all 
who  desire  to  obey,  whatever  enactments  may  have  been  framed,  because 
they  are  not  impartially  enforced  on  all.  .  .  .  Whatever  enactments  are 
laid  down,  should  be  as  uniforml\'  and  efficiently  enforced  as  is  possible, 
on  the  2  classes  of  employers  and  employed  to  whatever  extent  each  may 
be  affected  by  them;  and  also — so  far  as  is  possible,  no  provision  should 
be  enacted  which  cannot  be  impartially  enforced,  on  all  engaged  in  similar 
pursuits.     (Pages  113-114.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XVI.     1867.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories. 

With  respect  to  overtime,  competition  in  commerce  is  successful  often 
by  decimal  profits.  If  a  man  has  50,000  spindles,  and  each  spindle  re- 
volves 4000  times  a  minute,  and  at  each  revolution  wraps  round  the  bobbin 
three  and  a  half  inches  of  thread,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  valuable  minutes 
become,  and  what  moral  energ>'  it  must  sometimes  require  on  the  part  of 
the  manufacturer  to  resist  the  winding  on  of  a  few  more  yards.  Thus  the 
power  given  in  the  Bleaching  and  Dyeing  Works  Act  to  make  up  time 
said  to  be  lost,  from  any  cause  whatever,  offers  an  equally  irresistible 
temptation  to  a  bleacher  with  not  a  very  susceptible  conscience,  to  add  to 
the  profit  of  his  day  against  the  conscientious  labour  of  a  neighboring 
bleacher,  who  would  deem  it  a  degradation  to  be  suspected  of  overwork. 
It  also  places  the  conscientious  bleacher  at  a  very  great  disadvantage  with 
his  neighbor  in  the  same  market,  besides  exciting  acrimonious  feelings 
between  them,  weakening  also  the  law,  and  the  power  of  its  administra- 
tors.    (Pages  56-57.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XIV.     1868-1869.     Reports  of  Inspectors 
oj  Factories  for  half-year  ending  October  31,  1868. 

Every  manufacturer  ought  to  feel  perfectly  satisfied  that  the  restric- 
tions upon  the  labour  of  his  "hands"  should  be  neither  more  nor  less  than 
those  upon  his  competitors,  and  he  ought  to  be  cognizant  of  what  his  com- 
petitors are  able  to  do  and  are  doing.     (Pages  15-16.) 

Feeling  that  uniformity  of  working  is  essential  to  a  just  administration 
of  the  law,  I  have  endeavored  to  obtain  this  uniformity  for  all  establish- 


UNIFORMITY    FOR   JUSTICE    TO    COMPETITORS  477 

ments  in  which  the  occupations  are  precisely  the  same  in  establishments   great 
whether  under  the  Factory  Acts  or  under  the  Workshops  Acts.     (Page  ^^"^^^ 
19.) 

Report  of  the  Birmingham  and  District  Trades  Council  upon  the 
Factories  Act  and  the  Workshops  Bill. 

We  are  of  opinion — 2nd,  That  any  measure  for  the  regulation  of  the 
labour  in  factories  should  apply  to  all  equally  irrespective  of  the  number 
employed  therein,  whether  it  be  a  detached  building,  or  part  or  parts  of 
a  dwelling  house  so  occupied.  3rd,  That  all  should  be  subject  to  the  same 
system  of  inspection  and  penalties  for  non-compliance.     (Page  313.) 


British    Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    XXIX-XXX.     1876.     Factories    and 
Workshops  Acts  Commission. 

Vol.  XXIX.     Report. 

Mr.  Redgrave  states:  "I  believe  that  the  difficulty  in  making  (The 
Acts)  uniform  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  circumstances  of  the  different 
trades  vary  very  much, — but  then  all  the  main  features  of  the  restrictions 
could  be  made  very  fairly  uniform  without  injurv  to  the  employers  at 
all." 

Similarly  Mr.  Baker  urges,  in  reference  to  the  present  unequal  condition 
of  the  law,  that  "we  should,  as  far  as  we  possibly  can,  equalize  it  all," 
and  again  to  a  question  as  to  the  reason  for  including  all  trades  under  the 
latest  of  the  Factory  Acts,  he  says,  "the  one  great  evil  is  that  they  work 
different  hours."     (Page  14.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XXI.     1894.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

I  believe,  therefore,  that  although  a  withdrawal  of  the  overtime  ex- 
ception would  meet  with  protest  from  employers  who  have  developed 
its  use  from  an  exception  into  a  principle,  there  are  some  who  would  wel- 
come, and  many  who  would  be  indifferent  to  such  an  amendment;  that 
the  large  class  of  employers  engaged  in  the  textile  and  allied  trades  from 
whom  permission  to  work  overtime  has  been  rigidly  withheld,  would 
greet  as  a  measure  of  justice  its  withdrawal  now  from  trades,  logically 
no  more  entitled  to  the  exception  than  their  own;  and  that  by  the  workers 
its  abolition  would  be  welcomed  with  feelings  of  the  warmest  gratitude. 
(Page  11.) 


478  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.     1901.     Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector 

of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

...  A  lack  of  loyal  adherence  to  reasonable  hours  of  employment 
by  many  laundry  occupiers  increases  the  difficulty  for  those  who  make  the 
attempt  in  real  earnestness.  Many  employers  gladly  welcome  further 
regulation  as  a  means  of  organizing  and  controlling  their  workers.  "What 
is  the  use  of  my  making  the  effort  to  so  organize  my  work  that  the  laundry 
shall  close  at  8  p.  m.  like  other  reasonable  work-places  do,"  said  a  dis- 
heartened employer;  "all  the  neighboring  laundries  are  open  until  nine, 
ten,  or  even  eleven  o'clock,  and  my  women  find  it  suits  their  irregular 
habits  to  go  and  work  in  these  places  after  they  leave  my  premises;  they 
are  then  too  tired  out  to  arrive  at  my  laundry  till  9.30  or  10  next  morning. 
If  we  all  had  to  keep  the  same  rules  and  close  at  the  same  time,  the  law 
would  work  fairly;  as  it  is  I  must  just  scramble  on  with  the  others  in  the 
stupid  expensive  old  way."     (Page  385.) 

A  Shorter  Working  Day.     R.  A.  U adf\eld, of  Hadfield' s Steel  Foundry  Co., 
Sheffield,  and  H.  de  B.  Gibbins,  M.A.     London,  Methuen,  1892. 

Again  the  writer  is  inclined  to  think  that  shorter  hours  would  eventually 
tend  to  more  uniform  output,  and  to  some  extent,  assist  in  modifying  the 
serious  fluctuations  of  business  which  are  baneful  alike  to  master  and  man. 
There  is  nothing  that  an  employer  peruses  with  more  interest  than  his 
order  sheets.  Now,  under  the  present  system,  too  often  there  is  extreme 
high  pressure  at  one  time,  followed  by  a  reversal  which  is  exceedingly 
disastrous  to  all  concerned.  Trade  suddenly  expands,  machinery  is 
wanted  in  haste,  telegrams  fly  to  and  fro,  promises  are  made  which  often 
cannot  be  performed.  If  an  order  of  importance  is  given  probably  penal- 
ties are  specified.  The  manufacturer  is  in  a  state  of  feverish  anxiety  until 
the  matter  is  cleared  off  his  books.  Overtime  must  be  worked,  and  there 
is  high  pressure  all  round.  If  a  uniform  day  existed,  and  overtime  were 
made  more  difficult  all  employers  in  each  particular  branch  being  on  the 
same  footing  would  alike  work  under  the  same  conditions,  and  would  not 
have  the  same  temptations  as  at  present  to  outbid  one  another  and  work 
at  such  high  pressure.     (Pages  116-117.) 

The  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts.     Edited  by  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.     London, 
Richard,  1901. 

Now  and  again  an  employer  complains  of  some  hard  experience,  and 
forgets  that  a  departure  from  rigid  rule  would  destroy  the  certainty  which 


UNIFORMITY    FOR   JUSTICE   TO    COMPETITORS  479 

he  feels  that  the  law  is  treating  him  exactly  as  it  is  his  competitors.     Such   great 

•  •  BRITAIN 

a  feeling  of  security  is  essential  to  business  enterprise.     (Page  93.) 


Massachusetts  House  Documents.     No.  80.     1855.     Report  on  Ten-Hour  J^JSP 
Petition. 

If  the  large  manufacturing  companies  reduce  their  hours  of  labor,  all 
the  smaller  corporations  immediately  follow  their  example.  The  reason 
for  this  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  most  intelligent  portion  of  the  opera- 
tives invariably  seek  employment  at  such  places  as  run  their  machinery 
the  least  number  of  hours;  and  as  the  intelligent  operative  is  the  most 
profitable  to  the  company,  hence  the  fact,  if  the  smaller  corporations  wish 
to  retain  their  good  help,  they  must  conform  to  the  same  rules  adopted  by 
the  larger  ones.     (Page  4.) 


Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission  on  the  Relations  and 
Conditions  of  Capital  and  Labor  Employed  in  Manufactures  and  Gen- 
eral Business.     Vol.  XIV.     1901. 

Testimony  of  Mr.  Thomas  O'Donnell,  Secretary  of  the  Fall  River  Mule 
Spinners'  Association,  and  of  the  National  Spinners'  Association: 

It  is  what  I  might  term  sometimes  the  selfishness  probably  of  some  of 
our  manufacturers  that  would  keep  the  mills  open  at  night.  I  do  not 
think  it  is  the  press  of  orders,  for  this  reason:  In  enlarging  their  plants, 
sometimes  we  have  had  an  instance  of  it  in  this  city  where  a  manufacturer 
made  an  addition  to  his  plant,  and  instead  of  supplying  it  with  machinery 
for  the  various  departments,  he  only  supplied  it  with  machinery  for  one 
department.  The  result  was  that,  in  order  to  get  the  necessary  product 
to  run  that  department,  he  had  to  run  the  other  department  nights. 
Now,  when  he  built  the  addition,  if  he  had  equipped  it  with  the  requisite 
machinery,  he  would  not  have  had  to  do  that.  This  was  one  instance  but 
during  all  the  progress  and  history  of  the  cotton  industry  in  this  city  our 
manufacturers  always  have  got  along  without  working  overtime  to  fill 
their  orders  up  to  2  or  3  years  ago,  and  the  innovation  in  this  matter  by 
this  man  was  the  cause  mostly.  He  was  the  cause  of  the  other  manu- 
facturers wanting  to  do  the  same.  If  he  had  never  done  it,  there  would 
not  have  been  any  other  manufacturer  in  the  city  of  Fall  River  attempting 
it,  and  they  said:  "Stop  him  from  doing  it,  and  we  will  stop  doing  it." 
That  shows  that  they  were  doing  it  for  their  own  protection.  (Pages 
570-571.) 


480  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

G.     Allowance  of  Overtime  an  Unnecessary  Evil:    Opinions 

of  Officials 

The  arguments  in  favor  of  allowing  overtime  in  seasonal 
trades  or  in  cases  of  supposed  emergency  have  gradually 
yielded  to  the  dictates  of  experience  which  show  that  uni- 
formity of  restriction  is  essential  to  the  establishment  of 
a  fixed  and  regular  number  of  working  hours.  The  officials 
who  have  most  closely  observed  the  working  of  laws  limiting 
hours  of  labor  express  their  conviction  that  overtime,  once 
considered  a  necessity,  is  an  unmitigated  evil  and  should  be 
abolished. 

B^MN  British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol  XI V.     1868-1869.     Reports  of  Inspectors 

of  Factories. 

.  .  .  Practical  experience  teaches  us  that  fixed  and  regular  hours  of 
labour  are  beneficial,  not  only  to  the  workman,  but  to  the  employer  also. 
And  not  only  in  the  case  of  time  labour,  but  the  same  rule  will  equally 
•     apply  where  piece-work  is  the  custom.     (Page  313.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XIX.     1873.     Reports  of  Inspectors  of 
Factories  for  the  half-year  ending  31st  October,  1872. 

(In  regard  to  milliners  and  dressmakers)  I  strongly  deprecate  the 
granting  of  "fourteen-hour  permissions,"  which  only  unsettle  the  trade, 
and  are  quite  unnecessary.  Such  hours  are  very  injurious  to  the  girls 
employed.     (Page  134.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol  XVIII.     1889.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

I  have  been  struck  by  the  frequently  expressed  opinion  of  employers 
as  well  as  of  the  employed  that  overtime  is  injurious  alike  to  the  best 
interests  of  both.  I  share  this  view  strongly  myself,  and  as  far  as  my  dis- 
trict is  concerned  am  convinced  that  the  amount  of  overtime  sanctioned 
under  the  Act  is  in  excess  of  the  necessities  of  the  case  and  even  of  the 
desire  of  those  who  have  the  best  claim  for  consideration  on  the  question 
of  overtime.     (Page  96.) 


ALLOWANCE    OF    OVERTLME    UNNECESSARY  48 1 

British    Sessional   Papers.      Vol.    XX.     1890.     Report   of  the   Chief  In-   GREAT 
spedor  of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

Doubtless  public  opinion  has  to  be  gradually  educated  and  good 
reasons  existed  for  the  framing  of  the  "overtime  clauses,"  but  I  earnestly 
trust  that  the  da\'  is  not  far  distant  when  these  clauses  ('except  for  perish- 
able foodj  will  cease  to  exist.  ...  1  fear  that  few  persons  realize  what 
working  overtime  means  and  I  fear  that  the  ver>'  liberal  concessions  made 
too  often  lead  to  abuse.     CPage  28.  j 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXXIV.  1S93.  Retort  of  Royal  Com- 
mission on  Labotir.  Group  C.  Appe'iidix  CXXIX.  Summary  of 
evidence  of  .Mr.  C.  R.  Bo\'.'ling  (Inspector  of  Factories) . 

Finall}",  from  my  point  of  view  then,  I  arrive  at  this  position:  The 
large  amount  of  overtime  sanctioned  b\'  the  .Act  is  not  called  for  by  any 
imperative  necessit}';  that  the  law  in  thus  extending  its  sanction  to  over- 
time is  offering  a  premium  in  man}'  cases  to  the  greedy,  incompetent,  or 
tyrannical  employers  of  labour;  that  the  evils  resulting  from  the  employ- 
ment of  young  persons  and  women,  especially  in  the  case  of  female  >'oung 
persons,  are  admitted  by  all,  and  are  so  manifold  and  serious  that  unless 
it  can  be  uncontestibly  shown  that  b\'  withholding  the  privilege  of  making 
this  overtime  the  loss  to  the  country  v/ould  be  so  great  that  it  would 
justify  the  infliction  of  some  suffering  on  the  few;  the  whole  question 
should  at  once  be  taken  into  consideration.     (Page  725.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XVII.  1893.  Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

I  am  convinced  that  there  is  no  necessity  for  this  overtime;  the  season 
trade  work  or  the  press  of  orders  would  be  executed  just  the  same  if  over- 
time were  illegal  (as  it  is  in  textile  and  many  of  the  non-textile  trades); 
the  work  would  only  be  spread  over  a  longer  period  or  mean  the  employ- 
ment of  more  hands.     (Page  92.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXI.  1894.  Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

It  is  not  necessary,  for  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases  in  so  called  season 

trades,  advantage  is  simpl_\-  taken  of  the  concession  by  certain  firms  to 

monopolize  a  larger  share  of  work  than  they  are  warranted  by  their  plant 

in  undertaking,  or  b\-  customers  in  unnecessarilv  delaving  their  orders 

3'*  ' 


482  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  knowing  that  overtime  will  come  to  their  rescue.     It  is  not  desirable,  for 

BRITAIN 

in  many  cases  (that  of  milliners  and  dressmakers  especially)  the  long  hours 
are  most  prejudicial  to  the  health  of  the  employees.     (Pages  299-300.) 

I  consider  the  present  state  of  the  law  with  regard  to  overtime  as  noth- 
ing short  of  a  public  scandal.     (Page  300.) 

For  my  part  1  have  always  wished  to  see  this  special  (allowing  over- 
time) exception  revoked,  excepting  of  course  as  regards  perishable  articles. 
In  the  first  place  it  seems  to  me  rather  unfair  to  allow  it  to  some  trades  and 
not  to  others,  and  the  very  ones  that  use  it  most,  i.  e.  tailors,  dressmakers, 
etc.,  and  letterpress  printers,  are  those  I  would  take  it  away  from  first,  as 
I  believe  work  to  be  carried  on  under  worse  conditions  in  these  trades 
than  in  any  others,  and  especially  so  in  the  very  large  towns.     (Page  308.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XIX.     1895.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

Except  in  the  case  of  perishable  articles  of  food,  I  fail  to  see  why  so 
much  distinction  should  be  drawn  between  one  class  of  employment  and 
another.  Every  business  and  every  handicraft  is  subject  to  fluctuation, 
and  every  trade  is  occasionally  liable  to  calls  of  exceptional  pressure. 
Yet  the  favour  is  granted  to  those  handicrafts  whose  employees  labour  in 
the  worst  type  of  workshops  and  under  the  most  unfavorable  hygienic 
conditions.  ...  I  am  convinced  if  overtime  were  forbidden  that  the 
average  business  would  suffer  no  loss,  and  what  loss  there  might  be,  would 
fall  upon  the  most  unscrupulous  and  unconscionable  employer.  (Page 
194.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XIX.     1896.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

In  visiting  workshops  my  attention  has  as  formerly  been  much  drawn 
to  it,  and  I  can  only  repeat  again  that  I  consider  overtime  an  evil.  Further 
experience  has  shown  me  that  even  when  extra  work  means  extra  pay, 
overtime  is  felt  to  be  a  hardship  by  most  workers,  and  I  am  confident  that 
much  good  will  result  from  the  reduction  of  the  occasions  on  which  over- 
time may  be  worked  and  also  from  the  prohibition  of  it  for  young  persons. 
(Page  117.) 

"Overtime  is  by  hypothesis  an  exception,  but  the  employers  by  a  re- 
curring demand  for  it  turn  it  into  a  rule."  This  opinion,  based  as  it  is  on 
carefully  compiled  statistics  brings  surely  a  strong  reinforcement  of  the 
opinion  held  here  by  H.  M.  Inspectors  of  Factories,  that  overtime  (apart 


ALLOWANCE    OF   OVERTIME    UNNECESSARY  483 

from  the  treatment  of  perishable  articles)  is  an  unnecessary  evil.     (Page  great 

J  2  7.)  BRITAIN 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII.     1897.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

Overtime  was  materially  curtailed  by  the  1895  Act,  but  the  change 
seems  to  have  caused  little  real  inconvenience.  .  .  .  Mr.  Calder  writes: 
The  change  in  the  overtime  regulations  which  reduced  the  maximum 
number  of  occasions  in  any  twelve  months  from  48  to  30  has  had  a  more 
than  proportionate  effect  upon  the  (overtime)  returns  in  the  district  from 
workshops.  Overtime  in  the  latter  is  practically  confined  to  the  retail 
wearing  apparel  trade  and  in  a  number  of  instances,  the  practice  formerly 
was  to  select  a  day  in  the  middle  of  the  week  for  the  half  holiday,  and  work 
till  10  o'clock  p.  M.  on  48  Saturdays  in  each  year.  Such  systematic  em- 
ployment after  the  ordinary  period  is  now  impossible.  The  limitation  as 
well  of  overtime  working  to  "women"  has  not  affected  the  above  industry 
greatly.     (Pages  39  and  40.) 

(1  am)  much  impressed  by  the  comparative  rarity  of  complaints  as  to 
hours  in  the  larger  laundries  in  the  northern  textile  districts  as  compared 
with  the  South  of  England,  and  a  fresh  illustration  appears  to  be  herein 
aiforded  of  the  widespread  benefits  of  a  rigid  restriction  as  to  periods  of 
employment.  The  hours  of  laundry  workers  in  many  Yorkshire  and 
Lancashire  towns  are,  as  a  rule,  practically  assimilated  to  those  in  the 
textile  factories.  The  women  generally  will  not  work  the  longer  hours; 
managers  inform  me  that  they  could  not  work  up  to  the  60  hours'  limit 
if  they  wished  because  better  conditions  could  be  obtained  by  the  workers 
in  the  mills.  1  except  from  this  statement  such  large  towns  as  Leeds  and 
Manchester  where  not  only  the  size  of  the  town  but  also  the  immense 
variety  of  the  industries  and  their  conditions  prevents  the  influence  of 
the  textile  regulations  from  being  effective.  In  these  towns  instances 
may  be  found  of  irregularities  and  excessive  hours  that  fairly  match  the 
instances  in  London  and  neighborhood  or  in  large  seaside  resorts.  As  all 
the  alleged  practical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  organizing  work  in  laundries 
within  a  prescribed  period  are  the  same  in  the  textile  as  in  the  non-textile 
districts  we  get  in  this  way  a  gauge  of  force  of  the  argument  against  a 
regular  daily  instead  of  the  present  weekly  limit.  It  thus  appears  that 
whatever  reason  may  be  put  forward  against  the  daily  limit,  there  is  at  least 
no  cogent  reason  based  on  the  nature  of  the  work  carried  on  in  laundries. 

All  the  evidence  as  to  the  successful  working  of  laundries  within 
rational  daily  limits  in  the  North  of  England  demonstrates  that  the 


484  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  possible  maximum  14  hour  day  of  the  existing  regulations  is  as  unnecessary 

in  the  interests  of  the  public  and  of  the  employers  as  a  body,  as  it  is  con- 
trary to  the  interests  of  the  workers.     (Page  68.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XI.     1900.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector  of 
Factories  and  Workshops  for  the  year  1899. 

The  prohibition  of  overtime  for  young  persons  imposed  by  section  14 
of  the  Factory  .Kci  1895  has  in  my  opinion  proved  to  be  the  most  beneficial 
clause  of  that  Act.  It  has  moreover  been  carried  out  without  any  serious 
interference  with  trade  and  without  causing  much  difficulty  to  the  In- 
spectors. The  further  restriction  in  the  same  clause  of  the  overtime  em- 
ployment of  women  by  reducing  the  number  of  times  on  which  it  may  be 
worked  in  any  twelve  months  from  48  to  30  was  also  a  step  in  the  right 
direction.  If  overtime  were  abolished  altogether,  except  for  preserving 
perishable  articles,  the  season  trades  would  soon  accommodate  themselves 
to  doing  without  overtime  in  the  same  way  that  the  cotton,  woollen,  linen 
and  silk  manufacturing  trades  have  done,  for  they  also  are  season  trades. 
(Page  140.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.     1901.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector  of 
Factories  and  Workshops. 

I  do  not  retract  my  former  confession  of  faith  that  overtime  for  pro- 
tected persons  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  Factory  Acts,  injurious  to 
the  workers,  and  could  with  advantage  be  abolished  except  for  perishable 
articles.  ...  As  the  textile  trades  can  do  without  it  so  could  other  and 
less  important  trades.  It  unfortunately  happens  that  amongst  those 
trades  in  which  overtime  is  allowed  are  some  of  the  most  sedentary  and 
unhealthy,  such  as  the  making  of  wearing  apparel,  letter  press  printing  and 
bookbinding.     (Pages  157-158.) 

The  opinion  of  the  inspectors  is  almost  universally  in  favor  of  the  total 
abolition  of  overwork  as  now  practiced  and  understood.  It  is  notorious 
that  the  great  weight  of  opinion  among  employers  is  thrown  into  the  same 
scale,  their  only  stipulation  being  that  the  incidence  of  the  law  should  be 
equal.     (Page  338.) 

Factory  Act  Legislation.     The  Cobden  Pri^e  Essay  for  1891.     Victorine 
Jeans.     London,  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  1892. 

A  resume  of  the  work  in  London  during  the  previous  10  years  shows 
that  the  fears  as  to  the  effects  of  the  Acts  on  the  "season  trades"  were 


ALLOWANCE   OF  OVERTIME    UNNECESSARY  485 

unfounded.     "You  have  come  to  ruin  us,"  said  a  large  manufacturer  of  great 

BRITAIN 

artificial  flowers  to  the  inspector  of  1867.  A  year  afterward  he  acknowl- 
edged that  the  Factory  Act  was  a  positive  blessing,  that  he  got  as  much 
work  out  of  his  hands  in  10>^  hours  as  in  12  or  14,  and  that  he  effected  a 
saving  of  £30  on  his  gas-bill  besides.  Another  declared  in  1876  that  he 
"considered  the  alteration  a  great  improvement  both  to  the  men  and  to 
himself,  there  was  a  saving  of  gas,  and  a  clear  gain  of  time  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  workwomen  were  not  so  subject  to  fits,  the  result  of  over-ex- 
haustion."    (Pages  76-77.) 

The  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts.     Edited  by  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.    London, 
Richard,  1901. 

No  one  who  studies  the  actual  working  of  the  Factory  Code  can  doubt 
that  it  will  be  perfected  just  in  the  measure  in  which  all  these  differences 
are  abolished  and  an  equal  adequacy  of  protection  extended  to  all  the 
places  and  all  the  persons  who  work.  The  ideal  is  that  the  regulations  of 
all  places  in  which  manufacturing  work  for  gain  is  carried  on  should  ap- 
proximate as  closely  as  possible  to  those  which  obtain  in  the  most  com- 
pletely guarded  places,  namely,  the  textile  factories  .  .  .  the  textile 
factory  is  cursed  by  no  such  overtime  exception  as  elsewhere  undermines 
the  value  of  the  hours'  limitation. 

The  overtime  exception  is  doomed.  Unless  some  unforeseen  change  in 
our  industrial  conditions  revolutionizes  the  present  order  of  things,  the 
total  abolition  of  overtime  for  women  must  follow  on  that  for  young  per- 
sons, which  was  virtually  accomplished  by  Mr.  Asquith  in  1895.  .  .  . 
The  case  for  abolition  was  as  clearly  proved  as  the  complete  consensus  of 
opinion  on  the  subject  of  those  who  work  under  the  exception  and  those 
who  have  to  enforce  it  could  prove  anything.  The  opinions  of  H.  M. 
Inspectors  of  Factories  and  the  opinions  of  the  organized  women  workers 
were  all  but  unanimous  against  allowing  any  overtime.  These  opinions, 
the  expression  of  which  dates  back  to  the  Royal  Commission  of  1875,  are 
based  on  arguments  which  carry  with  them  conviction  on  many  grounds. 
Over  and  over  again  the  view  is  stated  that  with  better  organization  of  the 
business  the  need  for  overtime  disappears.  Cases  are  quoted  to  prove 
that  many  large  dressmaking  and  millinery  firms  never  avail  themselves 
of  this  exception,  and  the  great  object  lesson  of  the  textile  trade  is  given. 
In  all  textile  factories,  and  in  a  great  many  non-textile  factories,  to  which 
no  exception  has  been  granted,  organization  and  management  quite 
easily  cope  with  the  recurring  season  pressure,  and  the  trade  automatically 
adapts  itself  to  the  law's  requirements.     In  other  non-textile  factories 


486 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


and  workshops,  to  which  the  overtime  exception  has  been  extended,  de- 
mands no  more  urgent  are  met  b}-  the  dehberate  overtaxing  of  the  work- 
ers' health  and  strength.     (Pages  153-156.) 

In  1878,  when  this  industry  (fruit-preserving  (jam-making)  factories) 
was  first  brought  under  inspection,  the  employers  protested  against  any 
regulation  of  the  hours  of  labor,  or  even  of  sanitation,  during  the  jam- 
making  season,  on  the  plea  that  the  fruit  had  to  be  dealt  with  as  it  was 
delivered.  The  House  of  Commons,  instead  of  insisting  that  the  employ- 
ers should  exert  their  brains  so  as  to  cope  with  difficulties  inherent  in 
their  particular  trade,  weakly  accepted  their  plea,  and  exempted  them 
from  the  Common  Rules  enforced  on  other  industries.  What  has  been 
the  result?  The  majority  of  British  jam  factories  at  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century  present,  during  the  summer  months,  scenes  of  over- 
work, overcrowding,  dirt  and  disorder,  hardly  to  be  equalled  by  the  cotton 
mills  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Women  and  young 
girls  are  kept  continuously  at  work  week-days  and  Sundays  alike;  often 
as  much  as  a  hundred  hours  in  the  seven  days;  and  sometimes  for  twenty 
or  even  thirty  hours  at  a  stretch.     (Pages  51-52.) 

...  As  if  on  purpose  to  complete  the  proof  that  these  shortcomings 
are  not  inevitable  in  the  business,  and  are  merely  the  result  of  a  disastrous 
exemption  from  regulation,  we  have  the  fact  that,  here  and  there,  in 
different  parts  of  the  kingdom,  a  few  firms  stand  out  as  preferring  the 
"upward  way";  scientifically  organizing  their  supplies,  providing  cold 
storage,  working  their  operatives  only  normal  hours,  and  seeing  to  it 
that  the  work-places  are  clean  and  healthy.  If  the  "downward  way" 
were  barred  by  law,  as  it  is  in  cotton-spinning,  all  jam-making  firms  would 
long  ago  have  been  forced  into  the  same  course.     (Page  53.) 


CANADA 


Report  of  Inspectors  of  Factories  for  the  Province  of  Ontario,  Canada.   1896. 

I  consider  the  "overtime"  system  should  be  discouraged  in  all  trades, 
even  when  extra  work  means  extra  pay,  and  there  are  some  factories  which 
have  worked  overtime  without  paying  extra. 

Overtime  is  felt  to  be  a  hardship  among  most  workers,  and  it  is  next  to 
impossible  to  define  the  number  of  hours  worked  per  day  when  that  num- 
ber is  being  systematically  exceeded.  It  is  responsible  for  some  of  the 
idleness  or  only  partial  employment  of  a  small  number.  It  fosters  a  spirit 
of  discontent  in  those  who  do  not  get  the  work.  Irregularity  of  employ- 
ment is  its  inevitable  result,  and  I  am  confident  that  much  good  would 
result  from  the  reduction  of  occasions  in  which  overtime  may  be  worked, 
and  also  from  the  prohibition  of  it  for  young  persons.     (Page  22.) 


ALLOWANCE   OF   OVERTIME    UNNECESSARY  487 

Report  of  Inspectors  of  Factories  for  the  Province  of  Ontario,  Canada.    Canada 
1899. 

I  have  been  struck  with  the  frequently  expressed  opinion  of  em- 
ployers, as  well  as  of  employees,  that  overtime  is  injurious  alike  to  the 
best  interests  of  both.  1  share  this  view  very  strongly  myself,  and  am 
convinced  that  the  amount  of  overtime  sanctioned  under  the  Act  is  in 
excess  of  the  necessities,  and  even  of  the  desire  of  those  who  have  the  best 
claim  for  consideration  on  this  question  of  overtime.     (Pages  24-25.) 

New  South  JVales  Legislative  Assembly.     1903.     Report  of  the  Working  of  AUSTRALIA 
the  Factories  and  Shops  Act. 

Every  year's  work  shows  more  plainly  the  urgent  necessity  for  amend- 
ing the  Factories  and  Workshops  Act  of  1896,  in  the  direction  of  giving 
more  defmiteness  to  the  provisions  governing  the  length  of  the  day's  work 
and  the  strict  guarding  of  overtime.     (Page  11.) 

Jahresbericht  der  Grossher^oglich  Badischen  Fabrikinspektion  fiir  das  Jahr  GERMANY 
1904.     [Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  of  Baden,  1904.]     Carlsruhe, 
Thiergarten,  1905. 

Within  the  last  year  the  employers  proposed  to  an  organization  of 
workers  that  .  .  .  the  workmen  should  be  legally  permitted  to  work 
voluntarily  beyond  the  legal  hours.  .  .  .  The  workers  voted  unanimously 
against  the  proposition  and  expressed  themselves  as  fixedly  opposed  to 
"voluntary"  overtime. 

They  preferred  keeping  what  they  had  won.  Permission  for  "vol- 
untary" overtime  would  render  all  labor  legislation  illusory.  For,  as 
opposed  to  the  power  of  employers,  "voluntary  overtime"  would  be  an 
empty  phrase,  and  if  the  employers  wanted  overtime  work,  such  a  con- 
tract would  not  be  worth  the  paper  it  was  written  on.     (Page  47.) 

Berichte  iiber  die  Fabrikinspektion,  1882-1883.     [Reports  of  the  (Swiss)   switzer- 
Factory  Inspectors  for  1882-1883.]     Aarau,  Sauerldnder,  1884. 

Overtime  work  is  no  longer  so  often  regarded  as  a  desirable  thing  as  it 
used  to  be.  I  have  a  long  list  of  statements  by  factory  owners  to  the 
effect  that  active,  industrious  workers,  out  of  consideration  for  their 
health,  are  unwilling  to  work  overtime  except  in  the  most  urgent  emer- 
gencies .  .  .  and  that  after  2  hours'  overtime  the  employees  are  sleepy 
and  indifferent.     One  employer,  who  with  a  specially  lucrative  rush  order. 


LAND 


SWITZER- 
LAND 


488 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 


divided  half  of  the  profit  with  his  workers  in  order  to  induce  them  to 
work  overtime,  found  that  most  of  them  dropped  out  after  four  weeks. 

In  an  important  industrial  center  a  number  of  factory  managers  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  overtime  work  "not  only  was  a  physical  injury 
to  the  workers,  but  also  destroyed  pleasant  relations  between  them  and 
the  employers,  who  were  believed  to  profit  unfairly  by  overtime."  (Pages 
22-23.) 


UNITED 
STATES 


Report  of  New  York  State  Factory  Inspector.     1889. 

In  some  cases  the  privilege  of  working  overtime  has  been  asked  by  the 
employees  themselves,  for  the  stated  reason  that  the  extra  money  earned 
would  purchase  some  necessary  of  life  which  the  money  earned  during 
regular  working  hours  would  not  permit.  However  laudable  this  purpose 
may  be,  I  cannot  agree  with  the  practice  of  crowding  two  days'  work  into 
one,  for  aside  from  its  demoralizing  effects,  both  mentally  and  physically, 
it  is  contrary  to  the  principle  which  is  gaining  strength  in  the  minds  of 
many  people,  that  the  hours  of  labor  should  be  still  further  reduced  to  at 
least  less  than  ten  per  day.     (Page  68.) 

Report  of  the  New  Jersey  Inspector  of  Factories  and  Workshops.     1892. 

The  protection  to  all  women  and  young  persons,  both  male  and  female, 
under  eighteen,  which  this  law  (55-hour  law)  affords  is  unquestionably 
approved  by  public  sentiment.  ...  If,  as  is  undoubtedly  the  case,  it  is 
necessary  to  operate  some  establishments  for  a  longer  time  than  fifty-five 
hours  a  week,  or  for  other  periods  of  time  than  those  mentioned  in  the  act, 
it  certainly  is  not  necessary  that  persons  under  eighteen  years  of  age  and 
females  above  that  age  should  be  employed  in  such  operations,  except 
within  the  periods  limited  thereby.     (Page  13.) 


VI.    THE    REASONABLENESS   OF   THE    CLASSIFI- 
CATIONS IN  THE  ACTS 

The  fact  that  the  Oregon  Act  of  1907  was  confined  in 
its  application  to  mechanical  establishments,  factories,  and 
laundries,  was  held  not  to  be  an  arbitrary  discrimination 
against  the  persons  engaged  in  those  employments.    The 


laundries:   character  of  the  business  489 

experience  of  industrial  communities  shows  clearly  the 
special  need  of  limiting  the  hours  of  labor  of  women  in 
factories  and  workshops,  and  in  many  states  and  countries 
the  prohibition  of  longer  working  hours  is  limited  to  such 
establishments. 

The  specific  inclusion  of  other  occupations  is  not  an  ar- 
bitrary discrimination  against  those  occupations  such  as  the 
telephone  or  telegraph  service,  millinery  or  dressmaking  es- 
tablishments, or  restaurants,  enumerated  in  the  Ohio  Act 
of  1911;  or  mercantile  establishments,  hotels,  restaurants, 
telegraph  or  telephone  service,  or  common  carriers  enumer- 
ated, among  other  places  of  employment,  in  the  Illinois  Act 
of  1911,  The  special  dangers  of  long  hours  in  these  estab- 
lishments, as  they  are  conducted,  present  strong  reasons  for 
providing  a  legal  limitation  of  the  hours  of  work  in  these 
businesses. 

A.     Laundries 

(1)  Present  Character  of  the  Business 

Dangerous  Trades.  Thomas  Oliver,  Medical  Expert  on  Dangerous 
Trades  Committee  of  the  Home  Office.  Chapter  XLVII.  Laundry 
Workers.     London,  Murray,  1902. 

It  is  perhaps  difficult  to  realize  that  the  radical  change  which  has 
everywhere  transformed  industrial  conditions  has  already  affected  this 
occupation  (laundry  work)  also.  .  .  .  When  the  first  washing  machine 
and  ironing  roller  were  applied  to  this  occupation,  alteration  in  the  condi- 
tions became  as  much  a  foregone  conclusion  as  it  did  in  the  case  of  the 
textile  or  the  clothing  manufactures,  when  the  spinning  frame,  the  power 
loom,  or  the  sewing  machine  appeared. 

Meanwhile,  few  industries  afford  at  the  present  time  a  more  interesting 
study.  From  a  simple  home  occupation  it  is  steadily  being  transformed 
by  the  application  of  power-driven  machinery  and  by  the  division  of 
labor  into  a  highly  organized  factory  industry,  in  which  complicated  labor- 
saving  contrivances  of  all  kinds  play  a  prominent  part.     (Pages  661-662.) 

The  manufacture  of  laundry  machinery,  to  which  much  energy  and 
capital  is  devoted,  is  every  year  increasing.     New  and  ingenious  inven- 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


490 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


tions  and  improvements  constantly  appear,  many  of  which  come  from 
America,  whence  a  considerable  amount  of  this  machinery  is  imported. 
(Page  665.) 

This  work  is  not  the  light  and  often  pleasant  occupation  of  sewing  or 
folding.  It  is  not  done  sitting  down.  From  morning  to  night  these 
young  girls  are  constantly  standing;  they  are  generally  tending  machines, 
the  majority  of  which  are  specially  heated,  and  they  work  in  an  atmosphere 
in  which  steam,  which  is  nearly  always  present,  makes  the  high  tempera- 
ture far  more  oppressive  than  would  be  the  case  if  the  air  were  not  thus 
artificially  saturated  to  an  excessive  degree  with  moisture.  Steam  rises 
from  the  calenders  and  various  machines.  It  is  given  off  also  by  the 
damp  clothes,  which  in  many  laundries,  even  large  ones,  hang  drying  or 
airing  overhead  or  on  "horses"  in  the  room.  The  conditions  in  this  re- 
spect are  often  at  least  as  trying  as  in  any  spinning-mill,  and  the  hours 
during  which  the  girls  are  exposed  to  them  very  much  longer.  (Page 
670.) 


UNITED 

STATES 


Colorado.  Third  Biennial  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  1891- 
1892.     Part  II.     Female  IVage-Earners. 

In  some  laundries  the  hours  of  employment  during  the  rush  frequently 
extend  to  eleven  and  twelve  hours  per  day,  although  no  extra  compensa- 
tion is  paid  to  female  employees,  with  but  few  exceptions.  .  .  .  While 
machinery  to  a  large  extent  relieves  her  (the  female  laundry  worker)  of 
much  work,  the  full  strength  of  her  physical  endurance  is  taxed  by  a 
tedious  attention  to  the  duties  assigned  her.     (Page  28.) 

Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  IVage-Earners  in  the  United  States. 
Vol.  XII.  Senate  Document  No.  645.  61st  Congress.  2nd  Session. 
1911. 

Three  hundred  and  fifteen  laundries  were  visited  in  Chicago,  New 
York,  Brooklyn,  and  Philadelphia.  These  laundries  employed  a  total  of 
6417  persons,  5142  or  80.1  per  cent  of  whom  were  women.     (Pages  9-10.) 


HOURS   OF    WORK    IN    LAUNDRIES 

Inquiry  in  regard  to  the  hours  of  labor  in  laundries  was  made  in  all  the 
laundries  visited,  and  a  detailed  study  of  the  hours  of  labor  was  made  in  a 
number  of  representative  laundries  in  Chicago.  A  comparison  of  the 
working  hours  in  all  of  the  laundries  visited  with  those  in  the  Chicago 
laundries,  where  special  inquiry  was  made,  shows  that  practically  the 


laundries:    character  of  the  business  491 

same  conditions  as  to  hours  of  work  prevail  in  all  of  them  with  but  few  united 

STATE)  S 

exceptions.  While  the  weekly  hours  of  work  are  in  but  few  cases  long 
when  compared  with  other  industries,  the  practice  of  extending  the  work- 
ing hours  on  one  or  two  days  of  the  week  is  not  uncommon,  days  of  12, 
13,  or  even  14  hours  being  reported  elsewhere  as  well  as  in  Chicago. 
(Page  15.) 

Thirty-seven  per  cent  of  the  girls  reported  working  longer  hours  than 
those  given  as  normal  by  the  managers  of  the  laundries  in  which  such  girls 
were  employed.  Moreover,  women  not  employed  in  such  laundries  at 
the  time  of  the  interview,  but  formerly  at  work  there,  told  the  agents  of 
the  Bureau  that  there  were  one  or  two  days  nearly  every  week  in  the  year, 
prior  to  the  validation  of  the  Illinois  10-hour  law,  when  the  girls  had  to 
work  more  than  10  and  sometimes  as  many  as  14  hours  a  day  to  get  out 
the  rush  orders.     (Pages  16-17.) 

CHARACTER   OF   THE   WORK    IN    POWER   LAUNDRIES,    BY   OCCUPATIONS 

In  the  motor  laundries  the  nature  of  the  work  performed  by  the  women 
requires  explanation  before  the  importance  of  good  laundry  conditions 
can  be  appreciated.  The  principal  occupations  for  women  are,  in  the 
order  of  the  work,  listing,  marking,  sorting,  hand  washing,  shaking,  man- 
gling, folding,  starching,  machine  ironing,  hand  ironing,  finishing,  mend- 
ing, and  wrapping. 

The  operation  of  washing  machines  is  now  almost  entirely  confined  to 
men.  .  .  . 

Before  the  pieces  are  ready  for  the  ironing  process,  however,  they  must 
be  straightened  out  from  the  tangled  mass  in  which  they  leave  the  ex- 
tractor. They  are  sent  to  the  mangle  floor  and  are  shaken  up  in  an  empty 
wheel  for  the  purpose,  or  are  taken  up  by  girls  who  are  called  shakers, 
who  pick  up  the  pieces  one  by  one,  snap  or  shake  them  violently,  lay  them 
down  in  neat  piles  or  fold  and  lay  them  on  horses  which  are  passed  to  the 
operators  of  the  mangle,  who  stand  on  an  elevated  platform  for  the  feed- 
ing work.  The  younger  girls  are  usually  employed  as  shakers  and  can  do 
the  work  only  when  standing.  The  work  involves  a  steady  use  of  the 
arms  and  more  or  less  stooping  and  reaching,  so  that  many  girls  acquire  a 
constant  motion  of  the  body  as  well  as  of  the  arms.  The  muscles  are 
under  constant  strain  continued  throughout  the  day  in  rooms  where  the 
temperature  is  high  and  the  air  full  of  moisture. 

The  mangle  is  a  huge  piece  of  machinery  consisting  of  a  number  of 
hollow  iron  cylinders  which  revolve.  Steam  pipes  or  electric  wires  lead 
into  the  central  or  larger  cylinder  and  it  is  heated  to  the  required  tempera- 
ture.    The  smaller  rolls  which  are  placed  on  all  sides  of  the  upper  part  of 


492  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  the  central  cylinder  are  wrapped  with  many  folds  of  felt  material.     These 

STATES 

also  are  revolved  by  the  motor  and  heating  power,  and  form  the  touchmg 
surface  through  which  the  goods  pass.  The  work  is  fed  in  at  one  side  of 
the  machine  and  after  getting  the  many  ironings  which  a  course  through  a 
mangle  insures,  comes  out  at  the  other  side  steaming,  but  perfectly  smooth 
and  ready  to  be  folded  and  packed.  The  feeders  on  the  mangle  stand  at 
their  work,  which  does  not  require  much  skill,  and  after  once  learned  is 
not,  save  for  the  constant  standing,  fatiguing. 

The  mangles  are  sometimes  guarded  by  a  large  roll,  which  is  placed 
upon  the  carrier  apron  immediately  in  front  of  the  heated  roll  and  keeps 
the  fingers  from  coming  in  contact  with  the  heat,  or  from  being  crushed  by 
the  heavy  cylinder  rolls.  This  is  a  most  effective  guard.  Another  guard 
consisting  of  a  frame  with  strings  stretching  across  is  sometimes  used. 
Sometimes,  unfortunately,  no  guard  is  used.     (Pages  19-20.) 

The  process  of  starching  is  always  done  by  women.  In  some  laundries 
it  is  still  entirely  a  hand  process,  but  in  others  it  has  been  much  improved 
by  the  introduction  of  machinery.  Though  the  bulk  of  the  work  can  now 
be  done  by  this  improved  method,  a  measure  of  handwork  remains.  In 
hand  starching  the  girls  stand  at  tables  with  the  starch  mixture  in  basins 
before  them.  Each  article  is  stretched  out  and  the  starch  rubbed  into  it. 
Thus,  in  addition  to  the  standing,  the  movements  of  the  arms  and  the 
necessary  strain  on  the  muscles  are  fatiguing,  and  the  continued  exertion 
tends  to  exhaust  the  worker.  If  starching  is  done  in  the  ironing  rooms,  as 
is  frequently  the  case,  the  effects  of  the  heat  and  the  work  are  especially 
severe  during  the  summer  months.  One  forewoman  in  a  large  laundry 
said  that  before  the  starching  was  done  in  a  separate  room  the  girls  em- 
ployed at  this  occupation  suffered  from  the  heat,  were  forced  to  apply  cold 
and  wet  cloths  to  their  heads,  and  sometimes  fainted.  Where  space  is 
ample  a  separate  room  is  provided  and  the  heat  is  less  intense.  (Page 
21.) 

The  heaviest  machines  used  for  ironing  shirts  are  called  body  ironers, 
but  might  be  described  as  small  mangles.  The  main  part  of  the  machine 
consists  of  two  iron  cylinders,  one  of  which  is  heated  from  the  inside  by 
gas,  the  other  covered  with  a  thick  pad  of  felt  and  cotton  cloth.  These 
pads  are  much  thicker  than  those  on  the  machines  for  ironing  collars. 
The  rolls  on  each  machine  stand  apart  until  the  body  of  the  garment  has 
been  adjusted  by  passing  it  over  the  end  of  one  roll  instead  of  putting  it 
in  laterally  as  in  the  case  of  the  large  mangle.  Then  the  operator  presses 
a  lever  with  her  foot.  This  swings  one  roll  into  contact  with  the  other 
and  gives  the  pressure.  The  lever  is  held  down  by  the  foot,  and  this  re- 
quires the  weight  of  the  body,  while  the  hands  direct  the  work. 


laundries:    bad  effect  on  health  493 

The  ordinary  process  of  machine  ironing  requires  the  constant  use  of  united 
the  lever,  which  is  operated  by  the  same  foot  continually.  In  case  certain 
reverse  movements  are  necessary  a  second  lever  operated  by  the  other 
foot  is  used.  The  occupation  of  ironing  is  without  doubt  excessively 
fatiguing  labor.  The  women  can  not  sit  while  doing  the  work.  The 
machines  are  so  arranged  that  the  operators  can  stand  upright  at  their 
work,  but  many  women  are  accustomed  to  sway  the  body  with  every 
motion  of  the  hands  or  feet.  In  some  laundries  the  women  have  wooden 
boxes  to  stand  on,  so  that  in  using  the  foot  lever  they  step  down  upon  it 
instead  of  having  to  step  up  on  the  lever  and  then  force  it  down  with  the 
weight  of  the  body.  This  is  decidedly  easier  and  not  so  trying  on  the 
feet.  The  women  who  use  these  levers  usually  wear  old  soft  shoes  or  no 
shoes  at  all  while  at  work.  There  is  a  great  diiference  in  the  weight  re- 
quired to  operate  the  different  machines  in  use.  The  latest,  most  im- 
proved machines  with  the  reversible  levers  are  much  easier  to  run  than 
the  older  and  heavier  machines.  One  employer,  in  explaining  to  the 
agent  of  the  bureau  the  difference  in  the  weight  required  to  operate  the 
different  machines  in  use,  stated  that  the  old  machines  "would  tear  a 
woman  to  pieces  in  a  few  years  if  constantly  used."  He  was  replacing  the 
old  machines  with  new  and  improved  ones  at  the  time,  but  in  other 
laundries  a  very  large  number  of  the  old  machines  are  still  used.  As 
long  as  they  do  their  work  a  laundryman  hesitates  to  go  to  the  expense  of 
replacing  them  with  new  and  expensive  ones. 

The  machines  radiate  an  excessive  heat,  and  this  combination  of  heat 
and  tiresome  movements  of  arms  and  body  works  great  discomfort  to 
the  operator.  In  addition  to  the  muscular  strain  the  women  must  be 
constantly  on  guard  to  prevent  getting  their  fingers  caught  between  the 
rolls.  An  accident  was  witnessed  where  the  girl  was  talking  to  another 
behind  her  and  carelessly  caught  her  fingers  between  the  cylinders  of  the 
body  ironer,  forgetting  in  her  fright  that  her  foot  was  on  the  lever  which 
produced  the  pressure.  Her  fingers  were  held  long  enough  to  be  severely 
burned.     (Pages  22-24.) 


(2)  Bad  Effect  on  Health 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.     1901.     Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector  great 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

The  whole  work  of  a  laundry  is  done  standing,  and  the  practice  of  so 
apportioning  the  legal  "sixty  hours  a  week"  that  on  three  or  four  days  in 


494 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


the  week  the  women  have  to  work  from  8  a.  m.  to  10  or  11  at  night — a 
practice  which  could  be,  and  where  there  is  proper  organization  often  is, 
rendered  needless — has  its  natural  result  in  the  form  of  disease  to  which 
laundry  workers  are  extremely  liable.  It  is  well  known  that  they  suffer 
much  from  varicose  veins,  and  terrible  ulcers  on  the  legs;  but  the  extra- 
ordinary extent  to  which  they  are  so  afflicted  is,  I  think,  not  generally 
known.  In  many  other  trades  standing  is  a  necessary  condition,  and  it  is 
difficult  to  account  for  the  far  greater  prevalence  of  this  disease  among 
laundry  workers  than  among  others  of  the  same  class  engaged  in  ordinary 
factory  occupations,  except  on  the  ground  of  the  long  and  irregular  hours. 
(Page  383.) 

With  a  view  to  arriving,  if  possible,  at  some  definite  knowledge  of  the 
position  of  laundry  workers  as  compared  with  other  women  of  their  class 
and  situation,  in  regard  to  the  question  of  health,  1  have  this  year  devoted 
some  time  to  inquiring  into  the  subject  in  the  districts  under  my  charge 
and  in  neighbouring  localities.  .  .  .  By  the  kindness  of  the  superintendents 
of  the  two  first  infirmaries  (Islesworth,  and  Wandsworth  and  Clapham)  I 
have  been  able  to  examine  the  carefully  kept  records  of  the  number,  ages, 
occupations,  and  diseases  of  the  patients.  The  following  tables,  compiled 
from  these  records,  speak  for  themselves,  and  afford  some  indication  of  the 
kinds  of  disease  to  which  laundry  workers  appear  to  be  particularly  liable. 
(Pages  383-384.) 


Table  A.     Islesworth  Infirmary 
(Includes  Acton,  Chiswick,  Brentford — A  typical  laundry  district) 


Suffering 

Number 

from 
Ulcers  on 
the  Legs 

Propor- 
tion 

Phthisis 

Propor- 
tion 

1908 

Laundresses 

58 

9 

1  in    6 

6 

1  in  10 

Women,  other  than  laun- 

dresses   

179 

7 

1  in  25 

7 

1  in  25 

1899 

Laundresses 

79 

13 

lin    6 

9 

lin    9 

Women,  other  than  laun- 

dresses   

218 

7 

linSl 

11 

lin  20 

laundries:    bad  effect  on  health 

Table   B.     Wandsworth  and  Clapham   Infirmary 
(Includes  Battersea — another  laundry  district) 


495 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


Num- 

Ulcers 

Pro- 

Rheu- 

Pro- 

Bron- 

Pro- 

Phthi- 

Pro- 

ber 

on  the 
Legs 

portion 

ma- 
tism 

portion 

chitis 

por- 
tion 

sis 

portion 

1899 

Laundresses 

247 

36 

lin    6 

16 

1  in  16 

45 

1  in  5 

21 

lin  11 

Women, 

other   than 

laundresses. 

1171 

50 

1  in  23 

49 

1  in  22 

129 

lin  9 

63 

lin  19 

1900 

Laundresses 

199 

27 

lin    7 

12 

lin  16 

21 

lin  9 

18 

lin  11 

Women, 

other    than 

laundresses. 

1127 

41 

lin  27 

69 

lin  16 

133 

lin  9 

59 

lin  19 

Atfthe  Fulham  and  Hammersmith  Infirmary  about  the  same  proportions 
exist,  but  it  was  not  so  easy  to  collect  accurate  statistics.  .  .  .  The  figures 
supplied  by  the  records  of  the  cases  attended  by  the  Kensington  District 
Nursing  Association  show  a  large  proportion  of  ulcerated  legs  and  of  forms 
of  internal  disease  aggravated  by  standing  for  long  hours.     (Page  384.) 

1  was  struck  by  the  absence  of  any  particular  liability  to  skin  disease 
.  .  .  noticed  .  .  .  some  years  ago,  but  .  .  .  since  almost  disappeared. 
The  immensely  increased  use  of  machinery  in  the  process  of  washing  .  .  . 
may  account  for  this  difference. 

The  constant  exposure  to  steam,  standing  on  wet  floors,  the  great 
heat  in  which  the  work  is  carried  on,  and  the  long  hours  at  exhausting 
work,  amply  explains  the  tendency  to  pulmonary  disease.  The  badly 
arranged  floors  in  large  wash-houses  are  a  constant  source  of  discomfort 
and  probably  of  ill-health  to  the  workers.  ...  It  is  not  uncommon  to 
find  that  the  yellow  and  foul  water  from  a  row  of  tanks  or  washing  ma- 
chines at  one  side  of  a  wash-house  flows  all  across  the  floor  and  over  the 
feet  of  the  workers  before  eventually  reaching  the  drain.     (Page  385.) 

Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United  States,   united 
Vol.  XII.  Senate  Document  No.  645.  61st  Congress.  2nd  Session.  1911. 

EFFECT   OF    LAUNDRY   WORK    UPON    HEALTH     FROM    THE    VIEWPOINT  OF   A 
physician    OF    EXPERIENCE    WITH    LAUNDRY   WORKERS 

In  the  bleaching  processes  to  which  household  linen  is  subjected  in  the 
laundry,  acrid  and  caustic  chemicals  are  employed,  such  as  chloride  of 


496  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  lime,  carbonate  of  soda,  etc.     If  handled  in  a  dry  state  these  cause  intense 

STATES  itching  and  eczematous  eruptions  of  the  skin.     When  vaporized  after 

solution,  or  in  gaseous  form,  they  irritate  the  eyes  and  the  whole  respira- 
tory tract,  occasioning  conjunctivitis  and  giving  rise  to  catarrhal  inflam- 
mation of  the  throat  and  bronchial  tubes. 

Hand  ironers,  using  the  old-fashioned  flatirons,  are  peculiarly  liable  to 
synovitis  of  the  extensor  muscles  of  the  right  fore  arm.  This  inflamma- 
tion impairs  the  motility  of  the  wrist  and  excites  pains  of  a  rheumatic 
character. 

Paraesthesia  of  the  finger  tips  is  a  common  affliction  of  both  hand 
ironers  and  hand  starchers.  Its  symptoms  are  numbness,  tingling,  and 
formication  in  the  fingers  which  often  extend  to  the  arms. 

Many  hand  ironers  bend  over  their  work  and  press  with  their  bodies, 
at  a  point  just  below  the  ensiform  cartilage,  upon  the  handle  of  the  flat- 
iron,  as  carpenters  do  sometimes  against  a  bitstock.  This  is  a  most 
pernicious  practice,  and  may  occasion  gastric  ulcer  and  other  diseases  of 
the  stomach. 

The  operators  of  body  ironers  frequently  suffer  from  displacement  of 
the  left  kidney  (enteroptosis).  The  trouble  is  caused  by  constant  use  of 
the  foot  lever.  Operators  of  these  machines  should  wear  abdominal 
supporters  as  a  preventive  measure. 

A  very  prevalent  deformity  among  washers  and  ironers  is  flatfoot, 
which  results  from  their  continual  standing.  It  occasions  pains  resem- 
bling and  sometimes  mistaken  for  those  of  rheumatism. 

Varicosities  of  the  veins  of  the  lower  extremities  are  common  in  all 
occupations  that  necessitate  a  continual  standing  posture;  hence  washers, 
starchers,  and  ironers  often  have  dilated  veins  which  need  the  support  of 
elastic  stockings. 

In  many  laundries  the  mangle  cylinders  are  not  provided  with  guards  of 
any  description.  As  an  inevitable  consequence  of  this  negligence  hands 
and  fingers  are  burned  or  crushed. 

Though  not  peculiar  to  them,  chlorosis  is  perhaps  the  commonest  ail- 
ment of  laundresses.  And  although  the  data  presented  in  this  series  of 
cases  are  not  sufficiently  full  and  definite  to  afford  the  basis  for  a  positive 
differential  diagnosis,  the  syndrome  of  symptoms  (anemia,  shortness  of 
breath,  debility,  etc.)  in  many  instances  justifies  a  provisional  and  tenta- 
tive conjecture  in  favor  of  the  existence  of  this  afi"ection.  The  condition 
is  due  chiefly  to  unwholesome  environment. 

The  relative  rarity  of  tuberculosis  among  laundry  workers  deserves 
special  study.  For,  though  the  comparative  immunity  to  phthisis  of 
employees  in  this  industry  is  generally  accepted  as  a  fact,  no  investiga- 


laundries:    bad  effect  on  health  497 

tion,  so  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  has  ever  been  undertaken  with  the  view  united 
of  verifying  or  correcting  the  opinion,  or  of  ascertaining  the  cause  of  the   states 

exemption,  if  it  really  exists.     fPages  25-26.) 

Making  Both  Ends  Meet.  The  Income  and  Outlay  of  Neiv  York  IVorking 
Girls.  S.  A.  Clarke  and  Edith  W'yatt.  New  York,  Macmillan, 
1911. 

Although  the  labor  at  the  machines  in  the  laundr_\'  washrooms  is  done 
by  men,  and  all  work  in  laundries  consists  largely  of  machine  tending, 
still  women's  part  in  the  industry  can  be  performed  only  by  unusually 
strong  women.  Its  severity  may  be  indicated  by  an  account  of  the  work  a 
machine  ironer  in  Illinois  regularly  performed  before  the  passage  of  the 
Illinois  Ten-Hour  Law.  Miss  Radway  used  to  iron  five  hundred  shirt 
bosoms  a  day.  Holding  the  loose  part  of  the  shirt  up  above  her  head  to 
prevent  the  muslin  from  being  caught  in  the  iron,  she  pressed  the  bosom 
in  a  machine  manipulated  by  three  heavy  treads — by  bearing  all  of  her 
weight  on  her  right  foot  stamping  down  on  a  pedal  to  the  right;  then  by 
bearing  all  her  weight  on  her  left  foot,  stamping  down  a  pedal  to  the  left; 
then  by  pressing  down  both  pedals  with  a  jump.  To  iron  five  hundred 
shirt  bosoms  required  three  thousand  treads  a  day.     (Pages  179-180.) 

1  found  some  steam  laundries  in  which  no  work  at  all  is  done  on  Monday 
or  Saturday,  but  in  the  busy  season  the  place  keeps  running  regularl}'  on 
the  other  four  days  from  seven  in  the  morning  till  half  past  eleven  and 
twelve  at  night.     (Page  190.) 

After  standing  ten  or  twelve  hours,  there  are  few  whose  feet  or  backs  do 
not  ache.  The  effect  on  the  feet  is  perhaps  the  chief  ground  of  complaint. 
Some  merely  wear  rags  about  their  feet,  others  put  on  old  shoes  or  slippers, 
which  they  slit  up  in  front  and  at  the  sides.  The  girls  who  press  skirts 
by  machine  and  those  who  do  the  body  ironing  have  to  press  down  on 
pedals  in  order  to  accomplish  their  tasks,  and  find  this,  as  a  rule,  harder 
than  standing  still.     (Page  192.) 

The  low  wages  and  long  hours  of  the  great  majority  of  the  women 
workers,  the  gradual  breaking  and  loss  of  the  normal  health  of  many  lives 
through  under-nourishment  and  physical  strain,  are,  in  my  judgment, 
the  most  serious  dangers  in  the  laundries.  The  loss  of  a  finger,  the  maim- 
ing of  a  hand,  even  the  mutilation  of  the  poor  girl  who  lost  the  use  of  both 
of  her  hands — the  occasional  casualties  for  a  few  girls  in  the  laundries — 
are,  though  so  much  more  salient,  far  less  grave  than  the  exhaustion  and 
underpavment  of  the  many.     (Pages  196-197.) 

32* 


498  fatigue  and  efficiency 

(3)  Bad  Effect  on  Safety 

GREAT  British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.     1904.     Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector 

BRITAIN  ^j  Factories  and  IVorkshops. 

The  comparative  immunity  from  accidents  in  the  laundries  in  the  West 
Riding  of  Yorkshire  may  be  possibly  due  in  some  measure  to  the  moderate 
hours  of  employment.     (Page  210.) 

The  incidents  of  accidents  according  to  time  of  day  is  somewhat  sur- 
prising, the  most  dangerous  hours  apparently  being  11  a.  m.  to  12  noon 
and  4  to  6  p.  M.  .  .  .  Probably  11  a.  m.  to  12  noon  is  more  generally  than 
any  other  time  the  last  tiring  hour  of  a  five  hours'  spell;  4-6  p.  M.  covers 
the  time  when  most  generall}'  the  transition  from  daylight  to  artificial 
light  takes  place.     (Page  211.) 

Reference  was  also  made  (in  the  Thirteenth  International  Congress  of 
Hygiene),  although  figures  were  not  adduced,  to  the  alleged  increase  in 
the  number  of  accidents  which  occur  late  in  the  working  day  when  the 
effect  of  intellectual  and  physical  fatigue  have  made  themselves  apparent. 
(Page  298.) 


(4)  Bad  Effect  on  Morals 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  X.     1901.     Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

One  of  the  most  unsatisfactory  results  of  the  present  system  or  lack 
of  system  of  working  hours  in  laundries  is  the  unfortunate  moral  effect 
on  the  women  and  girls  of  this  irregularity.  The  difficulty  of  securing 
steady  regular  work  from  employees  and  of  insuring  punctual  attendance 
is  complained  of  on  all  sides,  and  the  more  intelligent  employers  are  be- 
ginning to  see  that  this  is  the  natural  result  of  the  irregularity  in  working 
hours,  which  is  still  too  readily  fostered  by  many  who  do  not  realize  its 
mischievous  effect.  Women  who  are  employed  at  arduous  work  till  far 
into  the  night  are  not  likely  to  be  early  risers  nor  given  to  punctual  at- 
tendance in  the  mornings,  and  workers  who  on  one  or  two  days  in  the 
week  are  dismissed  to  idleness  or  to  other  occupations,  while  on  the  re- 
maining days  they  are  expected  to  work  for  abnormally  long  hours,  are 
not  rendered  methodical,  industrious,  or  dependable  workers  by  such  an 
unsatisfactory  training.  The  self-control  and  good  habits  engendered  by 
a  regular  and  definite  period  of  moderate  daily  employment,  which  affords 
an  excellent  training  for  the  young  worker  in  all  organized  industries,  is 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS  499 

sadly  lacking,  and,  instead,  one  finds  periods  of  violent  over-work  alter-  great 
nating  with  hours  of  exhaustion.     The  result  is  the  establishment  of  a  ^^'^^^ 
kind  of  "vicious  circle";  bad  habits  among  workers  make  compliance  by 
their  employers  with  any  regulation  as  to  hours  very  diificult.     (Page  385.) 

Dangerous  Trades.     Thomas  Oliver,  M.D.,  Medical  Expert  on  Dangerous 
Trades  Committee  of  the  Home  Office.     London,  John  Murray,  1902. 

The  ten  minutes  or  quarter-hour  "lunch"  of  "beer"  is  common,  and 
the  "beer-man"  who  goes  his  rounds  at  10  a.  m.  and  6  or  7  p.  m.  to  all 
the  laundries,  delivering  his  cans  of  beer  from  the  nearest  public  house,  is 
an  institution  which  is,  I  believe,  unknown  in  any  other  trade.  Imagine 
the  amazement  of  the  master  of  a  mill  or  weaving  factory  if  his  employees 
were  to  stop  in  a  body  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  twice  a  day  between  meals 
to  drink  beer!  Yet  in  many  laundries  the  beer  is  kept  on  the  premises  for 
the  purpose,  and  it  is  certain  that  as  long  as  time  thus  wasted  (to  put  it 
on  the  lowest  grounds)  can  be  made  up  by  each  separate  woman  "working 
it  out"  at  the  end  of  the  day,  irregular  dawdling  and  intemperate  habits 
will  be  encouraged.  On  the  other  hand,  a  woman  who  is  expected  on 
Thursdays  or  Fridays  to  be  in  the  laundry  from  8  or  8.30  in  the  morning 
till  9  or  10  or  11  at  night  may  claim  with  some  show  of  reason  that  only  by 
some  kind  of  spur  can  she  keep  her  over-tired  body  from  flagging.  (Page 
672.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.    XII.     1903.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

The  work  of  endeavouring  to  administer  the  regulation  as  to  period  of 
employment  in  (laundries)  is  extremely  disheartening.  When  work  is 
carried  on  in  spurts,  the  shamefully  long  hours,  straining  endurance  to  the 
utmost,  alternating  with  days  of  idleness,  the  worker  cannot  be  expected 
to  develop  any  qualities  but  those  of  the  casual  labourer.     (Page  174.) 


B.     Mercantile  Establishments 

(1)  Hours  of  Labor  in  Illinois  Mercantile  Establishments* 

Oificial  government  investigations  show  that  without  a 
legal  limitation  of  hours,  the  daily  hours  of  labor  in  Chicago 

*  This  section  was  part  of  the  Brief  in  defense  of  the  Illinois  Act  of  1911; 
hence  the  hours  of  labor  in  Illinois  are  quoted.  They  are  typical  of  all  large  cities, 
as  well  as  of  Chicago. 


500  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

mercantile  establishments  were  in  many  cases  so  long  as  to 
be  dangerous  to  the  health  of  the  girls  and  women  employed 
therein. 

(a)  Before  the  ten-hour  law  was  extended  to  include  mercan- 
tile establishments,  the  day's  work  often  exceeded  ten  hours. 

UNITED  Report  on  Condition  of  IVoman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United 

STATES  States.     Vol.  V.     Senate  Docutnent  No.  645.     61st  Congress.     2d  Ses- 

sion.    1910. 

All  of  the  fifty-four  women  employes  in  Chicago  mercantile  establish- 
ments interviewed  on  the  subject  of  overtime,  reported  their  longest 
days  as  more  than  ten  hours.  Twenty-nine  reported  the  longest  day  as 
more  than  twelve,  and  the  average  for  the  fifty-four  was  12.8  hours,  with 
a  range  of  11^  to  fifteen  hours.  The  normal  hours  per  week  for  the  fifty- 
four  women  averaged  approximately  53.8,  and  their  normal  earnings 
$7.51  a  week.  The  average  age  was  26.7  years.  Twenty-nine  of  fifty- 
four  women  reported  overtime  work  during  the  year,  exclusive  of  De- 
cember, 1907,  for  2.4  hours  on  an  average  of  3.7  days  for  each  week  during 
an  average  period  of  thirty-four  weeks.     (Page  209.) 

The  indications  are  strong  enough  to  warrant  the  conclusion  that  over- 
time runs  to  dangerous  limits  in  mercantile  establishments  in  the  absence 
of  restrictive  laws  setting  definitely  a  limit  to  the  hours  of  labor  per  day 
and  per  week.     (Page  215.) 

Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor.     No.  91.     November,  1910.     Work- 
ing Hours  of  Wage-Earning  Women  in  Chicago. 

The  hours  of  work  here  recorded  are  for  women  working  in  the  neigh- 
borhood department  and  small  retail  dry-goods  stores  of  Chicago.  Such 
stores  are  located  in  districts  several  miles  to  the  south,  west,  and  north 
of  the  large  department  stores  on  State  street.     (Page  891.) 

Basing  the  estimate  on  the  number  of  women  employed  in  the  estab- 
lishments covered  by  this  report  and  the  number  of  listed  firms  of  similar 
character  and  size,  there  are  approximately  10,000  saleswomen  in  the 
neighborhood  department  and  retail  dry-goods  stores  of  Chicago.  In 
other  words,  about  two-fifths  of  Chicago's  retail-store  women  work  under 
conditions  differing  materially  from  the  conditions  surrounding  the  15,000 
women  employed  in  the  downtown  department  stores. 

The  normal  hours  of  work  per  day  and  per  week  and  the  hours  during 
the  busy  season  in  each  of  the  eleven  stores  included  in  the  investigation 
are  shown  in  the  following  table: 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS 


501 


<  i         .— I 


z 
0 

to 
< 

a 

C/D 

>• 
in 

D 
CQ 

Number 
of  Hours 
Day 
before 
Christ- 
mas 

CO  <M  ■*  <>1  CO  ts  fO  fS  tN  r^  -H 

Number 
of  Hours 
First 
Week 
before 
Christ- 
mas 

r^  r^  oc  0  0  0  r^  t~  t~  t~  0 

Number 
of  Hours 

Second 
Week 
before 

Christ- 
mas 

Dura- 
tion 
in 
Weeks 

CS '-I  <M 'H  C^  0  <N  CS  f<!  CS '-I 

Normal  Hours  for  Women  16  Years  and  Over 

Total 

Hours 

per 

Week 

,0    U    «         ''— ,-=! 

0: 

■rt  ^  cs  cs  uo -^  — <  es '-f  r|j  ^   1     ' 

■il- 

1 
00  a\  cs  a>  00  00  00  00  00  0\  o\       I      | 

i 

5^  ?s 

O  »-^  ^  ^  CN  O  O  O  O  ^ -^ 

Wed- 
nes- 
day 

cccNCNCs'-^ococscooo.c^;     • 

Tues- 
day 

00O\O*O\'-i00  O  O  O  O  C\    i      • 

Mon- 
day 

t 

•        1 
1 

Sun- 
day 

2*3 '^  i"*^  !  !  ;  :  I 

I      ■ 

Number  of 
Women  Employed 

Total 

OOC\O^D^COO\ClCrC'C 
»-l                                 I— 1 

1 

Under 

16 
Years 

C"'*      •      •      •      •  CC  O        X, 

i 

1         1 

16 
Years 
and 
Over 

00  I/-,  O  i/^.  O  O  CS  O  LC  "^  ^£ 

1        ! 
■  o 

Establish- 
ment 
Number 

cs 

rr 

•* 

u- 

^ 

t-- 

cc 

,o 

-      UNITED 
«;      STATES 


c 
'c 

> 

-a 

c 


tJ 


rt   ■ 
CD 

-C    C 


« 


c   "   g 
O   ■"    >=• 

<U    rt    « 


O 


D.: 


CA 


-d       ^ 


'J  "c  P 


O     O  '- 

c  J2  w 

Vi  — 

^  5J  - 


C    BC 


'X  ^  -J 


4>    0^3 

1)  ^  p        i"       — 

W5  ~     —     C     '-*     '^     "" 


>,  5 


~   o 
:5  >. 


'J^  ^i:- 


'^  o  (-   >   ~-^' 

c  j:  3  iJ "—  >- 

p  ^  -c  >-      ■£  c 

«  C  rt  2  o  >  ^  U 

e   rt   *^-*-'   ^^C   C'— 
S^  a.^  -J2  '^  >, 


=  3  ^ 


<A 

•■« 

^ 

^ 

il 

.ii 

>1  = 

0 

? 

p 

-*— 

L- 

'-J 

w; 

c 

0 

15 

c 

■^ 

> 

rt 

502  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  The  total  number  of  women  16  years  of  age  and  over  employed  in  the 

STATES 

eleven  representative  neighborhood  stores  covered  by  the  investigation 
was  618,  or  approximately  6  per  cent  of  the  adult  women  employes  in  the 
neighborhood  department  and  other  retail  stores  of  Chicago.  (Pages 
892-893.) 

Of  these  618,  100,  or  about  16  per  cent,  were  personally  interviewed 
on  the  subject  of  working  hours  during  the  level  of  business  of  1909  and 
1910  and  during  the  rush  periods  of  1909.  They  are  all  women  who  have 
been  working  in  stores  at  least  since  the  early  part  of  1909,  and  could, 
therefore,  give  information  for  that  year.  Many  of  them  are  women  of 
long  experience  in  the  business,  who  began  working  at  the  age  of  14  or 
even  younger. 

The  neighborhood  department  store  may  be  called  a  modern  depart- 
ment store  on  a  small  scale  or  a  large  old-fashioned  general  merchandise 
store.  It  supplies  every  want  of  the  families  in  the  neighborhood  from 
groceries  and  furniture  to  evening  dresses  and  tailor-made  suits.  (Page 
893.) 

The  normal  hours  as  given  in  the  tabulation  for  the  establishments  are 
strictly  true  for  four  of  the  stores.  For  the  other  seven  stores  the  hours 
as  reported  are  only  approximately  correct,  as  the  individual  employes 
interviewed  reported  longer  hours  in  almost  every  case.  This  is  explained 
by  the  fact  that  on  the  nights  when  the  stores  remain  open  the  doors  are 
open  until  the  last  customer  has  gone,  even  though  this  may  be  some 
time  after  the  nominal  closing  hour.  Thus  in  one  store  that  was  sup- 
posed to  close  at  9.00  p.  m.  on  Thursday  night  no  one  ever  got  away 
before  9.05  and  many  could  not  leave  before  9.30  p.  m.  The  Saturday 
night  closing  hour  is  very  elastic.  Some  stores  that  are  supposed  to 
close  at  10.00  p.  m.  are  open  any  time  from  10.30  p.  m.  to  11.00  p.  m.  and 
even  later. 

In  the  case  of  establishment  No.  6,  the  manager  reported  the  hours  as 
given,  saying  the  girls  did  not  go  to  work  until  9.00  a.  m.  and  did  not 
work  on  Tuesday,  Wednesday,  and  Friday  evenings.  Later  this  store 
was  visited  on  evenings  when  it  was  reported  as  closed,  and  not  only  was 
the  store  open,  but  the  very  girls  who  said  they  did  not  work  on  the  even- 
ings named  were  found  selling  goods.  They  were  also  seen  going  to  work 
at  8.00  A.  M.  instead  of  9.00  a.  m.  It  was  not  possible  to  talk  to  the  girls 
alone,  for  the  manager  followed  the  agent  around  whenever  such  an 
attempt  was  made.  Thus,  sixty-seven  hours  a  week  would  be  more 
truthful  than  fifty-five  hours.  The  latter  probably  shows  more  nearly 
what  could  be  done  to  shorten  hours  than  what  is  done.     (Page  895.) 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS  503 

(b)  The  longest  hours  prevailed  during  the  Christmas 
rush  precisely  when  the  work  was  most  severe  and  exhausting. 

Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor.     No.  91.     November,  1910,     Work-  united 

•  STATES 

ing  Hours  of  Wage-Earning  Women  in  Chicago. 

However,  in  spite  of  the  strain  of  long  hours  on  half  of  the  days  of  the 
year,  the  greatest  strain  occurs  during  the  stores'  busy  season  in  December. 
This  lasts  from  one  to  two  weeks  before  Christmas  each  year — in  the 
largest  number  of  stores  two  full  weeks  before  Christmas  Day.  The  only 
exception  to  this  rule  was  the  ten  weeks  reported  by  a  cloak  and  suit 
store  (establishment  No.  6).  Four  of  these  ten  weeks  were  before  Christ- 
mas and  six  before  Easter.  During  the  holiday  busy  season  the  stores 
remain  open  every  night  in  the  week  from  9.00  to  11.00  o'clock,  depending 
on  the  customers.  On  Christmas  Eve  the  closing  hour  was  even  later. 
The  hours  reported  by  the  managers  for  these  two  weeks  are  very  conserva- 
tive statements  of  the  case.  They  may  have  desired  to  close  at  the  time 
they  reported,  but  the  doors  were  not  closed  or  the  lights  turned  out,  and 
the  saleswomen  had  to  remain  and  serve  customers  until  9.30,  10.00,  and 
10.30  every  evening  the  first  week,  and  until  10.00,  10.30,  11.00,  11.30, 
12.00,  and  even  1.00  o'clock  every  evening  the  week  before  Christmas. 
Some  could  leave  earlier  than  others,  for  whenever  business  ceased  in  a 
department  the  girls  were  allowed  to  go.  A  study  of  the  hours  reported 
by  individuals  will  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  strain  of  those  two  weeks.  Thus, 
thirty-two  out  of  the  100,  or  almost  one-third  of  the  individuals,  reported 
eighty  hours  or  more  for  the  week  before  Christmas.  Only  one  of  the 
thirty-two  had  worked  less  than  seventy-two  and  one-half  hours  the  week 
before  that.  One  saleswoman  at  a  bargain  table  reported  seventy-six 
and  one-half  hours  the  second  week  before  Christmas  and  eighty-six  and 
one-half  hours  the  week  before.  The  culmination  of  the  strain  ended 
Christmas  Eve  with  a  thirteen-hour  day.  None  of  these  girls  worked  less 
than  thirteen  hours  the  day  before  Christmas  and  one  reported  working 
fourteen  and  three-fourths  hours.  Fifty-six  more  of  these  saleswomen, 
or  eighty-eight  out  of  the  100,  worked  more  than  seventy  hours  the  week 
before  Christmas,  and  only  twenty-two  of  these  had  less  than  seventy 
hours  the  week  before  that.  Out  of  the  100,  twelve  reported  working 
only  between  sixty  and  seventy  hours  these  two  weeks.  Of  the  100, 
twenty  girls  worked  fourteen  hours  or  more  the  day  before  Christmas, 
thirty-nine  more,  or  fifty-nine  out  of  the  100,  worked  thirteen  hours  or 
more  the  day  before  Christmas.  Only  five  worked  less  than  twelve  hours 
on  this  day,  and  two  of  these  were  in  a  store  owned  by  Hebrews  who  closed 


504  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  at  5.00  o'clock  on  Friday,  since  Christmas  happened  to  fall  on  Saturday  in 

STATES  jc)09.     (Pages  896-897.) 


Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United 
States.  Vol.  V.  Chap.  V.  Wage-Earning  Women  in  Chicago.* 
Senate  Document  No.  645.     61st  Congress.     2d  Session.     1910. 

In  addition  to  the  regular  hours  of  work,  nearly  all  women  are  required 
to  do  "overtime  work"  in  bus\'  seasons,  such  as  Christmas,  before  special 
sales  in  their  departments,  and  when  inventory  is  taken.  A  woman  in 
charge  of  the  section  may  have  to  remain  frequently  after  the  store  is 
closed.  .  .  .  In  60  per  cent  of  the  cases,  however,  the  "overtime  work" 
is  done  within  a  period  of  from  one  to  three  weeks  before  Christmas. 
Some  of  the  stores  are  open  every  night  (except  Sunday  night)  from  ten 
days  to  two  weeks  before  the  holidays.  In  these  stores  the  girls  generally 
work  at  night  for  a  week  to  prepare  for  the  rush.  In  cases  where  the  girls 
remain  until  10.30  p.  m.,  11.00  p.  m.,  or  midnight,  an  eflFort  is  sometimes 
made  to  relieve  the  strain  by  allowing  them  to  report  from  one-half  hour 
to  one  and  one-half  hours  late  the  next  day.  This  does  not  alwa>'s  hap- 
pen, however.  Even  in  the  stores  that  are  closed  to  patrons  after  5.30 
p.  M.  the  girls  do  overtime  work  at  this  season.     (Page  110.) 

Ihid.     Chap.  XI.     Overtime  and  Nighiwork  of  Wage-Earning  Women. 

Forty-six  of  the  fift\-four  women  emplo\'es  in  Chicago  mercantile 
establishments  worked  overtime  in  December,  1907,  for  an  average  of 
11.2  days  before  Christmas;  five  of  them  received  definite  compensation, 
averaging  $3.20  each  for  the  11.2  days;  ten  were  paid  a  commission  on 
all  December  sales  as  compensation  for  overtime;  twelve  were  given  supper 
or  supper  money  only;  and  nineteen  received  nothing  at  all  for  the  Christ- 
mas overtime  work. 

As  has  been  said,  nothing  in  this  condition  was  illegal  in  Illinois  at 
the  time  of  this  investigation.     (Page  210.) 

In  general,  it  can  be  said  that  long  hours  for  women  are  rarely  found 
under  more  unfavorable  conditions  than  in  stores  that  keep  open  evenings 
during  the  holiday  season  and,  to  a  less  degree,  in  the  stores  keeping  open 
Saturday  nights.     (Page  214.) 

*  Number  of  women  included  in  investigation  of  department  and  other  retail 
stores,  339. 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS    AND    FACTORIES  5O5 

Report  of  the  Consumers'  League  of  the  City  of  New  York  for  the  Year  1908.   united 

STATKS 

The  most  important  work  of  the  Committee  on  Investigation  has  been 
its  attempt  to  cope  with  the  evil  of  excessive  overtime  work  during  the 
season  preceding  Christmas,  when  the  daily  strain  put  upon  employes  is 
greatest. 

As  the  claim  has  often  been  made  that  evening  opening  was  necessitated 
by  the  demand  of  busy  working  people  who  could  not  buy  in  the  day- 
time, it  was  decided  to  make  this  year  a  more  expanded  investigation 
of  the  evening  conditions.  .  .  .  Three  hundred  such  investigations  were 
made,  and,  as  the  weather  was  fine,  it  gave  a  full  impression  of  the 
"demand." 

Testimony  was  unanimous  that  on  the  first  open  evening  there  were 
no  crowds  in  the  stores,  and  that  on  the  evening  when  the  stores  were 
crowded  a  very  large  proportion  of  persons  were  not  buying.  .  .  .  When 
it  is  realized  that  this  extra  time  in  the  evening  follows  the  most  congested 
time  of  the  year's  selling,  and  that  the  special  sales  begin  on  December 
26th,  allowing  no  let-up  in  the  strain,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  health  of 
employes  is  unwarrantably  jeopardized.     (Page  30.) 


(2)  Nature  of  the  Work:  Comparison  with  Factory  Work 

The  nature  of  the  work  in  mercantile  establishments  is 
comparable  to  work  in  factories,  and  the  strain  of  the  employ- 
ment is  analogous  to  the  strain  of  factory  work.  The  long 
hours  of  standing  behind  the  counter  and  the  bad  air  common 
to  most  stores,  are  the  worst  physical  hardships.  The  strain 
of  machine  work  in  factories  is  replaced  in  stores  by  the 
strain  of  constant  intercourse  with  customers,  together  with 
the  effort  to  keep  up  the  amount  of  her  sales,  upon  which 
the  salesgirl's  tenure  of  work  usually  depends. 

The  legal  prohibition  of  excessive  working  hours  is  there- 
fore as  necessary  for  women  employed  in  stores  as  for  women 
employed  in  factories,  and  the  benefits  which  have  been 
secured  for  the  former  may  reasonably  be  expected  to  accrue 
also  from  the  prohibition  of  more  than  ten  hours'  work  in  one 
day  in  mercantile  establishments. 


506  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  Report  on  Cofidition  of  tVoman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United  States. 

Vol.   V.     Senate   Document   No.  645.     61st   Congress.     2d   Session. 
1910. 

A  saleswoman  is  in  constant  contact  with  people,  obliged  to  please  not 
only  the  customer,  but  the  buyer,  the  assistant  buyer,  and  the  floor- 
walkers. As  a  buyer,  she  must  give  closest  attention  to  details  as  well 
as  to  the  matter  of  general  supervision.  All  these  causes  may  have  over- 
strained her  nervous  force,  and  at  this  point  it  is  not  uncommon  to  hear 
of  nervous  breakdowns.  The  case  of  Mrs.  F.  is  an  illustration:  After 
eight  years'  experience  as  an  energetic  and  pushing  saleswoman  she  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  buyer.  She  was  unusually  successful,  but  after 
a  few  years  the  intense  strain  proved  too  great,  and  at  the  age  of  about  33 
years  nervous  prostration  necessitated  a  three-years'  rest.  At  the  expira- 
tion of  this  period  she  returned  to  work,  but  was  obliged  to  take  a  place 
among  the  rank  and  file  as  saleswoman.  She  is  now  earning  a  salary  of 
$12.00  a  week.     (Page  43.) 

The  wage  of  a  saleswoman  is  determined,  primarily,  by  the  amount  of 
her  sales,  which  are  carefully  watched  by  the  buyer,  and  if  the  sales  of 
one  fall  below  those  of  her  neighbor  she  is  told  that  she  must  sell  more 
goods  or  "we  shall  have  to  fill  your  place  with  some  other  clerk."  The 
saleswoman  is  in  this  way  constantly  nerved  to  highest  endeavor,  for  not 
only  does  failure  to  sell  mean  loss  of  promotion,  but  she  must  keep  up  to 
the  standard  to  maintain  her  present  rank  and  wage.     (Page  44.) 

The  Illinois  statutes  contain  a  law  requiring  employers  to  provide 
seats  for  women  employes.  Many  of  the  department  store  employers 
obey  this  law  to  the  letter.  They  provide  seats.  But  the  seat  does  not 
help  a  woman  much  unless  she  is  allowed  to  use  it.  Most  of  the  women 
say  that  they  are  closely  watched,  and  are  reprimanded  by  the  floorman 
of  their  section  if  they  sit  down,  even  though  they  are  not  busy.  Occa- 
sionally one  hears  of  a  floorman  who  proved  an  exception  to  the  rule. 
(Page  109.) 


Ihid.     Vol.  IX.     History  of  Women  in  Industry  in  the  United  States. 

The  hours  of  saleswomen,  too,  though  they  have  been  gradually  short- 
ened, have  always  been  long,  and  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  constant 
standing,  which  had  been  required  of  men,  was  injurious  to  women. 
Other  evils,  too,  appeared.  The  history  of  saleswomen,  then,  like  the 
history  of  other  classes  of  working  women,  early  becomes  a  story  of  hard 
work,  long  hours,  and  low  wages.     (Page  236.) 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS    AND    FACTORIES  5O7 

It  was  suggested  that  the  constant  standing  position  was  probably  as   united 
injurious  as  the  use  of  the  sewing  machine.     (Page  238.) 

Report  of  the  Consumers'  League  of  the  City  of  \ew  York  for  the  Year  1895. 

Consider  what  it  means  to  be  on  one's  feet  from  ten  to  fourteen  hours 
a  day,  in  a  crowded  space,  shoved  and  pushed  about,  lifting  heavy  boxes 
at  times,  waiting  on  impatient  customers  and  customers  who  wsh  to  be 
helped  to  know  their  own  minds,  keeping  accounts  of  sales  and  stocks, 
taking  addresses — often  given  hurriedly  and  carelessly,  fined  in  many 
instances  if  they  were  written  down  incorrectly,  and  all  this  for  salaries 
ranging  from  three  to  eight  dollars  a  week,  and  obliged  to  dress  neatly 
and  fairly  well,  and  to  pay  out  of  it  for  one's  meals,  lodging,  washing, 
clothing,  and  carfare.     (Page  17.j 

Report  and  Testimony  Taken  Before  the  Special  (Reinhard)  Committee 
of  the  Assembly  Appointed  to  Investigate  the  Condiiiov.  of  Female 
Labor  in  the  City  of  New  York.     January  16,  1896. 

Witness,  Dr.  .Mar\'  Putnam  Jacobi: 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  gist  of  the  matter  lies  in  one  question,  and  that 
rs,  "Does  the  condition  of  the  employes  in  retail  stores  at  the  present 
moment  approximate  or  become  identical  with  that  of  employes  in  fac- 
tories?" That  is  the  whole  question.  Because  the  question  of  the  neces- 
sity of  factory  inspectors,  and  the  necessity  of  some  control  outside  of  the 
factories,  to  protect  the  interests  of  the  factory  operatives  has  been  de- 
cided, after  nearly  a  century  by  the  unanimous  opinion  of  people  who  have 
tried  the  experiment.  This  question  first  received  attention  in  1802  in 
England,  and  we  know  it  is  only  by  means  of  the  factor}'  legislation  that 
has  been  enacted  and  carried  on  and  reinforced  in  England  that  the  pop- 
ulation of  England  has  been  arrested  on  the  down-grade  slope  of  deteriora- 
tion that  threatened  the  very  existence  of  the  English  nation.  We  know 
that  most  of  the  most  enlightened  states  in  the  United  States  have  fol- 
lowed in  the  track  of  the  English  legislation. 

The  second  point  is  that  the  physical  health  of  the  women  and  children 
is  of  immense  importance — not  merely  to  themselves  and  famil\-,  but  to 
the  community  at  large.  It  is  a  social  matter,  and  if  the  health  of  thou- 
sands and  millions  of  women  and  children  are  allowed  to  deteriorate,  why 
the  whole  nation  suffers.  It  is  on  these  two  principles,  which  are  perfectly 
obvious,  that  the  factory  legislation  has  been  initiated  for  operatives  in 
factories,  and  it  seems  to  me  perfectly  evident  as  soon  as  an}-  one  stops  to 


508  FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  consider  that  this  same  principle  applies  to  the  workers  in  retail  stores. 

STATES  I  1  • 1 

This  development  of  the  employment  of  women  and  children  in  stores  is 
a  very  recent  and  modern  thing. 

We,  therefore,  ask  you  to  report  this  bill,  which  extends  to  the  mer- 
cantile establishments  where  women  and  children  are  employed  the 
principles  which  have  been  decided  and  accepted  in  spite  of  the  opposition 
of  the  employers  in  mills  and  factories,  and  which  are  now  recognized  as 
necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the  community.     (Page  764.) 

Women  and  the  Trades.  Elizabeth  B.  Butler.  The  Pittsburgh  Survey. 
Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication.  New  York,  Charities  Publica- 
tion Committee,  1909. 

The  dead  air  that  tires  the  casual  shopper  weighs  unrelieved  on  brain 
and  nerves  of  the  salesgirl  who  must  breathe  it  the  day  through.  .  .  .  Since 
adequate  ventilation  is  as  yet  only  half  insisted  upon  in  churches  and 
courts  and  schools,  we  can  perhaps  be  tolerant  of  the  backwardness 
hitherto  of  stores  in  this  respect.  Yet  we  can  scarcely  continue  to  be  so 
indefinitely.  The  stores  have  a  direct  economic  advantage  to  be  gained 
by  fresh  air.   .   .   . 

Health  and  efficiency  in  a  measure  go  hand  in  hand.  The  kind  of 
efficiency  that  results  from  a  clear  brain  and  physical  buoyancy,  the  kind 
that  even  an  untrained  salesgirl  may  have,  is  sapped  constantly  by  the 
breathing  of  vitiated  air.  It  is  sapped,  too,  by  needless  physical  weari- 
ness, whether  this  results  from  counters  built  so  close  that  the  girls  have 
not  room  to  pass  each  other,  and  even  when  standing  are  cramped  and 
uncomfortable,  from  the  firm's  neglect  to  provide  seats,  or  from  the  tacit 
understanding,  of  all  too  frequent  occurrence,  that  seats  when  provided 
are  not  for  use.  This  tacit  understanding  at  times  finds  expression  in 
definite  rules  with  penalties  for  non-observance.   .  .  . 

Girls  untrained  in  the  ways  of  their  trade,  at  work  often  under  con- 
ditions distinctly  unhealthful,  are  expected  to  counterfeit  attentiveness 
by  constantly  standing.  At  times  during  the  day  they  are  not  waiting 
on  customers.  At  times  they  have  no  stock  to  arrange  and  are  obliged 
only  to  be  at  their  places.  That  any  should  have  always  to  stand  seems 
obviously  unnecessary.     (Pages  299-300.) 

Labor  Laws  and  Their  Enforcement  with  Special  Reference  to  Massachusetts. 
Edited  by  Susan   B.  Kingsbury.     New  York,  Longmans,  Green  and 

Co.,  19  n. 

Health  conditions  may  show  a  higher  average  in  stores  than  in  fac- 
tories, but  cases  of  bad  conditions  in  stores  certainly  exist  and  these  might 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS    AND    FACTORIES  5O9 

perfectly  well  be  made  illegal  by  a  simple  extension  of  present  laws.     (Page  united 
266.)  ^''''^^^ 

Saleswomen  in  Mercantile  Stores.  Baltimore.  1909.  Eliz.^beth  B. 
Butler.  Russell  Sage  Foundatioyi  Publication.  New  York,  Chari- 
ties Publication  Committee,  1912. 

Mercantile  establishments  employ  a  large  proportion  of  the  women 
wage-earners  of  this  country.  Although  the  types  of  saleswomen  vary 
from  district  to  district,  from  city  to  city,  yet  the  requirements  for  sales- 
manship in  all  cities  are  fundamentally  the  same.  .  .  .  The  saleswoman 
in  a  small  specialty  house  or  in  a  neighborhood  store  is  a  cog  in  a  small 
wheel,  just  as  the  saleswoman  in  a  department  store  is  a  cog  in  a  large 
wheel.  In  both  cases,  the  duties  of  her  occupation  are  for  the  most  part 
the  same. 

This  occupation,  simple  as  it  appears,  involves  prompt  personal  ad- 
justments and  quick  understanding.  It  is  upon  the  intelligence  of  the 
saleswoman,  and  upon  her  attitude  to  the  customer,  quite  as  much  as 
upon  the  quality  of  the  goods,  that  the  number  and  value  of  sales  depend. 
The  mercantile  house,  however  thorough  in  organization  and  however 
responsive  to  public  demand,  must  in  the  last  anah'sis  rely  upon  its  sales 
force  for  success,  and  the  personal  efficiency  of  the  latter  must  keep  pace 
with  the  impersonal  efficiency  of  store  organization.     (Pages  vii-viii.) 

British   Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XII.     1886.     Report  from  Select  Com-   great 
mittee  on  Shop  Hours  Regulation  Bill. 

Mr.  William  Abbots,  M.  D.,  Member  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians, 
Member  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons: 

2016.  Do  you  think  a  shop  more  monotonous  than  tending  spindles 
and  looms  in  textile  factories,  for  instance? — In  a  shop  there  is  this  also 
to  be  considered,  that  the  assistant  has  to  deal  with  a  great  many  people 
of  different  styles. 

2020.  Would  it  not,  therefore,  be  less  wearing  in  a  shop  than  in  tend- 
ing a  machine? — 1  do  not  think  so. 

2023.  That  is  quite  sufficient  answer  to  my  question,  if  it  is  your 
opinion  that  the  labour  in  shops  is  really  as  exacting  and  trying  as  a  corre- 
sponding length  of  time  tending  machines? — It  is. 

2039.  1  think  you  said  just  now  that  in  shops  the  change  which  the 
assistants  have  makes  the  work  not  so  monotonous  as  the  work  in  an 
ordinary  workshop,  and,  therefore,  it  is  healthier? — I  did  not  intend  to 
put  it  quite  in  that  way;    I  meant  to  imply  more  trying;  that  in  a  shop 


510  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  there  is  a  greater  strain  upon  the  mind  where  you  have  to  deal  with  dif- 

BRITAIN  ... 

ferent  people;  so  many  different  phases  of  humanity  in  a  given  time;  but 
in  the  workshop,  presuming  that  a  woman  understands  the  duties  of 
looking  after  a  particular  machine  or  department,  it  becomes  so  much  a 
matter  of  routine  or  habit  that  there  is  not  the  same  strain. 

2040.  Do  you  not  think  that  the  mental  irritation  that  often  arises 
between  an  assistant  and  a  troublesome  customer  who  is  difficult  to  please 
is  as  injurious  to  health  as  the  monotony  of  a  workshop? — It  would  cer- 
tainly not  conduce  to  health. 

2041.  Would  it  conduce  the  other  way? — Exactly.  Where  there  are 
so  many  phases  of  humanity  there  is  a  continuous  strain,  supposing  there 
is  much  business  doing;  and  if  there  is  not  much  business  doing,  there  is 
standing  the  whole  time,  and  that  has  the  same  effect  physically. 

2042.  The  point  1  want  to  bring  out  is  this:  Although  the  occupations 
are  entirely  different,  there  are  certain  irritating  circumstances  which  are 
quite  as  injurious  to  health  as  the  dull  monotony  of  tending  a  machine? — 
Yes. 

2043.  In  fact,  you  think  that  the  work  of  shop  assistants  is,  on  the 
whole,  as  tiring  as  the  work  of  tending  machines? — 1  should  think  it  is 
more  so. 

Mr.  Whateley  Cooke-Taylor,  Inspector  of  Factories: 

3875.  With  regard  to  the  health  of  the  people,  do  you  think  that  the 
general  health  of  those  employed  in  workshops  has  certainly  improved 
since  the  passing  of  the  Factory  and  Workshops  Acts? — I  do. 

3876.  Have  you  yourself  noticed  a  considerable  improvement  in 
their  health? — I  have. 

3877.  Do  you  think  that  the  same  result  would  follow  if  the  hours  in 
shops  could  be  curtailed? — I  think  it  would. 

Mr.  James  Ball  Lakeman,  Inspector  of  Factories  for  the  Metropolitan 
District : 

858.  And  it  would  be  a  fair  addition  to  the  present  legislation,  would 
it  not,  that  those  who  sell  materials  which  have  been  made  up  should 
have  the  same  advantages  as  those  who  make  up  the  materials? — I  think 
so,  clearly. 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XII.     1895.     Report  of  Select  Committee 
on  Shops  {Early  Closing)  Bill. 

Witness,  Dr.  Percy  Kidd,  M.D.  of  University  of  Oxford,  Fellow  of 
College  of  Physicians  and  Member  of  the  College  of  Surgeons;  attached 
to  London  Hospital  and  Brompton  Hospital: 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS    AND    FACTORIES  5II 

5322.  .  .  .  Then  you  would  not  like  to  say  that  you  speak  with  any   great 


authority  in  particular  as  regards  the  shop  assistants,  would  you,  and  that 
it  is  a  class  which  has  bad  health? — It  is  a  class  which  is  very  liable  to 
these  complaints,  as  far  as  my  experience  goes,  especially  this  general 
debility,  which  is  more  frequent  in  them  than  in  other  classes.  I  will  not 
say  it  is  confined  to  shop  assistants;  it  affects  factory  workers  as  well. 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  VI.     1901.     Report  from  Select  Committee 
on  Early  Closing  of  Shops. 

Sir  William  S.  Church,  Baronet,  President  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians: 

2288.  I  should  like  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the  year 
1886  there  was  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  Shop 
Hours  Regulation  Bill.  The  committee  made  a  unanimous  report  to  the 
House  that  "In  many  places  the  hours  of  labour  in  shops  ranged  from 
eighty  to  eighty-five  per  week,  and  that  in  their  opinion  such  hours  as 
those  were  injurious  to  health  and  in  many  cases  ruinous,  especially  in 
the  case  of  women."  Under  those  circumstances  the  then  presidents  of 
the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  and  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons 
issued  a  circular  to  the  medical  men  of  London,  which  was  signed  by  Sir 
Andrew  Clarke,  Dr.  Matthew  Duncan,  Mr.  John  Marshall,  Sir  James 
Paget,  Dr.  Playfair,  Dr.  Priestley,  Sir  Richard  Quain,  Sir  William  Savory, 
Sir  Samuel  Wilkes;  and  you  will  probably  tell  the  committee  that  those 
gentlemen  were  at  the  very  head  of  the  medical  profession? — Yes. 

2289.  And  several  of  them  were  particularly  conversant  with  the 
diseases  of  women,  were  they  not? — That  is  so. 

2290.  In  consequence  of  that  circular  more  than  300  of  the  medical 
men  of  London  signed  a  petition  to  Parliament.  A  petition  of  that 
kind,  signed  by  300  of  the  medical  men  of  London,  is,  you  will  probably 
agree,  a  very  remarkable  and  unusual  document  to  be  addressed  to  the 
House  of  Commons. 

2294.  All  we  are  asking  you  is,  that  you  should  give  the  committee 
your  views  as  to  whether  those  hours  of  labour  really  are,  in  your  opinion, 
as  they  were  in  the  opinion  of  your  predecessors,  seriously  injurious? 
I  f  they  were  compulsory  hours  of  labour,  1  think  the  State  should  interfere, 
in  the  same  way  as  it  does  in  the  Factory  Act. 

Sir  William  MacCormac,  President  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons: 
2471.     You  mention  physical  toil.     It  has  sometimes  been  urged  before 
us,  "You  ought  to  remember  that  the  work  is  not  very  arduous."     1 
gather  that  the  evils  which  you  speak  of  are  due  to  the  confined  condi- 


BRITAIN 


512  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  tions:   to  the  bad  air,  to  the  constant  standing,  etc.,  rather  than  to  the 

BRITAIN  arduous  character  of  the  physical  labour?     I  should  consider  that  stand- 

ing for  ten  or  eleven  hours  was  exceedingly  arduous  labour. 

2473.  We  are  told  sometimes,  "You  speak  of  these  hours  as  unduly 
long,  but  you  ought  to  remember  that  the  work  is  not  so  very  severe, 
that  it  involves  no  great  strain  upon  the  muscles"  .  .  .  but  I  imagine 
that  you  would  tell  us  that  that  is  not  the  question,  that  it  is  the  condi- 
tions under  which  they  are  spending  the  day,  rather  than  the  amount  of 
toil,  which  is  important? — Quite  so. 

History  of  Factory   Legislation.      B.    L.    Hutchins   and   A.    Harrison. 
London,  P.  S.  King  and  Son,  191L 

While  conditions  have  without  doubt  greatly  improved  in  better  class 
shops,  in  many  quarters  the  hours  are  still  a  terrible  grievance,  and  fraught 
with  the  worst  possible  consequences  to  health.  The  excuse  is  sometimes 
made  that  the  work  is  less  hard  than  in  manufacturing  industry.  This 
may  be  true  to  a  certain  extent,  but  it  leaves  out  of  account  that  the  atti- 
tude of  standing,  if  maintained  for  any  length  of  time,  is  quite  as  fatiguing 
as,  and  probably  more  injurious  than,  movements  that  involve  more 
muscular  effort;  also  that,  after  all,  nobody's  day  is  more  than  twenty-four 
hours  long,  whatever  work  he  may  do,  and  the  mere  fact  that  any  particu- 
lar work  done  is  less  heavy  and  strenuous  than  some  other  kinds  does  not 
ipso  facto  give  the  worker  any  more  hours  for  rest,  relaxation,  or  recreation. 
(Page  222.) 

(3)  Bad  Effect  on  Health 
(a)  General  Injuries  to  Health 

The  fatigue  which  follows  excessive  working  hours  and  long 
hours  of  standing  in  mercantile  establishments,  becomes 
chronic  and  results  in  general  deterioration  of  health.  While 
it  may  not  result  in  immediate  disease,  it  undermines  the 
whole  system  by  weakness  and  anaemia. 

The  highest  medical  authorities  in  Great  Britain  have 
borne  witness  to  the  dire  menace  to  health,  from  conditions 
of  employment  in  British  mercantile  establishments  similar 
to  those  shown  to  exist  in  stores  in  the  United  States  in 
general,  and  in  Illinois  in  particular. 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS:     HEALTH  513 

Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor.     No.  91.     Xovember,  1910.     JVork-  united 

...  STATES 

tng  Hours  of  IVage-Earning  Women  in  Chicago. 

The  saleswomen  complain  bitterly  of  the  long  hours  of  standing  even 
when  there  is  no  rush  season.  Many  when  asked  concerning  their  health, 
reported  swollen  and  aching  feet  and  frequentl}'  broken  arches,  painful 
menstruation,  and  other  disorders.  In  a  few  of  the  stores  stools  are 
provided  and  the  girls  are  advised  to  sit  down  when  not  busy.  In  other 
stores  the  only  seats  the  girls  had  were  boxes  that  the_\-  hunted  up  them- 
selves. They  were  afraid  to  use  even  these  when  the  managers  or  floor- 
men  were  around.  The  most  bitter  complaints  were  of  the  added  long 
hours  of  Saturday  night,  especially"  when  they  had  to  get  up  and  work 
again  Sunday  morning. 

Not  only  are  the  hours  increased  to  meet  the  Christmas  rush,  but  more 
help  is  employed.  Even  then,  however,  each  emplo\'e  is  worked  to  the 
limit  of  endurance.  Two  girls  reported  a  week's  illness  in  bed  as  a  result 
of  the  strain  of  the  busy  season,  and  nearl\'  ever}'  girl  reported  excessive 
pains  in  the  feet  and  extreme  exhaustion. 

.  .  .  Not  a  girl  reported  any  additional  compensation  for  the  long  hours 
of  the  two  weeks  before  Christmas.  Those  who  received  a  commission 
made  more  from  additional  sales,  but  the  rate  of  commission  remained 
the  same.     (Pages  897-898.) 

Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United 
States.  Vol.  V.  Senate  Document  No.  645.  61st  Congress.  2d 
Session.     1910. 

The  worst  feature  of  this  (Christmas)  overtime  is  that  it  comes  at  the 
time  of  the  year  when  the  regular  work  is  the  most  taxing  and  the  women 
least  able  to  endure  longer  hours.     (Page  84.) 

The  chief  hardship  of  this  extra  work  arises  from  the  necessity  of  stand- 
ing throughout  such  a  long  day — eleven  or  twelve  hours,  and  in  extreme 
cases  even  fourteen  hours.  More  than  one  woman  reported  spending  all 
of  Christmas  Day  in  bed  as  a  result.     (Page  110.) 

Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.     1884. 

We  secured  the  personal  h!Stor_\-  of  these  1,032  of  the  whole  20,000 
working  girls  of  Boston,  a  number  amply  sufficient  for  the  scientific 
purposes  of  the  investigation.     (Page  5.) 

Long  hours,  and  being  obliged  to  stand  all  da\',  are  ver\'  generalh'  ad- 
33* 


514  FATIGUE    AND  EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  vanced  as  the  principal  reasons  for  any  lack  or  loss  of  health  occasioned 

by  the  work  of  the  girls.     (Page  69.) 

Report  of  the  New  Jersey  Inspector  of  Factories  and  Workshops.     1884. 

The  law  passed  this  year  through  the  efforts  of  the  State  Trades 
Unions,  compelling  employers  to  provide  seats  for  the  use  of  their  female 
employes,  is  one  of  the  best  on  our  statute  books,  and  has  been  approved 
by  men  of  all  classes,  especially  by  the  medical  fraternity,  many  eminent 
members  of  which  have  testified  that  it  is  destructive  to  the  health  of 
women  to  keep  them  standing  for  hours  in  mills  or  stores  without  an  oppor- 
tunity to  rest.     (Page  25.) 

Report  of  the  Chief  of  Massachusetts  District  Police  for  the  year  ending 
Dec.  31,  1885. 

Many  complaints  have  been  made  in  the  public  press,  and  some  agita- 
tion in  other  quarters,  based  upon  the  physical  hardship  of  compelling 
women  and  girls  employed  many  hours  daily  in  manufacturing  mechanical 
and  mercantile  establishments  to  remain  standing  at  their  respective 
occupations.  It  was  shown  by  the  testimony  of  medical  men  that  serious 
results  to  the  health  were  produced  in  such  ways.     (Page  34.) 

Report  of  the  Maine  Bureau  of  Industrial  and  Labor  Statistics.     1888. 

Many  saleswomen  are  so  worn  out,  when  their  week's  work  is  ended, 
that  a  good  part  of  their  Sundays  is  spent  in  bed,  recuperating  for  the 
next  week's  demands.  And  one  by  one  girls  drop  out  and  die,  often  from 
sheer  overwork.  This  I  know  from  observation  and  personal  acquain- 
tance.    (Page  142.) 

National  Child  Labor  Committee.  New  York.  Proceedings  of  the  Third 
Annual  Confereyice.  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  1907.  Some  of  the  Ultimate 
Physical  Effects  of  Premature  Toil.  Albert  H.  Freiberg,  M.D., 
Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

Standing  occupations  naturally  involve  the  feet  and  legs  in  greatest 
strain,  and  more  especially  the  feet.  In  consequence  we  see  developing, 
during  the  adolescent  \ears,  that  condition  known  as  weak  and  flat  foot. 
This  frequently  occurs  in  the  adult  also  from  causes  of  similar  nature,  but 
only  too  frequently  the  result  of  conditions  and  weakening  which  must 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS:     HEALTH 


515 


be  attributed  to  the  period  of  active  growth.  .  .  .  Commonly  the  foot  united 
loses  its  strength  and  shape  gradually,  so  that  at  this  time  but  little  notice  ^'^^'^^^ 
is  taken  of  it.  Later  .  .  .  the  feet  only  too  frequently  become  so  painful 
that  long  abstention  from  work  is  imperative,  and  it  happens  not  rarely 
that  an  entire  change  of  employment  cannot  be  avoided;  ...  for  while 
medical  science  can  do  much  for  these  unfortunates,  they  are  often  de- 
barred from  continuing  in  trades  requiring  constant  standing.  Frequently 
upon  coming  under  medical  care  the  condition  is  such  that  nothing  short 
of  a  long  stay  in  hospital  will  prove  availing,  and  this  means  loss  of  in- 
come if  not  loss  of  independence  for  a  greater  or  less  period.  I  doubt 
whether  it  is  generally  realized  how  frequently  such  conditions  are  met  as 
those  to  which  I  have  just  referred.     (Page  23.) 


British  Sessional  Papers. 
Hours  Bill. 


Vol.  XVII.     1892. 


Select  Committee  on  Shop   9:^^J^-^r 

^    BRITAIN 


Paper  handed  in  by  the  chairman.  Petition  in  favour  of  the  Early 
Closing  Bill.     1888.     (Presented  by  Sir  John  Lubbock.) 

To  the  Honourable  the  Commons  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  in  Parliament  assembled. 

We,  the  undersigned  medical  men,  having  had  our  attention  called  to 
the  very  late  hours  to  which  shops  are  open,  and  being  satisfied  that  such 
prolonged  hours  of  labour  are  grievously  injurious  to  the  health  especially 
in  the  case  of  women,  pray  your  Honourable  House  to  enact  the  Early 
Closing  Bill,  introduced  by  Sir  John  Lubbock.  .  .  .  And  your  petitioners 
will  ever  pray. 

J.  Matthews  Duncan,  71  Brook  street. 

John  Marshall,  16  Saville  Row,  W. 

Wm.  S.  Savory,  66  Brook  street,  W. 

Samuel  Wilkes,  72  Grosvenor  street. 

James  Paget,  1  Harewood  Place. 

Wm.  O.  Priestley,  17  Hertford  street,  Mayfair. 

W.  S.  Playfair,  31  George  street,  Hanover  Square. 

Richard  Quain,  67  Harley  street. 

Andrew  Clark,  16  Cavendish  Square,  and  298  others.     (Page  238.) 

Petition  in  favour  of  the  Early  Closing  Bill,  1888.  To  the  Honourable 
Commons  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  in  Parlia- 
ment assembled.     The  humble  petition  of  the  undersigned: 

We,  the  undersigned  matrons  and  nurses  in  Metropolitan  hospitals, 
having  had  our  attention  called  to  the  grievous  injury  which  is  sustained 
by  women,  and  especially  by  girls,  by  reason  of  the  long  hours  during 


5l6  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  which  they  are  now  compelled  to  stand  in  shops,  humbly  pray  your 

Honourable  House  to  pass  the  Early  Closing  Bill  brought  in  by  Sir  John 
Lubbock. 

And  your  petitioners  will  ever  pray. 

List  of  petitions  in  favour,  and  number  of  signatures  from  the  follow- 
ing Metropolitan  hospitals: 

Charing  Cross  Hospital,  52  signatures;  Kings  College  Hospital,  25 
signatures;  St.  Mary  Lebone  Infirmary,  61  signatures;  British  Home 
for  Incurables,  14  signatures;  London  Hospital,  93  signatures;  Royal 
Free,  34  signatures;  London  Home  Pathic  Hospital,  6  signatures; 
Middlesex  Hospital,  25  signatures;  London  Hospital,  26  signatures; 
German  Hospital,  London,  4  signatures.     (Page  238.) 

Mr.  James  Ball  Lakeman,  Inspector  of  Factories  and  Workshops: 

732.  Have  you  found  that  women  and  young  persons  suffer  severely 
on  account  of  long  hours  when  the  sanitary  accommodation  and  other 
conditions  are  defective? — 1  cannot  say  that  they  suffer  from  want  of 
sanitation  because  I  have  never,  of  course,  gone  into  the  question  so 
minutely;  but  I  know  that,  with  regard  to  anemia  and  varicose  veins 
and  dyspepsia,  those  are  instances  I  myself  have  seen  and  given  as  the 
result  of  long  hours  of  standing. 

735.  But  even  in  the  case  of  grown  women,  if  they  were  kept  standing, 
working  under  conditions  such  as  you  describe,  for  more  than  seventy-four 
hours  a  week,  in  your  judgment,  and  from  your  experience  as  an  inspector, 
would  you  not  expect  to  find  that  their  health  would  suffer? — Yes.  I 
certainly  think  that  a  continuation  of  labour  on  the  system  now  obtaining 
must  be  injurious  to  the  health  of  the  female,  whatever  her  age  may  be. 

Mr.  Thomas  Sutherst,  Barrister,  Early  Closing  Association: 

1243.  I  think  we  have  got  sufficient  now  to  show  that  on  the  ground 
of  the  health  of  those  employed  in  shops  there  is  absolutely  no  doubt 
that  the  hours  are  too  long,  and  the  conditions  very  unsatisfactory? — I 
should  like  to  mention  the  number  of  the  medical  faculty  who  have 
given  evidence  corroborating  that  without  reading  it;  there  is  Sir  Risden 
Bennett,  Dr.  Norman  Kerr,  Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson,  Mr.  Lawson  Tait, 
Mr.  J.  H.  Rutherford,  Elswick  Lodge,  Newcastle-on-Tyne;  Dr.  Arthur 
W.  Edis,  London;  Dr.  Robert  H.  Lloyd,  Medical  Superintendent,  Lam- 
beth Infirmary;  the  late  Sir  Charles  Bell,  Dr.  Peter  Mark  Roget,  Mr. 
William  Sharp,  Junior,  late  surgeon  to  the  Dispensary,  Bradford,  York- 
shire; Mr.  Charles  Turner  Thacketh,  Surgeon,  late  of  Leeds;  Mr.  George 
James  Guthrie,  late  Vice-President  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  and 
Surgeon  of  Westminster  Hospital;  Dr.  John  EUiotson,  late  Physician  to 
St.  Thomas'  Hospital  and  Medical  Teacher  in  the  London  University; 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS!     HEALTH  517 

Mr.  Benjamin  Travers,  late  Surgeon  to  St.  Thomas'  Hospital,  Southwark,   great 
and  Dr.  James  Blundell,  late  Lecturer  on  Physiology  in  the  School  of 
Guy's  Hospital.     These  are  typical  and  representative  men. 

1348.  I  may  take  it  therefore  that  you  think  that  the  long  hours  and 
the  bad  conditions  under  which  women  have  to  labour  are  damaging  for 
grown  women,  as  well  as  for  girls  under  18? — Undoubtedly. 

1351.  And  consequently  we  stand  today  in  just  as  great  need  of  some 
controlling  of  the  hours  that  women  work  as  we  did  at  that  time  (1886)? 
— Quite.     My  only  difficulty  is  as  to  the  best  means  of  doing  it. 

1352.  You  have  also  enlarged  here  upon  the  causes  of  the  illnesses 
of  women,  the  long  hours  at  which  they  are  kept  at  work,  the  standing, 
the  bad  air  they  have  to  breathe,  the  irregular  meals  with  too  little  time 
to  take  them.  May  1  take  it  that  we  may  consider  that  your  views  upon 
the  causes  of  the  illnesses  of  women  are  the  same  today  as  they  were  then? 
■ — Exactly  the  same. 

Mr.  James  Austin  Stacey,  Secretary  of  the  Early  Closing  Associ- 
ation: 

2427.  As  regards  the  question  of  health,  would  you  wish  to  say  any- 
thing upon  that  point.  We  are  going  to  hear  medical  evidence  upon  it, 
but  is  there  anything  that  you  yourself  wish  to  say  with  reference  to  it? — 
The  Early  Closing  Association  has  an  honorary  medical  staff,  and  it  gives 
to  its  members  privileges  with  regard  to  this  staff,  that  is  to  say  that  for 
the  payment  of  a  membership  subscription  of  2s.  6d.  they  are  entitled  to 
see  members  of  the  staff  at  certain  times  free  of  further  cost,  except  their 
medicine,  of  course.  That  brings  us  a  number  of  applications  for  these 
membership  tickets,  and  incidentally  it  brings  us  a  lot  of  information  as 
to  the  very  prejudicial  effect  which  the  long  hours  of  standing  particularly 
has  upon  the  health  of  young  women.  I  have  known  in  my  experience  a 
number  of  girl  assistants  who  have  been  thoroughly  invalided  out  of  their 
occupations,  and  have  either  become  a  charge  upon  their  parents  or 
friends,  or  have  had  to  enter  into  fresh  fields  of  industry. 

2428.  Therefore,  v/ithout  speaking  of  course  with  medical  authority, 
you  have  had  very  large  experience,  and  are  strongly  of  opinion  that 
these  long  hours  are  very  prejudicial  to  health,  specially  I  presume,  in 
the  case  of  women? — Yes;  and  I  may  say  that  Sir  James  Risdon  Bennett, 
the  late  President  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians,  was  one  of  our 
honorary  medical  staff;  he  spoke  more  than  once  at  our  public  meet- 
ings, and  he  very  strongly  denounced  the  evils  of  long  standing,  and  the 
general  effect  of  overworking  upon  shop  assistants,  particularly  young 
women. 


5l8  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  Ihid.     Re-hort  of  the  Lancet  Sanitary  Commission  on  Sanitation  in  the  Shop. 

BRITAIN 

.  .  .  Undoubtedly  the  standing  for  such  long  hours  is  a  great  and 
terrible  grievance.  Young  shop  assistants  have  explained  to  us  how 
towards  the  evening  they  became  giddy,  "a  swimming  sensation"  over- 
came them,  and  they  continued  to  serve  almost  unconsciously.  In  time 
they  became  hardened  to  the  excessive  strain,  but  in  the  course  of  years 
many  were  obliged  to  lie  up,  the  most  frequent  complaint  from  which 
they  suffered  being  that  of  varicose  veins.     (Page  245.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXXVII.  1893.  The  Royal  Com- 
mission of  Labour:  Employment  of  IVomen.  Reports  by  Misses  Orme, 
Collet,  etc. 

Statement  by  Dr.  Service:  The  long  hours  which  shop  girls  work  and 
the  conditions  under  which  they  do  their  work  are  injurious  to  their  con- 
stitutions. Prolonged  standing,  long  hours,  and  want  of  proper  sanitary 
accommodations  lead  to  ailments  affecting  the  bladder,  bowels,  uterus, 
nervous,  vascular  (blood)  and  muscular  systems.  These  ailments  are 
evidenced  by  the  legs  becoming  swelled  with  fluid,  varicose  veins  appear- 
ing in  the  lower  extremities  and  muscular  pains  and  weakness  being  felt 
from  the  waist  to  the  soles  of  the  feet.  The  nervous  system  is  seriously 
injured  by  the  undue  strain  which  is  put  upon  all  the  organs  of  the  body. 
Facial  neuralgia,  spinal  neuralgia,  and  headache  are  very  common  com- 
plaints. Anaemia  (popularly  speaking  poverty  of  the  blood)  will  be  found 
in  the  majority  of  shop  women.  This  arises  from  long  hours,  close  con- 
finement, and  long  intervals  between  meals,  with  consequent  disturbance 
of  the  digestive  and  assimilative  functions.     (Page  318.) 

I  have  also  evidence  from  Dr.  Edmistoun,  who  has  had  several  oppor- 
tunities for  acquiring  knowledge  of  conditions  among  shop  assistants,  and 
who  writes  he  "can  bear  testimony  that  the  long  system  of  shop  hours  is 
exceedingly  injurious  to  young  women  and  is  undoubtedly  the  cause  of  a 
train  of  particular  ailments  such  as  anaemia,  nervous  disorders,  constipa- 
tion, indigestion,  and  a  large  number  of  diseases  peculiar  to  young  women. 
(Page  287.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XIL  1895.  Report  of  Select  Committee 
on  Shops  {Early  Closing)  Bill. 

Witness,  Dr.  Percy  Kidd,  M.D.,  University  of  Oxford,  Fellow  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  member  of  the  College  of  Surgeons;  attached  to 
the  London  Hospital  and  the  Brompton  Hospital: 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS:     HEALTH  519 

5281.  .  .  .  The  most  common  effect  I  have  noticed  of  the  long  hours   great 
is  general  deterioration  of  health;    very  general  symptoms  which  we  ^^"^^^^ 
medically  attribute  to  over-action  and  debility  of  the  nervous  system; 
that  includes  a  great  deal  more  than  what  is  called  nervous  disease,  such 

as  indigestion,  constipation,  a  general  slackness,  and  a  great  many  other 
indefinite  symptoms. 

5303.  Have  \-ou  ever  had  any  complaints  from  women  who  come  as 
patients  of  their  being  obliged  to  stand  at  their  work  so  long? — Yes,  I  have 
heard  that  complained  of  in  many  cases.  .  .  .  5313.  It  is  disadvantageous 
for  women  to  stand  too  much,  is  it  not? — Yes,  it  is.  5314.  But  you  do  not 
think  many  break  down  from  that  cause,  do  you? — It  is  difficult  to  sepa- 
rate that  from  the  general  exhaustion  which  results  from  long  hours. 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.    VI.     1901.     Report  by  the  Select  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Lords  on  Early  Closing  of  Shops. 

5.  We  [the  committee]  are  able,  however,  to  appeal  to  the  highest  ' 
medical  testimony  as  to  the  injury  thus  caused  (long  hours).  In  1888 
presidents  of  the  two  great  medical  colleges  with  some  of  the  other  leaders 
of  the  medical  profession.  Sir  James  Paget,  Sir  Andrew  Clark,  Dr.  Mat- 
thews Duncan,  Mr.  John  Marshall,  Dr.  Playfair,  Dr.  Priestly,  Sir  Richard 
Quain,  Sir  Wm.  Savory,  Sir  Samuel  Wilks,  called  the  attention  of  Parlia- 
ment to  the  subject  and  urged  the  passing  of  the  Early  Closing  Bill. 

6.  Considering  the  weight  which  belongs  to  that  memorial,  the  com- 
m.ittee  did  not  deem  it  necessary  to  multiply  medical  evidence  on  the 
subject.  The  presidents,  however,  both  of  the  College  of  Physicians  and 
of  the  College  of  Surgeons,  have  come  before  us  and  spoken  strongly  on 
the  great  and  increasing  evils  of  the  present  long  hours.     (Page  v.) 

IVitness,  Mr.  J.  G.  Beaumont,  Representative  from  the  Birmingham 
and  District  Retail  Drapers  and  Hosiers'  Association : 

348.  The  House  of  Commons  Committee  reported  in  1886  that  these 
long  hours  were  prejudicial  and  often  ruinous  to  health;  have  you  any 
evidence  on  that  point?  .  .  . 

Sir  James  Sawyer  wrote:  "The  manifold  evils  which  arise  in  impaired 
health,  induced  diseases  and  shortened  lives  from  working  too  long  by 
day,  and  especially  in  a  standing  posture  and  in  impure  air,  are  well 
known  to  physicians,  and  are  prominent  and  preventable  causes  of  human 
suffering."  Dr.  Jordan  Llo>d  wrote:  "Weakened  bodies  and  enfeebled 
minds  are  necessary  consequences  of  prolonged  confinement  and  monot- 
onous occupation."  .  .  . 

Dr.  Malins  wrote:  "My  experience  undoubtedly  tells  me  that  the  long 
hours  of  female  shop  assistants  are  highly  detrimental  to  their  health.".  .  . 


520  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  Witness,  Sir  William  S.  Church,  President  of  the  Royal  College  of 

BRITAIN  _,,        .    .  ^  o 

Physicians: 

2309.  .  .  .  There  is  one  form  of  ailment  which  is  aggravated  by  work 
such  as  shop  assistants  have  to  do.  Those  come  rather  under  the  observa- 
tion of  surgeons  and  physicians  who  practice  more  especially  in  diseases 
of  women.  But  there  is  another  great  group  which  falls  under  the  observa- 
tion of  the  ordinary  physician,  and  of  which  we  see  a  very  great  deal  in 
our  London  hospitals,  and  that  is  anaemic  condition,  which  is  produced 
partly  by  long  hours  of  work,  and  still  more  so  by  the  confinement  that 
this  employment  entails.  They  do  not  get  sufficient  opportunity  for 
being  in  the  fresh  air  and  in  the  sunlight,  and  the  evil  is,  of  course,  greatly 
aggravated  by  late  hours  at  night.  .  .  . 

2319.  .  .  .  The  longer  the  hours  the  greater  the  detriment. 

tVitness,  Secretary  Scottish  Shopkeepers'  Association: 

1034.  .  .  .  Professor  McKendrick,  of  Glasgow  University,  who  is 
identified  with  our  movement  as  Honorary  Vice-President,  .  .  .  says: 
"  1  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  long  hours  and  confinement  of  shop 
assistants  are  injurious  to  health,  and  I  am  glad  in  a  general  way  to  ex- 
press that  opinion."  .  .  .  Then  Dr.  Yellowlees,  Governor  of  the  Glasgow 
Royal  Lunatic  Asylum,  writes:  "I  am  quite  sure  that  the  unreasonably 
long  hours  and  close  confinement  of  shop  assistants  are  a  great  evil,  and 
are  often  not  only  a  great  hardship,  but  very  injurious  physically,  men- 
tally, and  morally." 

The  Hygiene,  Diseases,  and  Mortality  of  Occupation.  J.  T.  Arlidge,  M.D., 
A.  B.,  F.R.C.P.,  Late  Milroy  Lecturer  at  Royal  College.  London, 
Percival,  1892. 

When  insufficient  muscular  activity  is  associated  with  almost  constant 
standing,  the  increased  difficulty  to  the  return  of  the  blood  from  the  lower 
limbs  is  the  most  pronounced  feature,  and  productive  of  varicose  veins, 
and  ulcers  and  thickened  knee  and  ankle  joints.     (Page  19.) 

Workpeople  obliged  to  stand  long,  and  especially  when  this  happens 
in  early  youth,  lose  the  arch  of  the  foot  and  become  flat-footed,  with  de- 
formed ankles  and  often  "knock  knees."     (Page  558.) 

(fc)  Injuries  to  the  Female  Functions  and  Childbirth 

Prominent  physicians  have  testified  as  to  the  evil  effect  of 
overwork  and  continuous  standing  in  mercantile  establish- 
ments upon  the  female  functions  and  childbirth. 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS:     HEALTH  52I 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XII.     1886.     Report  from  Select  Com-  great 
mittee  on  Shop  Hours  Regulation  Bill. 

Mr.  William  Abbotts,  M.D.,  Member  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physi- 
cians, Member  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons: 

1982.  Does  the  fact  of  the  assistants  in  shops  having  to  stand  entirely 
make  any  difference  in  point  of  health? — That  is  very  injurious,  to  young 
people  particularly. 

1983.  Have  any  special  cases  of  that  kind  come  within  your  experi- 
ence?— Many  cases,  more  especially  as  regards  women;  it  affects  the 
pelvis  and  pelvic  organs. 

1984.  And  the  effect  is  serious? — In  many  cases  they  have  been 
obliged  to  leave  their  employment,  and  have  been  unfit  for  any  employ- 
ment for  a  considerable  time  afterwards. 

2000.  Does  their  employment  injuriously  affect  them  as  child-bearing 
women  in  after  years? — According  to  all  scientific  facts  it  would  do  so; 
it  leads  to  pelvic  diseases,  and  would  affect  them  in  after  years  when  they 
become  mothers. 

2001.  You  have  no  doubt  in  your  mind  upon  that? — No. 

2007.  And  you,  as  a  medical  man  of  considerable  number  of  years' 
experience,  would  not  look  to  girls  who  have  been  worked  so  many  hours 
in  one  position — standing — as  the  bearers  of  healthy,  strong  children? — 
I  should  not. 

2008.  Then  it  naturally  follows,  does  it  not,  that  this  is  a  very  serious 
matter  in  the  interests  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  apart  from  the  immediate 
injury  to  the  person  concerned? — Yes,  as  regards  the  physical  condition 
of  the  future  race. 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII.    1892,     Select  Committee  on  Shop 
Hours  Bill. 

Quotation  from  Dr.  Benjamin  Ward  Richardson: 

1241.  "The  effects  of  shop  labour  is  of  necessity  injurious  as  impeding 
their  growth  and  the  natural  development  of  the  organs  of  the  body. 
To  the  female  the  mischief  is  of  the  kind  calculated  to  extend  to  the 
offspring  she  may  have  to  bear.  The  diseases  incident  to  these  long  hours 
in  the  young  are  anaemia  in  both  sexes;  dyspepsia  with  much  constipation 
and  flatulence;  depression  of  spirits.  In  the  female,  suppressed  natural 
function ;  and  in  males  and  females  development  of  pulmonarj'  consump- 
tion where  there  is  a  tendency  to  it.  The  depression  and  nervous  ex- 
haustion produced  by  overwork  and  long  hours  leads  without  doubt 
to  an  exhaustion  which  seems  to  be  relieved  for  the  moment  by  stimulants 


522  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  and  which  produces  a  craving  for  them  of  the  ultimate  injury  and  further 

BRITAIN  .  .    . 

exhaustion  of  the  recipient."     (Page  53.) 

Quotation  from  Lawson  Tait,  Surgeon  to  the  Birmingham  and  Mid- 
land Hospital  for  Women  and  Specialist  in  diseases  of  women: 

1242.  .  .  .  Shops  as  generally  arranged,  with  their  atmosphere  charged 
with  the  products  of  gas  consumption,  are  not  conducive  to  health. 
Long  hours  for  women  produce  a  great  variety  of  uterine  and  ovarian 
diseases  and  the  general  dyscrasies  of  anaemia.  Women  should  not  work 
more  than  ten  hours  a  day,  and  in  very  many  cases  not  so  many  as  that. 
A  great  many  cases  under  my  observation,  women  suffering  from  uterine 
displacements,  chronic  inflammatory  diseases  of  the  ovaries  and  tubes. 
.  .  .  Quotation  from  Dr.  Norman  Kerr:  "It  is  impossible  for  me  to  find 
language  strong  enough  to  convey  a  hundredth  part  of  the  mischief  which 
I  have  seen  arise  from  the  excessive  hours  of  labour  of  shop  assistants  who 
have  been  under  my  professional  care.  The  great  length  of  the  hours  at 
work  I  have  seen  break  down  strong  constitutions,  seriously  aggravated 
as  the  evil  has  been  by  the  dyspeptic  misery  and  disease  produced  by  the 
necessary  .  .  .  bolting  of  food  through  the  far  too  short  period  allowed 
for  meals."     (Page  53.) 

Witness,  W.  Abbotts,  M.D.,  Editor  of  "Hygiene";  Member  of  the 
Royal  College  of  Physicians  and  Ro\al  College  of  Surgeons: 

4813.  .  .  .  What  is  it  that  women  suffer  from  chiefly  in  connection 
with  the  long  hours  that  the  committee  are  already  satisfied  shops  keep 
open? — They  suffer  from  various  affections  in  the  lower  part  of  the  body 
and  from  nervous  and  spinal  complaints  and  from  varicose  veins.  .  .  . 

4815.  Is  it  not  the  long  hours  of  standing,  insufficient  time  for  meals, 
and  bad  atmosphere  which  are  the  chief  causes  of  the  illness  to  which 
women  are  subject? — Those  would  be. 

4816.  What  are  those  illnesses? — Those  illnesses  would  be  various: 
irregularities  of  the  parts  incidental  to  women,  the  female  organs;  dis- 
eases of  the  spinal  cord,  causing  nervous  complaints,  and  varicose  veins 
arising  chiefly  from  the  long  standing  position. 

4817.  Well-grown  women  suffer  from  these  complaints  through  the 
long  standing  as  well  as  young  girls  under  eighteen,  say? — Yes,  they  would. 
(Page  207.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  XXXVII.  1893.  The  Royal  Com- 
mission on  Labour:  Employment  of  Women.  Reports  by  Misses 
Orme,  Collet,  etc. 

Dr.  Edmistown  adds  that  not  only  is  the  health  of  the  women  them- 
selves impaired  by  the  conditions  of  their  work  but   the  evil  results  of 


MERCANTILE    ESTABLISHMENTS:     HEALTH  523 

these  are  to  be  traced  in  the  children  of  women  who  have  been  emplo\'ed   great 
as  shop  assistants.     He  concludes  by  saying  that  the  medical  men  of  ^^ 

our  large  cities  could  furnish  further  evidence  of  the  evil  effects  of  long 
hours,  and  expresses  his  opinion  as  to  the  need  for  immediate  attention  to 
this  matter.  .  .  .  Several  other  medical  men  consulted  have  given  general 
testimony  to  the  same  effect,  the  points  chiefly  dwelt  upon  by  them  as 
objectionable  being  the  long  hours,  close  confinement,  want  of  regular 
and  sufficient  time  for  meals,  bad  air,  want  of  seats,  and  absence  of  sani- 
tary accommodation.  (Page  287.)  .  .  .  Again  if  we  look  at  the  children 
of  women  who  have  worked  under  the  conditions  mentioned,  the  evil 
effects  are,  if  anything,  more  pronounced.  Mothers  with  children  from 
1  to  10  or  12  years  of  age  frequently  come  to  us  wondering  wh\'  their 
children  are  so  delicate.  Neither  of  the  parents  nor  any  of  their  forbears 
are  or  were  delicate  and  they  cannot  see  why  their  children  should  be. 
But  on  inquiry  it  is  found  that  the  mothers  worked  either  in  shops,  mills, 
or  warehouses  under  conditions  not  suitable  to  sound  health,  and  de- 
bility, slight  and  unnoticed,  takes  hold  of  the  constitution  and  it  is  only 
after  some  years  of  married  life  that  the  mischief  shows  itself  in  mother 
and  children,  and  as  an  unhealthy  tree  cannot  bring  forth  health}'  fruit, 
no  more  can  unhealthy  mothers  bring  forth  healthy  children.  Lung 
troubles  are  frequently  seen.  The  main  complaints  that  have  come  before 
me  are  anaemia,  muscular  weakness,  nervous  prostration,  and  uterine, 
stomach,  and  intestinal  troubles.  These  complaints,  which  are  very 
common  and  most  damaging  to  the  system,  are  interdependent  and  trace- 
able to  the  few  causes  before  mentioned.     (Page  318.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XII.     1S95.     Retort  of  Select  Committee 
on  Shops  {Early  Closing)  Bill. 

Witness,  Miss  MacDonald,  M.D.,  attached  to  the  Hospital  for  Women 
in  Euston  Road: 

5379.  Dr.  Kidd  told  us  just  now  that  in  his  experience  at  Brompton 
Hospital  there  was  a  good  deal  of  general  deterioration  of  health  among 
women? — That  is  exactly  what  I  should  say,  anjemia  and  general  nervous 
debility. 

5386.  And  would  not  standing  so  long  ver>'  much  affect  women,  if  they 
were  married,  afterwards? — It  is  not  good  for  women  to  stand  at  all  really. 

5387.  If  it  is  not  good  for  them  to  stand  at  all,  still  less  will  it  be  good 
for  them  to  stand  thirteen  hours  a  day? — 1  think  it  is  shocking. 

5389.  .  .  .  The  standing  of  course  would  exhaust  the  women  and 
make  them  more  liable  to  other  illnesses.     (Pages  218-219.) 


524  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  Witness,  Dr.  W.  Chapman  Grigg  (formerly  out-patient  physician  for 

the  diseases  of  women  at  Westminster  Hospital,  and  senior  physician  to 
the  Queen  Charlotte  Lying-in  Hospital,  and  connected  with  the  Victoria 
Hospital  for  Children): 

5402.  Would  you  please  tell  us  in  a  general  way  your  experience  as  to 
the  effects  of  these  prolonged  hours  on  health? — It  has  a  very  grave  effect 
upon  the  generative  organs  of  women,  entailing  a  great  deal  of  suffering 
and  also  injuring  a  very  large  body  of  them  permanently,  setting  up  in- 
flammation in  the  pelvis  in  connection  with  those  organs.  .  .  . 

5403.  ...  I  have  had  a  great  many  sad  cases  come  before  me  of  women 
who  were  permanent  invalids  in  consequence. 

5404.  ...  If  the  matter  could  be  gone  into  carefully,  1  think  the 
committee  would  be  perfectly  surprised  to  find  what  a  large  number  of 
these  women  are  rendered  sterile  in  consequence  of  these  prolonged  hours. 

5409.  ...  1  think  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  sterility  is  often  due 
to  this  inflammatory  mischief  arising  round  the  generative  organs.  I 
believe  that  is  one  of  the  greatest  evils  attached  to  these  prolonged  hours. 
I  have  seen  many  cases  in  families  where  certain  members  who  have  pur- 
sued the  calling  of  shop-girl  assistants  have  been  sterile,  while  other  mem- 
bers of  the  family  have  borne  children.  1  know  of  one  case  where  four 
members  of  a  family  who  were  shop-girls  were  sterile,  and  two  other 
girls  in  the  family,  not  shop-girls,  have  borne  children;  and  I  have  known 
other  cases  in  which  this  has  occurred.  ...  I  have  patients  come  to  me 
from  all  parts  of  London.     It  appears  to  be  a  most  common  condition. 

5410.  When  these  women  have  children,  do  you  find  that  the  children 
themselves  suffer  from  the  woman  having  been  affected  by  these  very 
long  hours? — I  have  seen  many  cases  where  1  have  attributed  the  mischief 
arising  in  childbed  to  this  inflammatory  mischief  in  the  mother,  which, 
after  delivery,  has  set  up  fresh  mischief,  and  I  have  seen  serious  conse- 
quences resulting. 

5413.  You  think  that  if  the  hours  were  altered,  there  would  be  less 
of  this  deterioration  to  health  which  you  speak  of? — 1  am  sure  of  it; 
they  all  tell  the  same  tale,  and  say  it  is  the  prolonged  hours  and  not  being 
allowed  to  sit  down.     (Pages  219-220.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  VI.     1901.      Report  by  the  Select  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Lords  on  Early  Closing  of  Shops. 

JVitness,  Sir  W.  MacCormac,  President  of  the  Royal  College  of  Sur- 
geons: 

2467.     And  you  can  hardly  expect  that  women  who  have  been  suffer- 


NECESSITY    FOR    LEGISLATION  525 

ing  from  such  long  hours  should  become  the  mothers  of  healthy  children?  great 
— That  is  what  I  ventured  to  hint.     It  must  have  an  influence  on  their 
offspring  undoubtedly. 

2468.  ...  It  is  gradual  and  progressive  in  its  effect,  and  it  goes  on, 
I  am  afraid,  in  a  cumulative  degree. 

2469.  You  mean  that  from  generation  to  generation  the  population 
will  become  feebler  and  feebler,  and  less  able  to  resist  disease? — It  must 
suffer  fromi  the  influence  of  it,  no  doubt.     (Page  120.) 

The   Hygiene,    Diseases,    and   Mortality   of  Occupation.     J.    T.  Arlidge, 
M.D.,  A.B.,  F.R.C.P.     Lo7idon,  Percival,  1892. 

Continuous  standing  for  hours  together  is  a  strain  especially  upon 
the  arch  of  the  feet  and  the  ankle  joints;  a  cause  of  weary  spine  and  spinal 
curvature,  favoring  also  pelvic  fullness,  and  in  the  female  sex,  productive 
of  derangements  of  the  uterine  functions  and  of  uterine  displacements. 
(Page  170.) 

Women's  Work.     A.  Amy  Bulley  and  Margaret  Whitley.     London, 
Methuen,  1894. 

The  long  hours  of  standing  are,  of  course,  apt  to  be  injurious  to  the 
health  of  women,  and  especially  of  young  girls.  Physicians  give  evidence 
of  diseases  contracted  in  this  manner,  and  the  report  of  the  "Sanitary 
Commission"  of  the  Lancet,  though  moderate  in  expression,  is  sufficiently 
explicit  upon  this  point.     (Page  56.) 


(4)  The  Necessity  for  Legislation:  Voluntary  Action 
Insufficient 

In  the  United  States  as  well  as  abroad  the  failure  of  volun- 
tary action  in  regulating  the  hours  of  labor  in  mercantile 
establishments  has  proved  that  legislation  is  necessary  to 
protect  saleswomen  from  extreme  overwork. 

The  uniform  requirement  of  limited  working  hours  there- 
fore checks  the  unscrupulous  purchaser,  as  well  as  the  un- 
scrupulous merchant,  and  enables  the  enlightened  and  hu- 
mane employers  to  shorten  the  working  day  without  fear 
of  underbidding  competitors. 


526 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


UNITED 
STATES 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


Report  of  the  Consumers'  League  of  the  City  of  New  York  for  the  Year  1904. 

Many  merchants  regret  that  they  and  their  employes  must  add  hours 
of  evening  work  to  the  already  fatiguing  experiences  of  holiday  selling, 
and  almost  all  of  them  express  themselves  as  willing  to  close  their  stores 
earlier,  if  all  their  neighboring  competitors  would  do  the  same;  but  as 
long  as  a  few  merchants  hold  out  against  this  willingness  to  stand  together, 
the  great  burden  of  Christmas  overwork  will  continue  to  fall  upon  those 
least  able  to  bear  it.     (Page  23.) 

Ibid.  190S. 

If  merchants  are  honestly  willing  to  close,  "provided  their  competitors 
will  do  the  same,"  but  feel  themselves  unable  to  do  so  because  their  com- 
petitors will  not  fall  into  line,  it  is  certainly  time  for  enlightened  public 
opinion  to  demand  legislation  preventing  such  strain  upon  women  and 
young  girls.     (Page  31.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII.     1892.     Report  from  Select  Com- 
mittee on  Shop  Hours  Bill. 

Mr.  Dudley  C.  Cornes,  Emplo\e  of  the  Early  Closing  Association: 

1754.  Then,  notwithstanding  the  assistance  which  your  society  can 
give,  and  the  agitation  which  you  can  carry  on,  may  we  look  upon  it 
that  voluntary  efforts  are,  more  or  less,  a  failure? — They  are,  more  or  less. 

1755.  Practically  a  failure? — Practically  a  failure. 

1758.  As  you  say  that  voluntary  effort  has  been  practically  a  failure, 
do  you  see  any  way  in  which  it  is  possible  to  bring  that  about,  except  by 
legislation  in  some  shape? — I  see  no  way  at  all  except  by  legislation. 

Mr.  Thomas  Sutherst,  Barrister: 

1366.  I  think  you  also  admit  that  voluntary  action  has  been  a  failure; 
that  is  substantially  the  sum  of  your  replies? — I  say  that  to  effectually 
deal  with  the  evil,  although  it  has  done  some  good,  I  am  afraid  it  never 
would  accomplish  any  substantial  improvement. 

1368.     You  consider  legislation  is  the  only  real  remedy? — I  do. 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XII. 
tee  on  Shops  {Early  Closing)  Bill. 


1895.     Report  of  Sded  Commit- 


Mr,  James  Austin  Stacey,  Secretary  of  the  Early  Closing  .Association: 

12.     You  gave  evidence  then  (1892),  that,  in  your  opinion,  though 

voluntary  action  had  done  much  good  in  many  cases,  it  was  not  competent 


NECESSITY    FOR    LEGISLATION  527 

to  cure  the  evil  as  a  whole.     Is  that  still  your  opinion? — Yes.    And  that,   great 
I  may  say,  is  the  opinion  of  various  traders'  associations  in  various  parts 
of  the  country. 

147.  You  support  this  legislation  because  you  contend  that  voluntary 
action  has  ceased  to  have  effect;  is  that  so? — It  has  ceased  to  make  the 
progress  that  the  traders  themselves  declare  to  be  necessary  for  the 
health  and  well-being  of  their  assistants,  and  for  economical  reasons  to 
themselves. 

148.  You  would  say  that  your  Early  Closing  Association  has  not  been 
able  to  get  any  further  early  closing  by  voluntary  action? — Not  further 
than  we  have  gone.     We  have  gone  a  great  way. 

149.  You  are  at  a  standstill? — Year  by  year  we  bring  about  a  certain 
number  of  improvements,  averaging  over  1,000  improvements  during  the 
past  four  or  five  years,  but  then  the  mischief  is,  as  in  the  case  of  Brixton, 
one  or  two  men  come  along  and  upset  the  whole  thing,  and  the  work 
has  to  be  done  over  again,  not  always  successfully. 

Mr.  John  Adams  Cooney,  Chairman  of  the  Scottish  Shopkeepers'  and 
Assistants'  Union: 

914.  Then  your  impression  is  that  voluntary  action  would  not  be  of 
much  use? — It  is  useless. 

915.  For  what  reason? — It  has  been  so  often  tried,  and  has  been  a 
failure  in  each  case. 

Mr.  Thomas  W.  Flint,  Scottish  Shopkeepers'  and  Assistants'  Union: 

1182.  Do  you  not  think  there  has  been  a  great  improvement  of  late 
years  under  the  voluntary  system,  and  that  the  hours  are  much  shorter 
than  they  were  twenty  years  ago? — No,  I  do  not. 

1183.  Do  I  understand  you  to  say  you  have  not  found  any  great 
improvement  under  the  voluntary  system? — 1  do;  1  have  seen  no  great 
improvement. 

1184.  That  is  why  you  are  in  favor  of  some  compulsory  measures 
being  adopted? — Yes. 

Mr.  Edward  Day,  Secretary  of  the  West  Yorkshire  Federated  Chamber 
of  Trade: 

1279.  When  voluntary  arrangements  are  made  with  regard  to  the 
hours  of  closing,  is  it  within  your  experience  that  those  voluntary  arrange- 
ments frequently  break  down? — Quite  so. 

Mr.  John  Griffin  Beaumont,  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  Birmingham 
Early  Closing  Association: 

2770.  Have  you  any  hopes  of  being  able  to  diminish  those  hours  by 
voluntary  action?— None  whatever. 

2771.  1  understand  that  you  have  almost  abandoned  any  voluntary 


.       528  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  action  in  the  matter? — Yes,  we  have.     The  association  has  been  working 

BRITAIN 

for  many  years  with  practically  no  result,  except  a  little  in  the  matter  of 
the  weekly  half-holiday. 

2772.  And  there  is  no  tendency  at  present  to  shortening  the  hours? — 
There  is  a  strong  public  sympathy  with  the  movement,  and  a  tendency 
on  the  part  of  the  employers;  but  at  the  present  time  we  are  at  the  mercy 
of  the  minority. 


British   Sessional    Papers.     Vol.    VI.     1901.     Report  from   Select  Com- 
mittee on  Early  Closing  of  Shops. 

Mr.  James  Austin  Stacey,  Secretary  of  the  Early  Closing  Association: 

7.  But  the  evidence  given  before  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons which  sat  in  1886  1  think  satisfied  your  association,  did  it  not,  that  a 
reasonable  hour  could  only  be  obtained  by  legislative  action? — That  is  so. 

Mr.  John  Griffin  Beaumont,  Representative  of  the  Birmingham  and 
District  Retail  Drapers'  and  Hosiers'  Association: 

332.  Have  you  and  the  associations  that  you  represent  any  hope  of 
shortening  those  hours  by  voluntary  action? — We  have  no  hope  of  short- 
ening the  hours  to  any  appreciable  extent  by  voluntary  effort.  Unless 
reasonable  arrangements  are  protected  by  legislative  enforcement,  there 
is  but  little  hope  of  any  curtailment  of  hours  in  any  large  center  of  popula- 
tion. 

Mr.  Frank  Dawson  Chambers,  Representative  of  the  Eastward  Dis- 
trict Associated  Trades: 

2422.  Has  your  association  any  hope  of  getting  early  closing  by 
voluntary  action? — None  whatever.  Voluntary  action  has  succeeded  to 
the  extent  of  inducing  the  larger  shops  to  close  one  afternoon  a  week,  but 
earlier  closing  has  failed  altogether. 

Mr.  James  Macpherson  and  Miss  Margaret  G.  Bondfield,  General  and 
Assistant  Secretaries  of  the  National  Amalgamated  Union  of  Shop  Assis- 
tants, Warehousemen,  and  Clerks: 

2575.  Have  you  any  hope  of  getting  a  more  reasonable  state  of  things 
by  voluntary  efforts? — No.  Many  years  ago  those  who  are  associated 
with  the  working  of  our  organization  have  abandoned  that  hope. 


(5)  Adaptation  of  Customers  to  Shorter  Hours 

Experience  shows  how  the  demands  of  customers  yield  to 
the  requirements  of  a  fixed  working  day.     When  shoppers 


•      ADAPTATION     OF    CUSTOMERS  529 

are  not  able  to  make  purchases  late  in  the  evening,  they 
become  accustomed  to  shop  earlier  in  the  day,  and  thus 
enable  merchants  to  shorten  the  working  hours  of  their 
saleswomien. 

Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor.     No.  91.     November.  1910.     Work-   UNITED 
ing  Hours  of  IVage-Earning  IVomen  in  Chicago. 

The  need  of  keeping  these  neighborhood  stores  open  evenings  on  half 
of  the  nights  each  week  seems  to  be  due  rather  to  competition  between 
stores  than  to  the  real  need  of  the  customers.  Both  managers  and  girls 
reported  that  not  many  years  ago  the  stores  were  open  every  night  ex- 
cept one.  Now  they  are  closed  three  nights  a  week.  The  owner  of  a 
large  store  in  one  neighborhood  reported  that  he  does  better  business 
now  than  he  did  under  the  longer  hours,  and  if  all  the  stores  were  obliged 
to  close  earlier  he  would  be  glad  to  close,  for  he  could  so  arrange  the  hours 
that  there  would  be  no  inconvenience  to  him.  .  .  .  The  manager  of  the 
largest  one  stated  that  there  had  been  no  loss  of  trade  because  of  the 
closing.  The  people  quickly  learn  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  store  hours. 
Since  the  saleswomen  in  these  stores  speak  the  language  and  know  the 
taste  of  the  people  who  buy  of  them,  and  since  even  car  fare  downtown 
is  an  expense  item  to  be  considered  among  the  people  of  these  neighbor- 
hoods, there  seems  little  danger  that  the  neighborhood  stores  would  be 
deserted  for  the  downtown  stores.  Besides,  they  are  too  great  a  conveni- 
ence in  a  city  of  "long  distances." 

Among  the  more  experienced  saleswomen  who  were  interviewed  on 
the  subject,  the  general  opinion  was  that  the  people  could  be  educated  to 
do  shopping  during  the  week  days  just  as  well  as  at  night  and  on  Sundays. 
But  all  the  stores  would  have  to  close  or  none  could  afford  to.     (Page  895.) 

British   Sessional   Papers.     Vol.   XII.     1886.     RebQrt  from  Select  Com-   great 

BKITAIN 

mittee  on  Shop  Hours  Regulation  Bill. 

Mr.  Whateley  Cooke-Taylor,  Inspector  of  Factories: 

3823.  Do  you  think  that  there  would  be  any  inconvenience  to  the 
public  in  limiting  the  hours  of  shopping? — No,  I  think  that  the  public 
would  very  soon  get  used  to  it. 

3824.  In  your  opinion,  would  there  be  any  diminution  in  the  amount 
of  business  done? — Not  in  the  long  run.  It  is  conceivable  that  for  a  short 
time  there  might  be,  but  I  think  it  would  be  an  extremely  short  time;  in  fact, 
in  the  long  run  it  is  conceivable  that  there  would  be  more  business  done. 

34* 


530  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  Mr.  Alexander  Redgrave,  C.B.,  Principal  Inspector  of  Factories: 

BRITAIN  ^^      ^^^  j^  j^Qj.  y^^  think  that  the  work  would  be  so  much  improved 

by  the  hours  being  shortened,  that  the  shopkeepers  would  practically  get 
as  much  labour  out  of  their  assistants  in  the  shortened  hours  as  they 
get  now  in  the  longer  hours? — I  think  that  the  public  would  learn  that 
they  must  go  to  the  shops  at  an  earlier  hour  in  the  day,  and  that  the 
same  amount  of  work  would  be  done. 

British   Sessional   Papers.     Vol.    XVII.     1892.     Report  from  the  Select 
Committee  on  Shop  Hours  Bill. 

Mr.  George  Sutherland,  Representative  of  the  Northwestern  Shop- 
keepers' Association  of  Glasgow: 

663.  1  think  that  is  an  adequate  answer  to  the  objection  that  if  all 
the  shops  were  closing  early  it  would  be  a  great  inconvenience  to  cus- 
tomers, seeing  that  such  a  large  body  of  the  general  public  deal  at  shops 
where  already  these  shorter  hours  really  have  been  in  force? — 1  speak 
with  a  life-long  experience  of  between  thirty  and  forty  years  behind  the 
counter  in  Glasgow  and  in  the  country  of  Scotland,  and  my  decided 
conviction,  based  on  that  experience,  is  that  no  inconvenience  is  felt  by 
the  customers  through  the  earlier  closing  of  the  shops. 

Mr.  Frank  Debenham,  Member  of  the  firm  of  Debenham  &  Freebody: 

2358.  How  about  those  poor  neighborhoods  where  the  shops  are  kept 
open  until  9.00  or  10.00  o'clock  at  night;  do  not  you  think  something 
requires  to  be  done  to  shorten  the  hours  there? — It  would  be  a  very  good 
thing  if  something  could  be  done;  I  should  not  despair  of  bringing  public 
opinion  to  bear,  even  among  the  classes  that  support  the  shops  that  keep 
open  late,  with  a  view  of  getting  them  to  close  early.  .  .  .  It  is  a  question 
of  adjustment;  there  is  a  good  deal  of  carelessness,  and  unnecessary  care- 
lessness, in  the  matter. 

Mr.  John  Griffm  Beaumont,  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  Birmingham 
Early  Closing  Association: 

2824.  1  do  not  think  that  the  late  shopping  in  the  suburbs  is  conse- 
quent upon  that  in  any  way;  it  is  simply  due  to  the  fact  that  the  shops 
are  open,  and  to  people's  thoughtlessness  in  the  matter.  The  shops  are 
open,  not  because  the  employers  wish  to  keep  open,  but  because  one  man 
opens,  and  the  custom  becomes  law. 

2894.  You  would  think,  I  dare  say,  that  they  could  rearrange  their 
shopping  arrangements  to  meet  the  new  condition  of  affairs  without  much 
inconvenience? — Without  any  inconvenience,  and  that  has  been  done 
within  the  last  five  years.     In  our  own  establishment  we  have  reduced 


MILLINERY    AND    DRESSMAKING  53I 

our  hours  an  hour  a  dav  without  any  decrease  in  the  returns,  or  anv   great 

1    •    .  *u  .     /^u  ui-  '  '      BRITAIN 

complaint  on  the  part  of  the  pubhc. 

Councillor  John  Jamieson,  Representative  of  the  Scottish  Shopkeepers' 
Union: 

3293.  From  your  acquaintance  with  Edinburgh  would  you  say  there 
was  much  difference  in  the  interests  of  the  different  quarters  of  the  city? — 
A  good  deal;  but  a  great  deal  of  it  is  just  "use  and  wont."  Undoubtedly, 
where  the  late  shopping  prevails  they  could  be  easily  educated  into  early 
shopping. 

3296.  What  would  you  say  was  the  reason  of  it? — Just  an  extremely 
bad  habit  that  has  grown  up  by  the  custom  of  years. 

History   of  Factory   Legislation.     B.    L.    Hutchins    and   A.    Harrison. 
London,  P.  S.  King  and  Son,  1911. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  the  supposed  inconvenience  to  the  working- 
class  consumer  of  early  closing  is  more  a  matter  of  habit  than  necessity, 
and  that  if  a  uniform  limit  were  applied,  gradually  reducing  the  hours 
that  could  be  worked  in  shops,  the  habits  of  the  community  would  adjust 
themselves  to  the  change  without  involving  any  hardship  or  tyranny 
nearly  so  oppressive  as  that  now  endured  by  the  employes  themselves. 
(Page  222.) 

C.     Millinery  and  Dressmaking  Establishments 
(1)  Seasonal  Characteristics 

These  occupations  are  "season  trades,"  entailing  a 
"rush"  period  of  intense  activity  followed  by  enforced 
idleness.  Where  there  is  no  legal  limitation  of  the  day's 
work,  it  is  often  limited  only  by  the  worker's  endurance, 
during  the  "rush"  season. 

The  Training  of  Millinery  Workers.     Alice  P.   Barrows.     Proceedings  united 
oi  the  Academy  of  Political  Science.      Columbia   University.      New 
York,  1910.* 

The  season  also  has  its  effect  upon  workroom  conditions.     "It's  rush, 

rush  all  the  time,  and  then  nothing  to  do."     In  62%  of  the  shops  investi- 

*  This  article  is  based  upon  a  report  not  yet  published  on  fVomen  at  Work  in 
Millinery  Shops  in  New  York  City.  It  is  the  result  of  an  investigation  carried  on  for 
the  Alliance  Employment  Bureau  of  New  York  from  the  autumn  of  1907  until  the 


STATES 


UNITED 

STATES 


532 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


gated  the  girls  worked  nine  to  nine  and  a  half  hours  daily.  A  large 
majority  had  a  working  week  of  fifty  to  fifty-five  hours.  In  only  eight 
was  the  week  less  than  fifty  hours.  In  86%  of  the  shops  the  day's  work 
lasted  regularly  until  six  o'clock  or  later — an  important  fact  when  the 
question  of  evening  school  work  is  to  be  considered.  71%  of  the  girls 
worked  overtime  in  the  busy  season.  During  the  overtime  season  the 
total  hours  varied  from  less  than  ten  up  to  fifteen  a  day.     (Page  44.) 


Millinery.     An  unpublished  investigation  made  in  New  York  City. 

In  41  establishments  there  was  no  overtime. 

103  establishments  required  overtime. 

In  34  of  these  there  was  no  overtime  after  9  p.  m. 

In  36  of  these  there  was  overtime  after  9  p.  m. 

The  closing  hour  was  not  stated  definitely  for  the  remaining  33. 


Total  Hours  Daily  Including  Overtime,  in  Millinery  Establishments 


Number 

Per  cent 

Less  than  10  hours 

10 
12 
14 
19 

8 

1 

16 
19 
22 
30 
12 
1 

10  to  11  hours 

11  to  12      "     

12  to  12      "     

13  to  14     "     

14  to  15      "     

Total 

64 

100 

Makeshift  workrooms  arising  out  of  the  precarious  character  of  the 
trade,  crowded  rooms  due  to  taking  on  the  casual  workers  for  the  rush 
season,  "bad  air"  made  worse  because  of  this  overcrowding,  long  and 
irregular  hours  caused  by  the  necessity  for  doing  six  months'  business  in 
three,  unregulated  piece-work  resulting  in  a  poor  product  and  homework, 
petty  nagging  in  order  to  squeeze  the  greatest  profit  out  of  every  moment 
of  time, — these  were  some  of  the  features  which  made  the  workroom  con- 
ditions in  the  millinery  trade  worthy  of  the  study  of  the  legislators.  These 
conditions  were  not  flagrantly  bad  in  any  one  particular.  They  com- 
pressed two  hours  work  into  one  so  that  "it  was  eating  and  sleeping  at  the 

spring  of  1909.  Two  hundred  millinery  girls  were  interviewed.  More  than  two 
hundred  shops  including  all  in  which  the  two  hundred  workers  had  been  employed 
since  July,  1907,  were  visited. 


MILLINERY    AND    DRESSiMAKING  533 

same  time,"  and  strained  the  nerves  of  forewomen  and  workers,  leaving  united 

STATES 

them  limp  and  lifeless  after  a  ten-hour  day.     (Page  54.) 

How  Girls  Learn  the  Millinery  Trade.  Mary  VanKleeck  and  Alice  P. 
Barrows  ojthe  Committee  on  Women's  Work,  Russell  Sage  Foundation. 
The  Survey,  April  16,  1910. 

The  blight  of  the  slack  season  falls  upon  establishments  in  all  parts 
twice  a  year  .  .  .  emptying  workrooms  and  dismantling  show  rooms, 
completely  shutting  down  some  establishments  or  leaving  four  or  five 
girls  listlessly  working  on  a  few  hats  in  rooms  which  a  month  before  had 
been  packed  with  two  hundred  girls  working  at  machine  speed.  .  .  . 

The  seasons  are  not  only  short.  They  are  irregular.  Some  wholesale 
houses  begin  fall  work  in  July,  some  in  the  middle  of  July,  some  in  August. 
The  retail  season  begins  at  any  time  between  September  and  October. 
(Page  107.) 

Studies  in  the  Economic  Relations  of  Women.  Issued  by  the  Department  of 
Research  of  the  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union.  Boston, 
1911.     Millinery.     {Forthcoming  Report.) 

Millinery  is  a  striking  example  of  a  seasonal  fashion  trade.  There  are 
two  busy  seasons,  the  fall  season,  beginning  usually  in  September,  and 
ending  in  November  or  December,  and  the  spring  season,  opening  a  few 
weeks  before  Easter  and  closing  in  June.  The  date  of  opening  of  the 
seasons  varies  and  is  usually  determined  by  the  uncertain  weather. 

At  the  very  beginning  of  the  busy  season  there  is  a  leisurely  air  about 
the  workroom.  The  girls  coming  back  after  their  vacations  are  glad  to 
see  each  other,  and  eager  to  begin  work  upon  the  new  hats  to  satisfy  their 
woman's  curiosity  as  to  the  new  styles  and  materials.  .  .  .  Gradually  as 
pioneer  customers  recover  from  their  first  feeling  of  uncertainty  as  to  the 
new  styles  and  begin  to  purchase  their  hats,  the  girls  are  made  to  work 
more  swiftly,  a  tense  feeling  creeps  into  the  atmosphere,  hats  are  brought 
back  for  alterations  while  hat-weary  customers  impatiently  await  their 
return. 

Work  begins  to  pile  up  which  must  be  gotten  out  "by  Saturday  night 
at  the  latest."  The  workroom  discipline  of  silence  is  rigidly  enforced, 
and  the  whole  force  is  working  under  a  nerve-racking  pressure.  This 
continues  for  several  weeks  without  cessation  until  perhaps  after  an  es- 
pecially busy,  trying  Saturday  "Madame"  enters  the  workroom  to  in- 
form her  force  that  she  has  no  orders  for  the  next  week,  that  she  will  have 


534 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


UNITED 
STATES 


to  let  some  of  her  help  go.  It  is  this  sudden  rush  and  the  uncertainty  of 
its  continuation  that  makes  the  seasonal  question  such  a  very  serious  one 
in  millinery.     (Chapter  II,  MS  Pages  10-11.) 


Number  of  women  employed  in  custom  millinery  work  during  the  year  in  the 
United  States,  1900.  Census  of  manufactures,  1900,  Vol.  VIl,  General  Tables, 
p.  54. 


30,000 


40,000 


50,000 


20,000 


IO.0OC 


Three  .  .  .  difficulties  accompany  the  seasonal  question  of  millinery. 
They  are  (1)  the  necessity  of  taking  on  during  the  busy  season  a  large 
force  of  workers  which  must  be  dismissed  as  soon  as  the  early  rush  is 
over;    (2)  the  almost  inevitable  overtime  which  goes  with  the  filling  of 


MILLINERY    AND    DRESSMAKING 


535 


rush  orders,  and  (3)  the  nervous  strain  both  of  the  employer  and  employee  united 
of  doing  rush  work  under  pressure.     (Chapter  IV,  MS  Page  12.)  states 

The  general  characteristic  of  the  seasonal  aspect  of  the  millinery  trade  is 
one  of  vagueness.     Nobody  can  predict  with  any  degree  of  assurance  what 


Number  of  women  employed  in  custom  dressmaking  during  the  year  in  the  United 
States,  1900.     Census  of  manufactures,  1900,  Vol.  Vll,  General  Tables,  p.  54. 


C  0,000 


i\OCO 


99,098 


4&,aSD 


3S,eoe 


aeiMfi 


ZJ,eo9 


^n   ^9  ^M  ^n  ^B  ^1S  w«       ^13 

oH  ^18  ^B  '4-9  «■  Sm  i2     ioE! 

*r  — —  *"-^ 


the  situation  will  be  at  any  time,  in  any  establishment,  for  any  worker. 
Yet  the  investigation  has  shown  some  tendencies  which  stand  in 
relief  against  the  general  background  of  unceitainty  and  indefmiteness. 


536  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  1-     The  majority  of  milliners  can  obtain  from  six  to  nine  months'  em- 

STATES  ployment  in  a  year.     The  minimum  for  most  workers  is  six  months,  while 

the  girl  of  exceptional  ability  can  often  work  the  year  round,  or  nearly  that. 

2.     A  maker's  season  varies  somewhat  with  the  type  of  shop  in  which 

she  works.     The  longest  seasons  are  obtained  by  makers   in  wholesale 

houses,  and  the  shortest  by  makers  in  department  stores. 

4.  Unemployment  is  not  the  only  evil  of  the  seasonal  trade.  The 
rush  season  with  its  long  hours,  and  its  pressure  on  the  worker,  is  produc- 
tive of  intense  discomfort,  if  not  of  permanent  physical  injury.  (Chap- 
ter V,  MS  Pages  20-21.) 


(2)  Bad  Effect  on  Health 

The  unregulated  length  of  the  workday  and  the  require- 
ment of  overtime  work  in  these  trades,  constitute  a  menace 
to  the  health  of  the  women  employed  therein.  The  busy 
season  is  characterized  by  "rush"  work  and  extreme 
"speeding-up."  The  workers  may  be  so  greatly  strained 
by  even  a  short  "rush"  season  that  health  is  permanently 
impaired. 

Studies  in  the  Economic  Relations  of  Women.  Issued  by  the  Department 
of  Research  of  the  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union.  Boston, 
1911.     Millinery.     {Forthcoming  Report.) 

During  the  busy  season  a  large  number  of  workers  are  taken  on  and 
the  workroom  is  at  a  terrible  pitch  of  nervous  tension.  The  very  uncer- 
tainty of  the  season,  due  to  the  variableness  of  the  weather,  adds  greatly 
to  the  strain.     (Chapter  IV,  MS  Page  9.) 

There  are  certain  evils  of  the  short  season  trade  which  affect  all  mil- 
liners to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  others  which  only  a  part  of  the  workers 
feel.  Chief  among  the  former  is  the  terrible  speeding  up  which  has  been 
mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter.  In  some  instances  it  means  overtime 
work,  in  others  it  means  not  an  actual  lengthening  of  the  working  day,  but 
quickening  of  the  pace  throughout  the  workroom,  until  every  one  in  it  is 
working  up  to  the  limit  of  endurance,  if  not  beyond  it.  Over  and  over 
again  came  the  refrain  from  the  workers,  "  It's  a  terrible  life."  This  of  a 
trade  which  many  girls  enter  because  they  are  "too  delicate"  for  store  or 
factory  work!     (Chapter  V,  MS  Page  11.) 


MILLINERY    AND    DRESSMAKING  537 

The  nervous  strain  upon  both  employer  and  employee  of  doing  rush   united 
work  is  very  great,  how  great  only  one  who  has  experienced  it  can  tell. 
(Chapter  IV,  MS  Pages  9-16.) 

Vocations  for  Boston  Girls.  Issued  by  the  Vocation  Office  for  Girls.  Bos- 
ton, Mass.,  1911.     Bulletin  No.  6:  Millinery. 

The  hours  are  long,— ohe^n  as  long  as  the  law  permits  during  the  busy 
seasons,  and  the  work  is  unusually  strenuous.  In  many  of  the  smaller 
establishments  evening  work  is  required  once  or  twice  a  week.     (Page  6.) 

Studies  in  the  Economic  Relations  of  Women.  Issued  by  the  Department 
of  Research  of  the  IVomcn  s  Educational  and  Industrial  Union.  Bos- 
ton, 1911.     Dressmaking.     {Forthcoming  Report.) 

In  one  large  alteration  workroom  men  and  women  were  discovered 
working  side  by  side  on  coats  and  shirts.  The  men  were  Russians  and 
Armenians.  The  women  were  Americans  and  Nova  Scotians.  The 
women  earned  $8  to  $10  a  week,  the  men  $14  to  $15.  "  Men  can  turn  out 
three  to  four  times  as  much  work  by  the  end  of  the  week,"  said  the  fore- 
man. "They  can  be  pushed  more  without  showing  bad  effects.  They 
are  more  stable,  and  less  inclined  to  nervous  strain  and  overwork." 

On  the  whole,  dressmaking,  as  carried  on  at  the  present  day,  is  a  nerve 
racking  trade.  The  work  must  be  done  in  certain  definite  periods  of  the 
year.  Orders  all  pile  up  at  once.  "It's  the  'nerve  work'  in  it  that  I 
can't  stand.  People  are  in  and  out.  They  want  this  ready  and  that  ready 
at  such  a  moment,"  said  a  waist  draper  receiving  $20  a  week.  Nervous 
and  unreasonable  customers  make  nervous  and  irritable  employers,  which 
in  turn  rebounds  to  the  misfortune  of  the  employee.  (Chapter  on  Indus- 
trial Problems,  MS  Page  47.) 

The  evil  effects  of  long  hours  and  overtime  for  women  have  been  so 
clearly  and  voluminously  portrayed  in  the  United  States  and  Europe  that 
it  seems  unnecessary  to  deal  with  them  except  in  a  cursory  way.  The 
physical  and  nervous  strain  of  overtime  added  to  the  regular  working  day 
is  self  evident.  The  work  begins  at  the  regular  hour  the  following  day 
regardless  of  the  hour  at  which  the  worker  left  the  shop  the  preceding 
night.     (Chapter  on  Hours  of  Labor,  MS  Page  16.) 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII.     1893.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  Workshops. 

It  should  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  where 
overtime  is  made  the  work  is  especially  trying  and  the  rooms  stuffy,  ill- 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


538  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

GREAT  ventilated,  and  the  air  rendered  very  impure  by  the  large  quantity  of  gas 

required  to  be  burning.  Perhaps  no  class  of  work  is  more  enfeebling  than 
dressmaking,  and  the  making  of  other  various  articles  of  wearing  apparel. 
(Page  90.) 

Much  of  the  good  done  by  the  Factory  Act  is  undone  by  allowing  deli- 
cate women  and  girls  to  work  from  8  a.  m.  to  10  p.  m.  for  2  months  of  the 
year.     (Page  92.) 

British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.   XXI.     1894.     Report  of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  Workshops  for  the  Year  1893. 

Few  persons  enjoying  the  comforts  and  conveniences  which  civiliza- 
tion provides  for  them  are  aware  that  the  articles  of  clothing,  utility,  or 
ornament,  which  they  possess  are  in  many  instances  purchased  at  a  fear- 
ful cost  in  the  deterioration,  or  even  destruction  within  a  brief  period,  of 
the  health  of  those  who  are  engaged  in  their  manufacture. 

Even  where  these  evil  effects  are  not  so  marked,  there  are  often  in- 
fluences at  work  which  are  sapping  the  vital  powers  of  the  industrial 
population  and  stunting  their  growth. 

This  is  a  matter  of  national  interest  and  importance.  ...  It  seems 
evident  from  the  reports  of  the  inspectors  that  the  confinement  in  close 
workrooms  and  the  long  hours  of  work  allowed  in  milliners'  and  dress- 
makers' establishments,  under  the  denomination  of  overtime,  are  injurious 
to  the  health  of  the  workpeople. 

The  reduction  of  overtime  for  women  and  young  persons  would  do  much 
to  bring  about  a  more  healthy  state  of  things.     (Page  6.) 

The  arguments  against  overtime  seem  to  me  to  be: 

2.  That  the  long  hours  of  confinement  are  injurious  to  the  health  of 
the  workers.     (Page  17.) 

Overtime  allows  but  scanty  opportunities  for  leisure,  and  for  indoor 
workers  it  often  means  that  but  one  day  in  the  week  is  available  for  exer- 
cise or  amusement.  The  consequent  effect  upon  the  health  of  the  workers 
is  exceedingly  injurious,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  indoor  workers  to 
whom  I  have  referred  and  who  have  been  practically  imprisoned  for  five 
days  in  the  week,  and  until  the  evening  of  the  sixth.     (Page  11.) 

They  (i.  e.  the  workers  at  these  trades)  are  accustomed  to  sitting  for 
long  hours  at  what  is  probably  the  most  trying  to  the  constitution  of  all 
trades,  and  when  one  takes  into  consideration  the  impurity  of  the  air  in 
the  average  workroom  where  gas  has  been  burning  for  some  time,  it  is  not 
surprising  to  see  how  anemic  and  fragile  many  of  them  look.     (Page  16.) 

...  Do  we  know  of  the  numbers  that  fall  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 


MILLINERY    AND    DRESSMAKING  539 

how  many  are  used  up  as  soon  as  the  seasons  are  over,  and  what  efforts   great 
are  made  to  gain  strength  enough  to  endure  the  next  year's  term  of  toil. 
(Page  23.) 

It  (overtime)  is  not  desirable  for,  in  many  cases  (that  of  milliners  and 
dressmakers  especially)  the  long  hours  are  most  prejudicial  to  the  health  of 
the  employees.     (Page  299.) 

Rapports  presentes  a  M.  le  Ministre  de  Commerce,  de  V Industrie,  des  Postes  FRANCE 
et  des  Telegraphes  par  les  Inspedeurs  du  Travail.     [Reports  presented 
to  the  (French)  Minister  of  Commerce,  Labor,  etc.,  etc.,  by  the  Factory 
Inspectors.]     La  Question  de  V Interdiction  du  Travail  de  Nuit.     [The 
Question  of  Prohibiting  Night  lVork.\     Paris,  1900. 

Late  hours  of  work,  as  well  as  actual  night  work,  are  destructive  to  the 
health  of  girls  and  women.  We  have  had  occasion  more  than  once  to 
observe  the  injurious  effect  of  evening  overtime.  When  night  hours 
are  added  to  those  of  the  day's  labor  the  result  is  overwork  which  directly 
saps  the  strength  and  promotes  the  craving  for  alcoholic  stimulant.  Dur- 
ing an  inquiry  made  in  Marseilles  a  number  of  sewing  girls  complained 
that  after  a  certain  number  of  evenings  with  late  overtime  they  found  it 
impossible  to  sleep.  Though  overcome  by  fatigue,  they  lay  awake  until 
early  morning,  when  it  was  nearly  time  to  go  to  work  again.  In  conse- 
quence, they  did  not  have  the  seven  hours  of  sleep  imperatively  necessary 
for  an  adult.  Failing  to  have  restful  nights  after  the  days'  work,  insomnia 
supervenes  with  all  its  terrors.  Sleep  has  so  vast  an  importance  with 
regard  to  health  that  there  is  perhaps  no  function  deserving  of  more  serious 
consideration.  Everything  that  interferes  with  the  hygiene  of  sleep  is 
dangerous,  because  the  equilibrium  of  the  nervous  system  is  imperilled. 
(Pages  84^85.) 

La  Revue  de  Paris,  Sept.-Oct.,  1904.     Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes. 
[Night  fVork  of  Women.]     Georges  Alfassa. 

But  night  work  is  especially  injurious  when,  in  place  of  substituting  it 
for  day  work  it  is  added  thereto;  in  other  words,  when,  in  addition  to  the 
day,  there  is  evening  work,  as  was  the  case  in  Paris  before  the  law  of  1892. 
.  .  .  They  were  kept  until  midnight,  2  a.  m.,  sometimes  all  night.  Such 
overtime  working  hours  are  extremely  exhausting,  for  the  workers  have 
had  no  food  since  midday  except  some  hasty  mouthfuls  in  the  early  even- 
ing.    (Pages  368-369.) 


540 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


FRANCE  First  International  Conference  of  the  Consumers'  Leagues  at  Geneva,  1908. 

La  Veillee:  Ahus  et  Responsabilitcs.  [Overtime:  Abuses  and  Re- 
sponsibilities.] Mme.  a.  Paul  Juillerat,  French  Factory  Inspector. 
Friboiirg,  1909. 

Those  who  have  not  seen  clothing  establishments  in  full  activity  can 
hardly  imagine  the  dreadful  fatigue  and  sapping  of  strength  resulting 
from  these  days  of  frenzied  speed.     (Page  52.) 

The  sewing  girls,  hurried  on  all  sides,  fingers  trembling,  are  literally 
exhausted  when  their  work  is  done.  ...  At  seven,  instead  of  going  away 
to  get  supper  they  are  told  "We  will  work  overtime."  They  have  lunched 
at  noon,  and  since  then  have  not  left  their  chairs;  perhaps  a  bite  was 
snatched  at  four;  .  .  .  without  being  able  to  send  word  home,  they  must 
resume  work  for  the  evening.  .  .  .  Eleven  o'clock  comes  .  .  .  midnight. 
...  At  one  o'clock  the  poor  sewing  girl,  thoroughly  worn  out,  is  not 
hungry,  has  but  one  wish — to  sleep  a  little  before  beginning  again  the 
next  day.  Sometimes,  at  night,  the  last  car  has  run,  and  the  young 
woman  has  to  go  home  on  foot.     (Page  54.) 


AUSTRIA 


Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  V Industrie.  Rapports  sur  son  im- 
portance et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Etienne  Bauer. 
[Night  IVork  of  fVomen  in  Industry.  Reports  on  its  importance  and 
legal  regulation.  Preface  by  Etienne  Bauer.]  Le  Travail  de  hluit 
des  Femmes  dans  V Industrie  en  Autriche.  [Night  IVork  of  IVomen  in 
Industry  in  Austria.]     Ilse  von  Ari.t.     Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

What  we  have  just  said  (regarding  evils  of  night  work)  is  equally  ap- 
plicable to  establishments  less  important  than  factories,  with  this  added 
circumstance,  that  the  fatigue  arising  from  the  day's  work  is  increased  by 
late  overtime,  making  the  task  still  more  arduous. 

Here,  after  a  day's  work  already  too  long,  when  "night  work"  must  be 
accomplished  in  addition,  the  body  becomes  incapable  of  enduring  the 
more  intensive  demands  which  are  unremittingly  made  upon  it.  This 
overtime  is  the  most  destructive  form  of  night  work,  and  it  is  found  in 
all  those  establishments  that  are  not  classed  as  factories.     (Page  82.) 

.  .  .  The  suitable  limits  of  working  time  vary  with  individuals  but  it 
is  acknowledged  that  not  only  is  a  regularly  long  day  of  work  injurious, 
but  also  that  a  single  isolated  instance  of  overstrain  may  be  harmful  to  a 
woman  all  the  rest  of  her  life, — a  fact  that  is  of  importance  for  workers  in 
seasonal  trades,  and  all  the  more  so  because  the  general  ignorance  of 
people  as  to  hygiene  for  women  gives  no  reason  to  anticipate  any  initia- 
tive for  reform  among  the  workers  themselves.     (Page  86.) 


millinery  and  dressmaking  54i 

(3)  Legal  Limitation  of  Working  Hours   Promotes   Better 
Organization  in  the  Season  Trades 

Where  the  employment  of  women  has  been  prohibited 
more  than  ten  hours  in  one  day,  the  supposed  necessity 
for  dangerously  long  and  irregular  hours  in  the  season 
trades  is  shown  to  be  in  large  part  avoidable.  Employers 
have  found  it  possible  to  obviate  such  irregularities  by 
foresight  and  management. 

Studies  in  the  Economic  Relations  of  Women.     Issued  by  the  Department  F^Xi? 
of  Research  of  the  IVomen  s  Educational  and  Industrial  Union.     Bos- 
ton, 1911.     Millinery.     {Forthcoming  Report.) 

It  would  be  safe  to  say  that  practically  none  of  the  better  and  larger 
stores,  parlors  and  department  stores,  where  stock  hats  are  kept  and  the 
business  does  not  depend  entirely  upon  orders,  demand  overtime  of  their 
workers.  The  fact  that  this  class  of  establishment  is  under  closer  super- 
vision than  the  others,  probably  serves  to  mitigate  the  evil  here.  The 
worst  offenders  are  those  shops  which  depend  very  largely  upon  orders 
for  their  trade.  The  smaller  parlors,  milliners  and  stores,  located  usually 
in  a  lodging  or  a  foreign  section,  and  the  wholesale  milliners  offend  in  this 
subject.     (Chapter  IV,  MS  Pages  14-15.) 

Studies  in  the  Economic  Relations  of  IVomen.  Issued  by  the  Department  of 
Research  of  the  Women' s  Educational  and  Industrial  Union.  Boston, 
1911.     Dressmaking.     {Forthcoming  Report.) 

Some  shops  have  worked  out  a  highly  systematized  arrangement  of 
work,  so  that  there  is  little  rush,  overtime,  or  irregularit}'.  "Every 
morning,"  said  one  worker,  "a  schedule  is  posted  showing  just  how  much 
work  must  be  finished  that  day.  .  .  .  Not  a  moment  of  time  is  lost  when 
the  force  is  on  up  to  the  last  minute  of  the  last  day  of  the  season." 

The  work  is  carefully  and  systematically  arranged  and  planned  b_\'  the 
employer  or  head  of  the  workroom.  The  employer  knows  just  how  much 
can  be  done  in  a  specified  time  and  refuses  to  take  more  orders  than  can 
be  completed  by  a  certain  date.  It  is  portioned  out  among  head  girls 
who  are  in  turn  responsible  for  their  particular  portion  of  the  production. 
The  head  girl  at  the  head  of  her  table  supervises  and  directs  her  various 
workers  who  sit  about  the  table,  each  doing  her  particular  phase  of  the 


542 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


UNITED 
STATES 


work.  In  a  well-systematized  workroom,  there  is  little  overtime  or  rush, 
but  a  continuous  and  fairly  steady  rate  of  speed  throughout  the  working 
season.  .  .  .  Where  consideration  and  kindness  are  shown  the  employees 
.  .  .  and  regularity  of  work  is  secured  a  remarkably  steady  force  is  dis- 
covered. An  employer  of  55  workers  has  had  most  of  her  girls  for  years. 
She  likes  to  train  them  up  through  the  stages.  Another  employer  of  30 
girls  says  a  large  proportion  have  worked  up  from  the  bottom,  beginning 
as  errand  girls.     (Chapter  on  Industrial  Problems,  MS  Pages  43-46.) 

Systematic  organization  of  the  work  is  also  an  equally  important  factor 
in  maintaining  a  regular  working  day.  Some  well-regulated  shops  open 
and  close  like  clock  work.  Workers  who  have  been  employed  there  for 
years  have  never  known  five  minutes  overtime.  Others  are  unanimously 
reported  by  the  workers  as  regular  offenders  in  the  matter  of  overtime. 
There  are  not  sufficient  workers  and  the  work  is  poorly  systematized  and 
arranged.  Consequently,  the  gowns  are  not  completed  at  the  specified 
time  and  the  workers  must  finish  them  before  they  go  home  at  night. 
(Chapter  on  Hours  of  Labor,  MS  Page  4.) 


GREAT 
BRITAIN 


British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII.     1893.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 
of  Factories  and  IVorkshops. 

.  .  .  There  will  always  be  some  people  who  do  not  know  how  to 
refuse  orders,  however  little  they  may  be  prepared  to  execute  them,  and 
who  expect  their  workpeople  to  help  them  out  of  the  difficulty  by  working 
excessive  hours.  .  .  .  The  most  serious  offenders  are  still  the  dressmakers 
and  milliners,  who  despite  the  fact  of  the  special  sanction  which  they  have 
under  the  law  to  work  exceedingly  long  hours  are  not  satisfied,  and  fre- 
quently exceed  the  more  than  liberal  legal  allowance.     (Page  88.) 


British  Sessional  Papers, 
of  Factories. 


Vol.  XXI.     1894.     Report  of  Chief  Inspector 


The  greater  part  of  my  work  so  far  has  been  connected  with  dress- 
makers, tailoresses,  milliners,  etc.  The  question  of  overtime  has  been 
much  before  me.  Much  of  the  necessity  for  overtime  .  .  .  arises  from 
want  of  method  and  forethought  on  the  part  of  employers,  forewomen,  and 
customers,  rather  than  from  extreme  pressure  of  business.  Promises  are 
made,  no  doubt,  which  without  having  recourse  to  overtime  it  is  impossible 
to  keep.  Sometimes  by  the  employer  who,  unwilling  to  risk  losing  an 
order,  shuts  his  eyes  to  the  fact  that  his  workers  have  already  more  to  do 
than  they  can  well  manage,  sometimes  by  the  forewoman  who  is  anxious 


MILLINERY    AND    DRESSMAKING  543 

to  turn  out  as  much  work  per  week  as  possible,  and  thinks  she  will  manage   great 
it  "somehow,"  and  yet  in  many  workrooms  where  the  management  is 
eificient,  and  the  fact  is  accepted  that  an  order  must  sometimes  be  re- 
fused, overtime  is  not  required  at  all,  and  the  employer  apparently  pros- 
pers.    (Page  15.)    ' 

It  (overtime)  is  not  necessary,  for  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases  in  so- 
called  season  trades,  advantage  is  simply  taken  by  certain  firms  to  mon- 
opolize a  larger  share  of  work  than  they  are  warranted  by  their  plant 
in  undertaking,  or  by  customers  in  unnecessarily  delaying  their  orders 
knowing  that  overtime  will  come  to  their  rescue.     (Page  299.) 

British   Sessional   Papers.     Vol.    XIX.    1895.     Report   of  the  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  and  IVorkshops. 

There  are  many  large  firms  of  dressmakers  and  milliners  who  never 
work  overtime,  and  I  can  only  thinkthat  if  they  are  able  to  do  without  surely 
others  can.  In  the  latter  case  all  work  is  taken,  no  orders  refused  on 
account  of  not  being  able  to  complete  within  the  time  specified  by  the 
customer,  however  unreasonable  this  may  be.  If  overtime  were  not 
permitted  it  would  simply  mean  that  the  customer  would  have  to  give  the 
order  earlier  and  it  might  perhaps  give  employment  to  more  girls.  (Page 
192.) 

Royaume  de  Belgique.     Rapport  presente  a  M.  le  Ministre  de  V Industrie   BELGIUM 
et  du  Travail.     [Report  made  to  the  Belgian  Minister  of  Commerce  and 
Labor.]     Travail  de  Nuit  des  Ouvrieres  de  I'lndustrie  dans  les  Pays 
Strangers.     [Night  IVorkfor  Women  in  Industry  in  Foreign  Countries.] 
Maurice  Ansiaux.     Brussels,  1898. 

A  great  Parisian  costumer,  though  hostile  to  governmental  interfer- 
ence, told  me  that  previously  the  forewoman  never  hastened  the  prepara- 
tion of  work,  so  that  owing  to  this  slackness  evening  work  frequently  be- 
came indispensable.  At  7  o'clock  in  the  evening  it  would  be  noticed  that 
the  skirt  or  waist  undertaken  was  still  incomplete;  it  was  necessary, 
therefore,  to  work  part  of  the  night. 

To-day  the  forewomen  know  that  evening  work  is  prohibited,  conse- 
quently they  so  arrange  the  work  that  all  can  be  finished  within  the  period 
prescribed  by  the  law. 

Under  the  previous  system  was  the  worker  free  to  refuse  to  take  part 
in  the  night  work?  By  no  means.  Very  often  at  the  moment  when  she 
was  preparing  to  leave  the  shop,  the  forewoman  would  say  to  her:   "We 


544 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


BELGIUM  continue  work  this  evening."     It  was  necessary  for  her  to  remove  her 

hat  and  to  remain  in  the  shop  until  work  ended. 

"The  liberty  of  the  workers  was  purely  fictitious,"  said  one  of  the 
women  before  the  Investigation  Committee.  "It  was  necessary  to  work 
or  to  quit.     Between  two  evils,  we  chose  the  less."     TPages  60-61.) 


CANADA 


UNITED 
STATES 


D.     The  Telephone  Service 

(1)  Character  of  the  Business 

Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  ana  Dispute  Respecting  Hours  of  Employment 
between  the  Bell  Telephone  Co.  of  Canada  and  Operators  at  Toronto,  1907. 

Connections  on  a  switchboard  are  made  by  inserting  a  small  plug  in  a 
small  hole  above  which  the  number  of  the  telephone  requested  appears. 
The  eye  is  attracted  in  the  first  instance  by  the  glowing  of  a  light  which 
announces  the  call.  It  has  then  to  immediately  find  upon  the  switch- 
board the  hole  in  which  it  is  necessary  to  insert  the  plug  to  make  the  desired 
connection.  Similarly,  in  disconnecting,  the  eye  detects  the  extinction 
of  the  light,  and  then  seeks  on  the  switchboard  the  number  with  which 
the  connection  has  been  made.  This  means  constant  employment  of  the 
muscles  of  the  eye  in  different  directions,  and  use  of  the  optic  nerve.  The 
ear,  in  receiving  calls,  is  required  to  distinguish  between  a  multitude  of 
different  voices,  to  ascertain  at  once,  and  so  as  to  avoid  repetition,  the 
number  asked  for,  no  matter  how  indistinctly  or  ill-pronounced  the 
number  may  be;  this  necessitates  constant  alertness  of  the  auditory 
nerve,  whilst  the  vocal  organs  are  scarcely  less  constantly  in  use  in  the 
answering  of  calls,  the  repetition  of  numbers,  and  the  conducting  of  such 
conversations  as  may  be  necessary.  The  sensations  created  by  the  work- 
ing of  the  several  senses  in  this  manner,  transmit  their  several  messages 
to  the  brain,  which,  in  turn,  directs  and  governs  the  actions  they  suggest. 
The  brain  is  the  center  of  the  nervous  system.  A  mere  statement  of  the 
case  is  sufficient  to  show  that  viewed  from  this  point  the  rapidity  or  speed 
with  which  operators  are  called  upon  to  carry  on  their  work  becomes  a 
matter  of  great  concern,  regard  being  had  to  the  mental  constitution  and 
nervous  system.     (Page  60.) 

Investigation  of  Telephone  Companies  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor. 
Senate  Document  No.  380.     61st  Congress.     2d  Session.     1910. 

The  operator  must  have  her  wits  always  alert,  a  quick  eye,  auditory 
nerves  always  ready  to  catch  the  words  of  the  subscriber  for  supervisor. 


THE  TELEPHONE  SERVICE  545 

a  steady  hand,  a  pleasant  and  clear  voice,  and,  first  and  last,  ability  to  united 
keep  her  temper  unruffled,  no  matter  what  happens.     Not  only  must 
she  be  alert  while  actively  occupied  in  answering  calls,  but  she  must  watch 
constantly  even  when  she  sees  no  signal  to  be  answered  lest  one  escape  her 
notice. 

This  is  more  readily  appreciated  when  it  is  remembered  that  in  the 
handling  of  the  simplest  form  of  connection,  as  above  described,  there 
are  involved  eleven  processes  on  the  usual  type  of  common  battery  board. 
First,  when  attention  is  attracted  by  the  pilot  lamp  (the  general  signal) 
the  operator's  eyes  follow  the  lines  of  signals  on  the  terminals  on  her 
position;  (2)  this  located,  she  (3)  puts  the  plug  into  the  terminal,  (4) 
opens  her  listening  key,  (5)  asks  for  number  desired,  (6)  locates  that 
number  on  the  multiple,  (7)  tests  the  jack  to  see  that  the  line  is  not  in  use, 
(8)  inserts  her  plug,  (9)  rings  the  called  party.  She  then  (10)  must  watch 
the  signal  lamps  to  see  that  the  called  party  answers  and  that  connection 
is  established.  As  soon  as  the  lamps  relight  she  must  be  alert  for  this 
signal  and  (11)  take  down  the  cords  at  once.  This  is  the  simplest  form 
of  connection,  and  these  processes — more  complicated  on  the  less  direct 
forms  of  connection — are  carried  on  during  the  entire  working  day,  some- 
times with  such  rapidity  that  over  350  connections  are  made  in  a  busy 
hour.  In  fact  one  exchange  reported  a  record  of  twenty-five  calls  an- 
swered in  two  minutes  and  nine  seconds,  or  an  average  of  5.16  seconds  per 
call.  While  this  speed  is  nowhere  long  maintained,  or  even  aimed  at  as  a 
constant  standard,  there  is  even  at  the  dullest  hour  the  need  of  watch- 
fulness lest  a  signal  go  unnoticed.  This  constant  alertness  for  possible 
signals  in  itself  involves  continuous  strain.     (Pages  104-105.) 

Let  us  watch  an  operator  at  her  work  during  the  "peak  of  the  load." 
The  lines  terminating  in  her  position  are,  we  will  say,  100,  that  is  100 
telephone  users  send  their  call  signals  directly  in  the  first  instance  to  her 
position.  With  each  call  a  light  flashes  on  a  signal  cap  in  front  of  her. 
Several  lamps  glow  simultaneously,  showing  that  a  number  of  users  are 
calling  for  numbers  at  the  same  time.  She  is  expected  to  give  all  the 
quickest  possible  service  in  the  order  in  which  their  calls  come  in,  but 
when  several  signals  come  at  once  and  others  come  before  these  can  be 
cared  for  the  order  of  calls  is  necessarily  lost  and  the  effort  is  concentrated 
merely  on  clearing  the  board,  or  catching  up.  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  with  each  signal  there  is  not  only  the  flashing  of  a  small  light  in  the 
operator's  eyes,  but  there  is  a  clicking  sound  in  her  ears  through  the  re- 
ceivers fastened  to  her  head.  So  when  the  impatient  subscriber,  angry 
because  his  call  has  not  been  answered,  moves  the  receiver  hook  of  his 
'phone  up  and  down  rapidly,  he  flashes  the  signal  light  in  front  of  the 
35* 


546 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


UNITED 
STATES 


operator,  and  produces  a  click  in  her  ears  every  time  the  hook  goes  up  and 
down.  The  consciousness  of  numbers  of  people  waiting  for  call  connec- 
tions she  is  unable  to  make,  and  that  each  one  is  growing  more  impatient 
each  second;  that  a  supervisor  is  standing  behind  her  either  hurrying 
her  or  calling  her  numbers  to  be  taken  by  other  operators;  that  a  monitor 
may  plug  in  and  criticise  any  moment — these,  with  the  height  of  up- 
reach  and  length  of  side-reach,  go  to  form  the  elements  of  strain  on  the 
operator  who  is  "overloaded."     (Page  56.) 


(2)  Bad  Effect  on  Health 

CANADA  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  a  Dispute  Respecting  Hours  of  Employ- 

ment between  the  Bell    Telephone  Co.   of  Canada  and  Operators  at 
Toronto,  Ontario,  1907. 

Twenty-six  medical  practitioners  gave  evidence  before  the  commission. 
The  physicians  subpoenaed  were  nearly  all  selected  from  the  medical 
faculty  of  the  University  of  Toronto,  and  were,  without  exception,  among 
the  leading  members  of  the  profession  in  the  city.  (Page  65.) 

Dr.  William  Britton,  practicing  thirty-one  years,  Toronto,  representa- 
tive of  the  University  of  Toronto  and  Medical  Council,  attended  employes: 
Many  suffering  from  nervous  debility  occasioned  by  the  strain  of  that 
particular  work  upon  the  nervous  system,  which  includes  the  senses  of 
hearing,  speaking,  seeing,  and  using  arms,  causing  too  much  strain  upon 
the  nerve  center.  ...  In  a  number  of  cases  of  young  ladies  whom  I  had 
known  as  the  physician  of  the  family,  before  they  entered  into  the  tele- 
phone service  and  were  apparently  healthy,  after  a  length  of  service  in  the 
telephone  office,  1  had  to  prescribe  for  them  for  various  types  of  nervous 
debility,  and  my  advice  to  the  majority  of  them  was  to  discontinue  the 
work.  The  constant  listening  and  the  keen  buzzing  means  a  state  of 
tension  of  the  nervous  system  all  the  time;  fifteen  minutes'  relief  would 
be  a  very  slight  one.  I  have  quite  often  seen  nervous  hysteria  from  this 
nervous  strain  to  the  telephone  girls.     (Page  66.) 

Dr.  Charles  R.  Clark,  medical  superintendent  of  the  Toronto  Asylum: 

Work  is  automatic  only  to  a  limited  extent.  It  requires  a  mental 
effort  every  time.  Nervous  strain  is  intense  and  would  react  on  the 
physical  health  in  a  marked  way  after  three  years'  service,  and  might 
pass  on  to  the  next  generation  in  a  more  striking  way  than  even  in  the 
present  generation.  I  am  basing  that  statement  on  my  every-day  ex- 
periences with  just  such  cases,  having  an  experience  on  that  kind  of  thing 
for  several  years.     (Page  72.) 


THE  TELEPHONE  SERVICE  547 

Dr.  J.  M.  McCallum,  Professor  of  Therapeutics,  and  teacher  in  con-   CANADA 
nection  with  the  eye  and  ear  in  Toronto  University: 

The  result  of  work  would  be  nerve  fag  and  might  be  a  nervous  break- 
down. .  .  . 

We  know  practically  that  changes  in  illumination  from  dark  to  light 
do  irritate  the  optic  nerve,  and  that  is  going  on  all  the  time.  .  .  .  Flash- 
ing of  the  light  has  an  irritating  effect  and  is  in  that  way  injurious.  The 
nerves  governing  the  extra  ocular  muscles  which  focus  the  eye  upon  the 
object  looked  upon,  are  the  nerves  where  the  greatest  part  of  the  strain 
comes.  The  sound  kept  up  for  hours  m,ust  have  an  effect  on  the  auditory 
nerves,  and  if  for  long  hours,  an  injurious  effect  might  cause  deafness. 
The  possibility  of  receiving  shocks  would  add  to  the  nerve  strain,  effect 
on  vocal  organs  not  much.  The  effect  upon  the  nervous  system  is  through 
the  nerves  of  the  eye  and  the  auditory  nerves;  reaching  is  subsidiary; 
operating  together  causes  the  difficulty.     (Page  72.) 

Dr.  Walter  McKeown,  16  years'  practise  in  Toronto.  Have  had  tele- 
phone operators  as  patients  suffering  from  nervous  exhaustion.  Five  hours 
extreme  limit  for  such  service  with  a  break  in  it  of  an  hour.     (Page  68.) 

Dr.  James  M.  Anderson,  practicing  20  years,  Toronto,  specialist  in 
eye,  ear,  nose  and  throat.  Treated  a  number  of  telephone  girls,  mostly 
for  eye  troubles,  headache,  and  nervous  troubles.  Business  of  a  telephone 
operator  is  the  most  trying  of  any  I  have  ever  seen,  so  far  as  it  affects  the 
eyes  and  through  the  eyes  the  general  system.  Three  hours  twice  a  day 
fill  safe  limit  of  service,  with  two  hours,  at  least,  rest  between  the  two 
periods.  .  .  .  The  twenty  minutes'  relief  in  the  two  periods  of  four  hours 
a  great  deal  better  than  the  eight  hours  with  one  hour,  but  not  of  much 
service.  .  .  .  The  periods  not  long  enough  for  rest;  five  hours  divided 
into  two  periods  with  an  hour  for  lunch  better  than  any  of  the  other  propo- 
sitions, and  an  operator  might  do  that,  but  the  others  would  be  too  great 
a  strain  upon  her.  After  a  service  of  three  or  four  years  would  expect  to 
find  an  exhausted  womanhood  .  .  .  harmful  upon  the  future  motherhood. 
(Page  69.) 


(3)  Overtime  Work 

Investigating  of  Telephone  Companies  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor. 
Senate  Document  No.  380.     61st  Congress,  2d  Session,  1910. 

Overtime  work  is  frequent.  .  .  .  The  practise  of  requiring  overtime  is 
attended  by  hardships.  In  the  first  place  it  means  the  lengthening  by 
one  or  even  two  hours  of  a  workday  that  in  itself  is  not  short. 


UNITED 
STATES 


548  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  The  hours  of  v/ork,  as  well  as  the  character  of  the  work  itself,  must 

STATES 

be  considered  in  any  discussion  of  nervous  and  physical  strain  growing 
out  of  an  occupation.  It  was  shown  that  relief  periods  were  sometimes 
curtailed,  that  Sunday  work  was  required  twice  a  month  in  many  com- 
panies, that  holidays  were  difficult  to  obtain,  that  hours  were  not  short. 
(Page  33.) 

Overtime  seems  to  be  an  integral  part  of  the  schedule  of  hours  in  a 
number  of  telephone  companies.  Operators  not  only  are  asked  to  take 
their  turn  in  working  extra  hours,  but  in  some  companies  a  regular  extra 
period  is  assigned  for  certain  days  each  week  to  each  operator.  She  is 
virtually  compelled  to  do  this  extra  work,  lest  by  refusing  she  incur  the 
displeasure  of  her  chief  operator  or  get  the  reputation  of  shirking  her  share 
of  work. 

This  overtime  varies  in  length  from  a  few  minutes  to  two  and  one-half 
hours,  one  company  even  posting  a  list  apportioning  two  nights  a  week 
to  each  operator,  on  which  night  she  must  be  prepared  to  work  overtime, 
if  required.     (Page  110.) 

These  conditions — curtailment  of  relief,  compulsory  overtime  work, 
Sunday  and  holiday  work — cannot  perhaps  be  done  away  with  entirely, 
owing  to  the  peculiar  conditions  of  telephone  work.  That  these  con- 
ditions could,  to  a  large  degree,  be  modified  by  the  employment  of  a 
proportionate  relief  force  is  shown  by  the  experience  of  exchanges  where 
this  is  done.  In  these  exchanges  overtime  comes  but  seldom,  and  then 
usually  as  a  result  of  abnormal  number  of  absences  from  the  operating 
force  or  of  an  unexpected  load  of  business  on  the  wires.  .  .  . 

These  conditions  can  be  remedied,  as  is  shown  by  the  schedule  of  sev- 
eral important  companies.  A  small  force  of  extra  relief  operators  would, 
to  a  large  degree,  minimize  the  curtailment  of  relief  periods  and  the  amount 
of  overtime  required,  as  well  as  somewhat  reduce  the  amount  of  holiday 
work  required.  While  there  must  always  be  Sunday  and  holiday  work, 
at  least  two  large  companies  have  discovered  that  this  need  not  mean  seven 
days'  work  each  week.  They  require  their  operating  force  to  take  one 
day's  holiday  during  the  week  when  Sunday  service  has  been  rendered. 
(Pages  111-112.) 

IVomen  and  the  Trades.  The  Pittsburgh  Survey.  Elizabeth  B.  Butler. 
Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication.  New  York,  Charities  Publica- 
tion Committee,  1909. 

It  would  seem  that  the  experience  of  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  in 
one  city  should  not  need  to  be  repeated  by  its  own  branches  or  by  other 


THE   TELEGRAPH    SERVICE  549 

companies  in  other  cities.     Where  the  social  loss  caused  by  this  business   united 

•  •    •        •  STATES 

policy  has  been  so  clearly  demonstrated,  public  opmion  m  a  local  commu- 
nity should  demand  a  change,  so  far  at  least  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
health  as  has  been  found  practicable  in  Toronto.  The  human  cost  to  a 
city  is  too  great  if  before  adopting  a  change  in  policy  the  need  and  the 
practicability  of  which  have  already  been  proved  elsewhere,  it  must  re- 
peat the  same  laboratory  experiment  with  the  nerve  cells  of  its  young  girls. 
(Pages  291-292.) 

E.     The  Telegraph  Service 

Women  and  the  Trades.  The  Pittsburgh  Survey.  Elizabeth  B.  Butler. 
Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication.  New  York,  Charities  Publica- 
tion Committee,  1909. 

The  main  office  of  a  telegraph  company  impresses  the  uninitiated  ob- 
server but  does  not  enlighten  him.  .  .  .  You  see  men  and  women,  row 
back  of  row,  receiving,  sending,  writing  messages.  You  hear  the  inter- 
mittent click  of  the  telegraph  keys,  the  banging  of  typewriters,  and  you 
are  conscious  of  a  steady  undercurrent  of  haste,  concentration,  quick 
efficiency.  .  .  .  Managers  and  operators  as  a  rule  agree  that  the  lesser 
physical  strength  of  women  tells  against  them  after  several  years  of  light 
wrist  and  finger  motions;  that  because  of  this  lesser  strength,  women  have 
neither  the  speed  nor  the  accuracy  of  men;  and  that  they  get  "glass 
arm,"  a  nervous  inability  to  work,  more  frequently.     (Pages  292-293.) 

F.     Work  in  Hotels  and  Restaurants 

Recent  government  investigation  has  shown  the  duration 
of  working  hours  of  waitresses.* 

These  statistics  show  that  many  employers  employ  wait- 
resses less  than  ten  hours  in  one  day  and  sixty  hours  in  one 
week.  But  the  practice  of  other  employers  of  requiring 
hours  of  labor  so  long  as  to  be  dangerous  to  health  proves 
the  necessity  of  the  ten-hour  law  for  women  employed  in 
hotels  and  restaurants. 

The  differences  between  work  in  hotels  and  in  boarding 

*This  section  was  part  of  the  Brief  in  defense  of  the  Illinois  Act  of  1911; 
hence  the  hours  of  labor  in  Illinois  are  quoted.  They  are  typical  of  all  large 
cities,  as  well  as  of  Chicago. 


550  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  houses  justifies  the  inclusion  of  the  former,  and  the  exclusion 

Q'p  A  'PIT  G 

of  the  latter  from  the  scope  of  the  ten-hour  law. 

Report  of  Condition  of  Woman  arid  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United  States. 
Vol.  V.    Senate  Document  No.  645.    61st  Congress.    2d  Session.    1910. 

Waitresses  are  employed  to  work  in  shifts,  according  to  the  number 
of  meals  they  serve,  and  in  different  cities  there  are  different  names  applied 
to  these  shifts.  .  .  .  For  purposes  of  tabulation  they  have  been  divided 
into  groups  of  girls  who  serve  three  meals,  girls  who  serve  two  meals, 
and  girls  who  serve  one  meal  per  day.  ...  In  the  average  number  of 
hours  of  actual  labor  per  week  the  time  allowed  the  girls  for  eating  their 
meals  is  deducted  as  well  as  any  time  during  the  day  they  may  have  "off 
duty,"  i.  e.,  time  during  the  day  in  which  they  may  leave  the  restaurant 
entirely.  The  three-meal  girls  often  have  from  two  to  three  hours  "off 
duty"  in  the  afternoon,  when  there  is  little  business  being  done  in  the  res- 
taurant. The  girls  serving  three  meals  usually  begin  work  at  6,  7,  or  8 
o'clock  in  the  morning  and  work  until  the  corresponding  hours  in  the 
evening.  The  two-meal  girls  work  from  9,  10,  or  11  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing until  7,  8,  or  9  o'clock  at  night,  and  they  seldom  have  any  time  "off 
duty."  In  a  few  cases  where  girls  worked  all  night  they  are  included  with 
the  three-meal  girls.     (Pages  191-192.) 

There  was  much  complaint  among  the  waitresses  that  the  work  was 
very  hard  and  they  could  stand  it  but  a  few  years.  A  number  of  the  girls 
interviewed  had  worked  as  three-meal  girls  until  their  health  was  broken; 
then  they  took  positions  as  one-meal  girls  and  barely  made  a  living. 
Carrying  the  heavy  trays  and  the  constant  standing  or  walking  cause  ill 
health.  Usually  a  man  is  employed  to  carry  away  the  empty  dishes,  but 
the  waitress  must  bring  the  trays  loaded  with  food.  (Chapter  X,  MS 
Page  199.)     (See  table  on  opposite  page.) 

Labor  Laws  and  Their  Enforcement  with  Special  Reference  to  Massachusetts. 
Edited  by  Susan  B.  Kingsbury.  New  York,  Longmans,  Green  and 
Co.,  1911. 

In  fourteen  of  the  fifteen  restaurants  where  we  worked,  conditions  were 
worse  from  a  standpoint  of  health  than  in  any  other  class  investigated. 
There  was  a  marked  lack  of  cleanliness  and  long  and  irregular  hours  were 
almost  universal.  .  .  .  In  one  of  the  fifteen  restaurants  almost  every  law 
for  the  protection  of  the  health  of  employes  was  violated.  The  kitchen 
was  unclean,  walls  and  ceilings  black  with  smoke,  grease  and  cobwebs. 
Odors  arose  from  the  sink  and  refuse  was  allowed  to  collect  for  days  in 
uncovered  barrels.     Here  flies  and  vermin  were  the  most  in  evidence. 


Women  Employed  AS  Waitresses  in  Hotels  and  Restaurants,  Chicago 


Three-meal  Girls 

Two-meal  Girls                      UNITED 
STATES 

Number 

Average 

IVeekly 

Hours  of 

Labor 

Av.  IV'kly 

Rate  of 

Pay,  with 

Meals 

Number 

Average 

IVeekly 

Hours  of 

Labor 

Av.  IV'kly 
Rate  of 

Pay,  with 
Meals 

a7 

70A 

68^ 

57^ 

55 

48 

57 

54 

ic) 

58K 

65 

66K 

58>^ 

51 

68K 

66K 

51 

78 

64f 

63i 

55>^ 

57K 

66K 

49>^ 

60 

673^ 

61K 

67K 

51i 

62 

84 

73>^ 

nn 

57 

58K 

80K 

70 

56i 

72i 

85^ 

66 

60 

555^ 

63H 

45 

63 

$9  86 
8  75 
8  00 
7  00 
7  00 
7  00 
7  00 

7  00 

8  50 
8  00 
8  00 
7  00 
7  00 

7  00 

8  00 
8  00 

7  00 

8  60 

9  00 
7  00 
7  00 
9  00 
7  00 
7  00 

7  77 

8  00 

7  00 

8  47 

8  00 

9  00 

7  00 

8  00 

7  00 

8  83 
8  00 
8  00 
8  25 
8  00 
8  20 
7  00 

7  00 

6  50 

8  00 

7  00 

8  20 

12 

45 

48 

42 

55~\ 

45' 

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54} 

41K 

56 

S7K 

42 

43^ 

18 

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5  

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a5 

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6  92 

10 

IS 

7  00 

8 

32 

6  50 

10 

2 

7  50 

2 

12 

7  00 

14 

14 

7  57 

6 

24     

6  50 

2 

4 

6  00 

10 

2 

7  00 

2 

4     

7  00 

2 

3 

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3 

4 

3  00 

8 

18       .             

6  50 

26 

11 

7  57 

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1 

7  00 

6 

2                

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1 

3 

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2 

13 

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4 

2 

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9 

22 

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6 

6 

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176  . 

5  50 

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a  Two  are  all 
c  Not  reporte 

night  wai 
d. 

g^ 

tresses. 

/ork  all  nig 
5! 

e  One  works  all  i 
/  All  or  part  ser\ 
ht. 

light. 
^e  at  nigh 
( 

t. 

Page  359.) 

552  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  although  receptacles  for  bread    and  crackers  were  also  infested.     One 

kitchen  was  ventilated  by  one  small  window  and  one  door,  with  no  screens 
for  either.  Added  to  the  discomfort,  the  men  in  kitchen  were  frequently 
smoking  and  spitting.  The  toilet  was  dirty  and  dark  with  no  provision 
for  ventilation  except  from  the  door,  but  it  was  not  situated  in  the  kitchen, 
as  was  the  case  in  three  restaurants  where  we  worked.  The  total  number 
of  hours  that  I  worked  at  this  place  was  sixty-six  per  week  and  1  was  not 
on  an  exceptional  schedule  for  the  other  waitresses  worked  as  long.  The 
hours  of  cooks  and  servers  were  even  longer.     (Pages  154-155.) 

Brief  of  Griffin  and  Yanckwich  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Cali- 
fornia. [In  the  Matter  of  the  Application  of  Frank  A.  Miller /or  a 
Writ  of  Habeas  Corpus.]     July,  1911. 

In  hotels  the  work  of  chambermaids  is  both  injurious  and  unpleasant. 
The  work  of  keeping  hotels  clean  compels  chambermaids  to  come  into 
contact  with  linen  used  by  diseased  persons,  and  to  inhale  air  exhaled 
by  diseased  persons.  The  work  of  waitresses  is  arduous;  the  waitresses 
are  compelled  not  only  to  stand  on  their  feet  most  of  the  time,  but  to  walk. 
It  has  been  estimated  that  a  waitress  working  ten  hours  a  day  walks  twenty 
miles.     (Page  89.) 

Brief  of  Denman  and  Arnold  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  California. 
[In  the  Matter  of  the  Application  of  F.  A.  Miller  for  a  Writ  of  Habeas 
Corpus.]     July,  1911. 

We  have  a  clear  judicial  expression  that  women's  hours  of  labor  may 
be  limited  for  the  prevention  of  any  of  the  following  purposes: 

1.  Injury  to  the  woman  herself,  (a)  by  long  standing  on  her  feet  in 
any  occupation,  (b)  by  physical  or  mental  strain  due  to  the  long  con- 
tinuance at  or  confinement  in  any  single  occupation,  (c)  by  worry  and 
anxiety  in  the  competition  to  secure  and  hold  place,  a  worry  and  excite- 
ment greatly  increased  during  her  periodical  semi-pathological  condition. 

2.  Injury  to  her  offspring  as  a  result  of  physical  or  mental  injuries  to 
herself,  or  by  bringing  contagion  home  to  her  children. 

3.  Her  absorption  in  gainful  occupation  to  the  detriment  of  the  rear- 
ing and  education  of  her  children. 

4.  Her  occupation  in  these  employments  to  the  detriment  of  the 
maintenance  of  the  home. 

5.  The  likelihood  of  her  submitting  to  oppressive  conditions  in  her 
employment,  due  to  her  inferior  nervous  and  physical  capacity  to  cope 
with  her  employer. 


WORK    IN    HOTELS    AND    RESTAURANTS  553 

The  question  then  is:  Can  this  Court  say  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt,   united 
that  none  of  these  evils  exist  or  are  likely  to  exist  to  a  greater  degree  in   ^'^^'^^^ 
the  public  institution  of  the  ordinary  hotel,  than  in  the  private  institu- 
tions of  the  lodging  and  boarding  house?     Unless  it  can  say  that  the 
equality  of  amount  or  kind  of  danger  in  the  two  classes,  does  not  even 
seem  dubious  it  must  uphold  the  law. 

The  Difference  Between  the  Possible  Evils  to  Women  in  the  Hotel,  a 
Public  Institution  Open  to  All  Travelers,  and  in  Boarding  or  Lodg- 
ing Houses,  Private  Institutions,  Which  Are  Not. 

It  was  suggested  that  the  fact  that  the  hotel  is  a  public  institution  to 
which  all  travelers  customarily  go  and  the  lodging  or  boarding  house  is  a 
private  institution  to  which  travelers  go  but  infrequentl}',  would  not 
warrant  a  different  health  law  for  one  than  for  the  other. 

It  is  of  course  true  that  some  low  boarding  or  lodging  houses  ma_\' 
present  more  unsanitary  conditions  than  the  average  hotel.  But  this 
is  no  more  true  than  that  some  private  schools  are  less  sanitary  as  far  as 
contagion  is  concerned  than  the  public. 

The  hotel  is  distinguishable  from  the  boarding  house  by  much  more 
than  the  dry  legal  incident  of  the  power  of  the  keeper  of  the  latter  to 
choose  his  guests.  An  examination  of  the  consequences  flowing  from 
the  public  character  of  the  hotel  or  inn  in  so  far  as  they  affect  the  woman 
employe,  shows  that  they  are  vital  in  their  nature. 

In  the  first  place  with  regard  to  communicable  disease.  The  hotel 
chambermaid  must  handle  the  soiled  bed  linen  and  perform  other  inti- 
mate services  for  the  traveling  guests.  The  hasty  arrival  and  short  stay 
of  the  traveler  make  it  impossible  that  there  shall  be  any  attempt  to  segre- 
gate the  diseased  from  the  healthy,  save  in  very  obvious  cases.  The  con- 
sumptive, the  typhoid  patient,  the  syphilitic,  the  children  with  all  their 
contagious  diseases,  are  hurried  up  to  their  rooms  and  are  off  again  the 
next  day,  quite  likely  traveling  to  reach  hospitals  or  medical  treatment. 

It  is  the  women  in  the  hotel  who  are  chiefly  exposed  to  the  danger 
of  contagion  from  these  sources.  Is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
the  number  of  exposures  to  disease  a  chambermaid  will  receive  from 
the  very  large  number  of  travelers  in  hotels,  will  greatly  exceed  the  number 
among  the  less  changeable  occupants  of  boarding  and  lodging  houses? 
Can  this  Court  say  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt  that  the  danger  from 
contagion  is  not  greater  in  the  former  class  than  in  the  latter?  Even  if 
the  Court  should  think  that  the  distinction  is  a  dubious  qne,  is  it  in  pos- 
session of  the  facts  upon  which  to  determine  the  relative  danger?  Or  is 
it  not  plain  that  this  question  of  degree  is  one  for  the  Legislature? 


554  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  A  court  may  take  judicial  notice  that  making  up  a  bed  is  the  same 

STATES  •  or 

whether  it  is  in  a  hotel  or  a  boarding  house.  But  will  it  therefore  take 
judicial  notice  of  the  relative  number  and  kind  of  disease  germs,  the  ad- 
mittedly different  classes  and  numbers  of  persons  who  frequent  the  two 
different  kinds  of  places  of  entertainment,  leave  upon  such  bed  linen? 

Take  again  the  matter  of  disease  germs  arising  from  sweeping  carpets. 
It  is  common  knowledge,  amongst  chambermaids  at  least,  that  the  traveler 
is  more  filthy  in  his  habits  of  expectoration  and  the  use  of  common  con- 
veniences as  well  as  bed  linen,  than  the  permanent  boarder  or  lodger. 
The  instinct  not  to  foul  his  own  nest  exerts  no  pressure  on  his  inclinations 
where  he  knows  he  is  leaving  his  room  not  to  return.  Has  the  Court  any 
common  knowledge — can  it  take  judicial  notice  of  such  conditions?  We 
submit  that  from  the  very  fact  of  their  unpleasant  and  repellant  nature, 
such  matters  do  not  become  of  common  knowledge  and  hence  that  the 
Legislature  alone  is  the  proper  forum  for  their  determination. 

What  has  been  said  applies  to  the  risk  of  disease  to  the  woman  herself. 
We  must  remember,  however,  that  the  courts  have  clearly  settled  that 
the  Legislature  may  enact  laws  to  protect  her  in  her  maternal  relationship. 
Not  only  is  she  subject  to  danger  to  herself  from  diseases  of  mature  per- 
sons, but  she  is  liable  to  bring  the  contagion  of  children's  diseases  into  her 
family.  Can  this  Court  say  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt  that  this  risk  is 
not  greater  in  hotels  than  in  boarding  houses?  Can  it  say  beyond  a  reason- 
able doubt  that  the  worn  and  exhausted  woman  hurrying  home  after  ten  or 
twelve  hours  of  work  will  not  take  less  precaution  to  prevent  this  spreading 
of  disease  than  her  fresher  sister  after  but  eight  hours?  The  Court  may 
say  this  is  dubious,  but  it  must  then  resolve  the  doubt  in  favor  of  the  law. 

But  entirely  apart  from  the  question  of  contagious  diseases,  there  is 
another  manner  in  which  the  health  of  woman  may  be  differently  affected 
in  hotel  work  from  that  of  the  private  institution.  The  hotel  must  re- 
ceive its  guests  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night,  and  in  the  average  com- 
mercial hotel  there  is  a  continual  current  of  guests  arriving  and  leaving. 
Every  member  of  this  Court  at  some  time  in  his  career  must  have  been 
compelled  to  wait  at  a  crowded  hotel  even  in  the  late  hours  of  the  evening, 
till  his  room,  just  vacated  by  a  departed  guest,  has  been  made  up.  This 
means  in  all  likelihood  irregular  extra  work  for  the  chambermaid  in  addi- 
tion to  the  day's  regular  quota.  Can  this  Court  say  beyond  a  reasonable 
doubt  that  this  difference  is  one  on  which  the  people  through  their  Legisla- 
ture can  not  make  a  distinct  classification? 

Again,  the  average  commercial  hotel,  much  of  its  time,  is  only  partially 
filled  and  for  purposes  of  economical  management  its  supply  of  servants 
is  based  only  on  its  average  number  of  guests.  Any  increased  work  is 
absorbed  by  the  regular  force.     This  exposes  the  woman  in  the  hotel 


WORK    IN    HOTELS    AND    RESTAURANTS  555 

employ  to  an  extra  strain  and  increased  hours  of  labor,  to  which  the  far  united 
greater  regularity  of  those  institutions  not  catering  to  the  traveler  are  ^'^^'^^s 
not  subject.  Perhaps  the  Court  may  say  this  is  not  a  matter  of  which 
the  Court  can  take  judicial  notice,  but  that  is  not  the  criterion.  Can  the 
Court  take  judicial  notice  that  the  facts  are  not  as  stated?  It  seems  a 
reasonable  enough  condition  of  fact  and  if  dubious,  the  classification  must 
be  deemed  to  have  been  constitutional. 

The  courts  have  recognized  in  woman's  inferior  capacity  for  com- 
petitive bargaining,  a  basis  of  remedial  legislation.  Can  it  be  said  beyond 
a  reasonable  doubt  that  the  hotel  keeper  will  not,  from  time  to  time, 
impose  more  onerous  conditions  of  excessive  hours  and  strain  on  his 
women  employes  than  the  boarding  or  lodging  house  keeper?  Will  not 
the  irregularity  and  sudden  strains  necessarily  incidental  to  hotel  keeping, 
tend  to  drive  him  to  compel  a  more  oppressive  kind  of  service  from  his 
women  than  the  landlord  of  the  boarding  house  with  his  more  regular 
and  calculable  business?  Can  this  Court  say  such  a  ground  of  distinction 
is  not  even  dubious?     Unless  it  can  the  law  must  stand. 

In  concluding,  we  submit  that  each  of  the  above  distinctions  presents 
sufficient  reason  to  sustain  the  Legislature  in  its  classification.  When 
all  are  considered  together,  the  classification  no  longer  seems  even  dubious. 
In  fact,  if  there  is  any  reasonable  doubt,  it  would  seem  to  be  as  to  the 
reasonableness  of  any  one  who  would  contend  that  there  was  no  ground  of 
distinct  classification  between  the  hotel  and  other  places  of  lodgment. 

On  the  Right  of  the  Legislature  to  Choose  the  Point  of  Cleavage  in 
Classification  When  the  Occupations  Gradually  Merge  from  One 
Class  into  Another. 

It  is  apparent  that  there  are  some  points  of  resemblance  between  the 
hotel,  the  large  boarding  house,  the  small  boarding  house,  the  family 
taking  several  boarders  the  year  round,  the  farmhouse  with  its  two  or 
three  summer  boarders,  and  the  family  with  one  "parlor"  guest.  For 
instance,  both  travelers  and  steady  boarders  have  property  which  they 
leave  under  the  protection  of  the  landlord.  Hence,  we  find  a  common 
law  for  both  hotel  and  boarding  house  keepers  in  the  matter  of  the  pro- 
tection of  property. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  law  expects  that  the  body  of  travelers  will  go 
to  the  hotel  and  not  the  boarding  house,  and  makes  it  a  crime  for  the 
former,  but  not  the  latter,  to  refuse  his  hospitality  to  such  transient  guests. 
(Penal  Code,  365.) 

Some  large  boarding  and  lodging  houses  approach  very  closely  to  the 
hotel  in  the  duties  of  its  employes.     The  line  between  these  boarding 


556  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

UNITED  houses,  with  their  more  complex  organization  and  those  in  which  the  sim- 

pier  organization  is  more  nearly  allied  to  family  life,  is  one  impossible  to 
be  drawn  with  scientific  accuracy.  Certainly  the  Court  can  not  take 
judicial  notice  of  any  sharp  line  of  cleavage;  and  yet  as  certainly  can  it  be 
said  that  the  Legislature  has  the  power  of  placing  the  dividing  line  some- 
where in  the  succession. 

So  also  with  the  hotel  which  entertains  the  great  bulk  of  travelers  and 
the  boarding  houses  which  entertain  the  great  bulk  of  permanent  guests. 
The  classification  in  so  far  as  the  danger  to  woman  is  concerned  is,  as  we 
have  shown,  a  reasonable  one,  and  the  very  difficulty  of  placing  it  any- 
where else  in  the  line  between  the  hotel  and  the  home  with  its  parlor 
boarder  "gives  evidence  itself  that  it  is  a  reasonable  class  distinction." 


G.     Employment  by  a  Common  Carrier 

Recent  government  investigation  has  shown  that  before 
the  ten-hour  law  was  enacted,  women  employed  by  the 
elevated  railways  in  Chicago  were  obliged  to  remain  at  their 
posts  twelve  hours  in  the  day,  and  seven  days  in  the  week. 

Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor.  No.  91.  Nov.,  1910.  Working 
Hours  of  IV age-Earning  IVomen  in  Chicago.  Woman  Ticket  Agents 
of  the  Elevated  Railways.* 

The  elevated  railway  companies  of  Chicago  employ  284  regular  woman 
agents  and  an  average  of  about  100  "extras."  The  regular  agents  work 
from  7  A.  M.  to  7  p.  m. — 12  hours  a  day,  for  7  days  a  week.  There  is  no 
allowance  whatever  for  an  occasional  afternoon  off,  or  for  a  Sunday  or  a 
legal  holiday.  If  a  girl  desires  such  leave  she  makes  request  and  an 
"extra"  is  sent  to  relieve  her,  the  "extra"  receiving  the  full  rate  of  pay 
which  is  deducted  from  the  regular  agent's  wage.  It  is  quite  common  for 
an  agent  to  ask  for  a  half  day  off  on  a  legal  holiday — as  Christmas  or 
Thanksgiving — and  the  "extra"  called  upon  to  substitute  must  respond 
whenever  called,  for,  while  these  extras  are  not  necessarily  employed 
continuously  (in  the  case  of  one  company  the  average  earnings  of  extras 
amounts  to  $35.00  per  month  each),  they  must  be  prepared  to  respond 
promptly;  otherwise  the  chances  are  that  they  will  not  be  considered 
desirable  as  regulars. 

*  The  tabulation  of  information  from  the  transportation  companies  not  only 
covers  the  two  years  previous  to  January  1,  1910,  but  represents  conditions  in 
September  and  the  early  part  of  October,  1910.     (Page  869.) 


EMPLOYMENT    BY    A    COMMON    CARRIER 


557 


The  lunch  hour  brings  no  relaxation,  for  the  girl  must  bring  her  lunch, 
or  send  for  it,  and  it  is  eaten  at  her  station  as  opportunity  occurs.  Some 
of  the  agents  have  appliances  for  heating  coffee,  etc. 

A  majority  of  the  roads  have  a  "relief  agent"  who  is  constantly  travel- 
ing, stopping  oflF  to  relieve  the  agents  along  the  line  for  10  or  15  minutes 
morning  and  afternoon.  On  the  lines  where  there  is  no  relief  agent  the 
girl  must  call  upon  the  colored  porter  to  take  her  place  during  a  necessary 
temporary  absence.  .  .  .  The  morning  hours  are  generally  busy  ones  for 
the  agent,  but  there  are  several  hours  during  the  day  where  in  most  dis- 
tricts the  work  is  very  light,  and  except  for  the  fact  that  the  girl  must 
remain  at  her  station  she  may  make  herself  very  comfortable,  often  find- 
ing time  for  fancy  work  or  a  magazine,  the  only  stipulation  being  that  she 
shall  not  neglect  her  duty. 

The  real  strain  comes  during  the  last  two  hours  of  the  working  day 
when  the  girl  is  least  prepared  to  meet  it,  from  5.00  to  6.30  or  7.00  p.  m., 
when  the  exodus  from  offices,  stores  and  factories  keeps  the  agent  nerved 
to  highest  effort  to  keep  up  with  the  insistent  demands  of  waiting  patrons. 

The  manager  of  one  of  the  roads  describes  the  successful  agent  as  the 
one  who,  under  sometimes  very  trying  circumstances,  maintains  perfect 
self-control.  Her  occupation  necessarily  places  her  in  contact  with  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  people,  and  by  the  exercise  of  self-control  and 
tact  many  an  unpleasant  situation  is  averted.  The  management  particu- 
larly desires  the  agents  to  avoid  anything  like  conflict.     (Pages  880-881.) 

The  following  table  shows  for  each  railway  the  number  of  women  regu- 
larly employed,  with  the  daily  and  weekly  hours  of  work  and  rates  of  pay: 


UNITED 
STATES 


Number  of  Woman  Agents  in  the  Service  of  the  Elevated  Rail- 
roads OF  Chicago,  with  Hours  of  Labor  and  Rates  of  Pay 


Number 
of  Women 
Regularly 
Employed 

Hours 
per  Day 

Days  per 
Week 

Hours 

per 

Week 

Pay  per 

Company  Number 

Day 

Week 

1 

100 
64 

45 
24 
51 

12 
12 
12 
12 
12 

7 
7 
7 
7 
7 

84 
84 
84 
84 
84 

$1  90 
1  95 
1  90 
1  70 

a2  00 

$13  30 

2 

13  65 

3 

13  30 

4 

11  90 

5 

&14  00 

Total 

284 

12 

7 

84 

$1  91 

$13  39 

a  $1.70  during  first  year;  agents  at  3  department  stores  '• 
agents  $1.60. 

b  After  working  1  year  at  $1.70  per  day. 


.75  each,  and  relief 


OPINION  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES 

In  the  Case  of  Muller  v.  State  of  Oregon 
Delivered  by  Mr.  Justice  Brewer,  February  24,  1908 

On  February  19,  1903,  the  legislature  of  the  State  of  Oregon  passed  an 
act  (Session  Laws,  1903,  p.  148)  the  first  section  of  which  is  in  these  words: 

"Sec.  1.  That  no  female  (shall)  be  employed  in  any  mechanical  es- 
tablishment, or  factory,  or  laundry  in  this  State  more  than  ten  hours 
during  any  one  day.  The  hours  of  work  may  be  so  arranged  as  to  permit 
the  employment  of  females  at  any  time  so  that  they  shall  not  work  more 
than  ten  hours  during  the  twenty-four  hours  of  any  one  day." 

Section  3  made  a  violation  of  the  provisions  of  the  prior  sections  a  mis- 
demeanor, subject  to  a  fine  of  not  less  than  $10  nor  more  than  $25.  On 
September  18,  1905,  an  information  was  filed  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the 
State  for  the  county  of  Multnomah,  charging  that  the  defendant  "on 
the  4th  day  of  September,  a.  d.  1905,  in  the  county  of  Multnomah  and 
State  of  Oregon,  then  and  there  being  the  owner  of  a  laundry,  known  as 
the  Grand  Laundry,  in  the  city  of  Portland,  and  the  employer  of  females 
therein,  did  then  and  there  unlawfully  permit  and  suffer  one  Joe  Haselbock, 
he,  the  said  Joe  Haselbock,  then  and  there  being  an  overseer,  superin- 
tendent and  agent  of  said  Curt  Muller,  in  the  said  Grand  Laundry,  to 
require  a  female,  to  wit,  one  Mrs.  E.  Gotcher,  to  work  more  than  ten  hours 
in  said  Laundry  on  said  4th  day  of  September,  a.  d.  1905,  contrary  to  the 
statutes  in  such  cases  made  and  provided,  and  against  the  peace  and 
dignity  of  the  State  of  Oregon." 

A  trial  resulted  in  a  verdict  against  the  defendant,  who  was  sentenced 
to  pay  a  fine  of  $10.     The  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  affirmed  the  con- 

558 


OPINION    IN    MULLER   V.    OREGON  559 

viction  (48  Ore.  252),  whereupon  the  case  was  brought  here  on  writ  of 
error. 

The  single  question  is  the  constitutionality  of  the  statute  under  which 
the  defendant  was  convicted  so  far  as  it  affects  the  work  of  a  female  in  a 
laundry.  That  it  does  not  conflict  with  any  provisions  of  the  State  con- 
stitution is  settled  by  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State.  The 
contentions  of  the  defendant,  now  plaintiff  in  error,  are  thus  stated  in  his 
brief: 

"(1)  Because  the  statute  attempts  to  prevent  persons,  sui  juris,  from 
making  their  own  contracts,  and  thus  violates  the  provisions  of  the  Four- 
teenth Amendment,  as  follows: 

'"No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge  the  privi- 
leges or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States;  nor  shall  any  State 
deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law; 
nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the 
laws.' 

"(2)  Because  the  statute  does  not  apply  equally  to  all  persons  simi- 
larly situated,  and  is  class  legislation. 

"(3)  The  statute  is  not  a  valid  exercise  of  the  police  power.  The 
kinds  of  work  prescribed  are  not  unlawful,  nor  are  they  declared  to  be  im- 
moral or  dangerous  to  the  public  health;  nor  can  such  a  law  be  sustained 
on  the  ground  that  it  is  designed  to  protect  women  on  account  of  their  sex. 
There  is  no  necessary  or  reasonable  connection  between  the  limitation 
prescribed  by  the  act  and  the  public  health,  safety,  or  welfare." 

It  is  the  law  of  Oregon  that  women,  whether  married  or  single,  have 
equal  contractual  and  personal  rights  with  men.  As  said  by  Chief  Justice 
Wolverton,  in  First  'National  Bank  v.  Leonard,  36  Ore.  390,  396,  after  a 
review  of  the  various  statutes  of  the  State  upon  the  subject: 

"We  may  therefore  say  with  perfect  confidence  that,  with  these  three 
sections  upon  the  statute  book,  the  wife  can  deal,  not  only  with  her  sep- 
arate property,  acquired  from  whatever  source,  in  the  same  manner  as 
her  husband  can  with  property  belonging  to  him,  but  that  she  may  make 
contracts  and  incur  liabilities,  and  the  same  may  be  enforced  against  her, 
the  same  as  if  she  were  a  feme  sole.  There  is  now  no  residuum  of  civil 
disability  resting  upon  her  which  is  not  recognized  as  existing  against  the 
husband.  The  current  runs  steadily  and  strongly  in  the  direction  of  the 
emancipation  of  the  wife,  and  the  policy,  as  disclosed  by  all  recent  legis- 
lation upon  the  subject  in  this  State,  is  to  place  her  upon  the  same  footing 
as  if  she  were  zfeme  sole,  not  only  with  respect  to  her  separate  property, 
but  as  it  aflfects  her  right  to  make  binding  contracts;  and  the  most  natural 
corollary  to  the  situation  is  that  the  remedies  for  the  enforcement  of  lia- 


560  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

bilities  incurred  are  made  co-extensive  and  co-equal  with  such  enlarged 
conditions." 

It  thus  appears  that,  putting  to  one  side  the  elective  franchise,  in  the 
matter  of  personal  and  contractual  rights  they  stand  on  the  same  plane  as 
the  other  sex.  Their  rights  in  these  respects  can  no  more  be  infringed 
than  the  equal  rights  of  their  brothers.  We  held  in  Lochner  v.  New  York, 
198  U.  S.  45,  that  a  law  providing  that  no  laborer  shall  be  required  or 
permitted  to  work  in  bakeries  more  than  sixty  hours  in  a  week  or  ten 
hours  in  a  day  was  not  as  to  men  a  legitimate  exercise  of  the  police  power 
of  the  State,  but  an  unreasonable,  unnecessary,  and  arbitrary  interference 
with  the  right  and  liberty  of  the  individual  to  contract  in  relation  to  his 
labor,  and  as  such  was  in  conflict  with,  and  void  under,  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution. That  decision  is  invoked  by  plaintiff  in  error  as  decisive  of  the 
question  before  us.  But  this  assumes  that  the  difference  between  the 
sexes  does  not  justify  a  different  rule  respecting  a  restriction  of  the  hours 
of  labor. 

In  patent  cases  counsel  are  apt  to  open  the  argument  with  a  discussion 
of  the  state  of  the  art.  It  may  not  be  amiss,  in  the  present  case,  before 
examining  the  constitutional  question,  to  notice  the  course  of  legislation  as 
well  as  expressions  of  opinion  from  other  than  judicial  sources.  In  the 
brief  filed  by  Mr.  Louis  D.  Brandeis,  for  the  defendant  in  error,  is  a  very 
copious  collection  of  all  these  matters,  an  epitome  of  which  is  found  in  the 
margin.* 

*  The  following  legislation  of  the  States  impose  restriction  in  some  form  or 
another  upon  the  hours  of  labor  that  may  be  required  of  women:  Massachusetts, 
1874,  Rev.  Laws  1902,  chap.  106,  sec.  24;    Rhode  Island,  1885,  Acts  and  Resolves 

1902,  chap.  994,  p.  73;  Louisiana,  1886,  Rev.  Laws  1904,  vol.  i,  sec.  4,  p.  989; 
Connecticut,  1887,  Gen.  Stat,  revision  1902,  sec.  4691;    Maine,  1887,  Rev.  Stat. 

1903,  chap.  40,  sec.  48 ;  New  Hampshire,  1887,  Laws  1907,  chap.  94,  p.  95 ;  Maryland, 
1888,  Pub.  Gen.  Laws  1903,  art.  100,  sec.  1;  Virginia,  1890,  Code  1904,  tit.  51  a, 
chap.  178  a,  sec.  3657  b;  Pennsylvania,  1897.  Laws  1905,  No.  226,  p.  352;  New 
York,  1899,  Laws  1907,  chap.  507,  sec.  77,  subdiv.  3,  p.  1078;  Nebraska.  1899, 
Comp.  Stat.  1905.  sec.  7955.  p.  1986;  Washington.  Stat.  1901.  chap.  68,  sec.  1. 
p.  118;  Colorado,  Acts  1903,  chap.  138,  sec.  3,  p.  310;  New  Jersey,  1892,  Gen. 
Stat.  1895,  p.  2350,  sees.  66  and  67;  Oklahoma,  1890,  Rev.  Stat.  1903.  chap.  25. 
art.  58,  sec.  729;  North  Dakota,  1877,  Rev.  Code  1905,  sec.  9440;  South  Dakota, 
1877,  Rev.  Code  (Penal  Code,  sec.  764),  p.  1185;  Wisconsin,  1867,  Code  1898,  sec. 
1728;  South  Carolina,  Acts  1907,  No.  233. 

In  foreign  legislation  Mr.  Brandeis  calls  attention  to  these  statutes:  Great 
Britain,  1844,  Law  1901.  1  Edw.  VII,  chap.  22;  France,  1848,  Act  Nov.  2,  1892, 
and  March  30,  1900;  Switzerland,  Canton  of  Glarus,  1848,  Federal  Law  1877,  art. 
2,  sec.  1;  Austria,  1855,  Acts  1897,  art.  96  a,  sees.  1  to  3;  Holland,  1889,  art.  5, 
sec.  1;   Italy,  June  19,  1902,  art.  7;  Germany,  Laws  1891. 

Then  follow  extracts  from  over  ninety  reports  of  committees,  bureaus  of  statis- 
tics, commissioners  of  hygiene,  inspectors  of  factories,  both  in  this  country  and  in 
Europe,  to  the  effect  that  long  hours  of  labor  are  dangerous  for  women,  primarily 
because  of  their  special  physical  organization.     The  matter  is  discussed  in  these 


OPINION    IN    MULLER   V.    OREGON  561 

While  there  have  been  but  few  decisions  bearing  directly  upon  the  ques- 
tion, the  following  sustain  the  constitutionality  of  such  legislation: 
Commonwealth  v.  Hamilton  Mfg.  Co.,  125  Mass.  383;  JVenham  v.  State,  65 
Neb.  394,  400,  406;  State  v.  Buchanan,  29  Wash.  602;  Commonwealth  v. 
Beatty,  15  Pa.  Sup.  Ct.  5,  17;  against  them  in  the  case  of  Ritchie  v.  People, 
155  111.  98. 

The  legislation  and  opinions  referred  to  in'  the  margin  may  not  be, 
technically  speaking,  authorities,  and  in  them  is  little  or  no  discussion  of 
the  constitutional  question  presented  to  us  for  determination,  yet  they 
are  significant  of  a  widespread  belief  that  woman's  physical  structure,  and 
the  functions  she  performs  in  consequence  thereof,  justify  special  legisla- 
tion restricting  or  qualifying  the  conditions  under  which  she  should  be 
permitted  to  toil.  Constitutional  questions,  it  is  true,  are  not  settled  by 
even  a  consensus  of  present  public  opinion,  for  it  is  the  peculiar  value  of  a 
written  constitution  that  it  places  in  unchanging  form  limitations  upon 
legislative  action,  and  thus  gives  a  permanence  and  stability  to  popular 
government  which  otherwise  would  be  lacking.  At  the  same  time,  when  a 
question  of  fact  is  debated  and  debatable,  and  the  extent  to  which  a 
special  constitutional  limitation  goes  is  affected  by  the  truth  in  respect  to 
that  fact,  a  widespread  and  long  continued  belief  concerning  it  is  worthy 
of  consideration.  We  take  judicial  cognizance  of  all  matters  of  general 
knowledge. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true,  as  more  than  once  declared  by  this  court,  that 
the  general  right  to  contract  in  relation  to  one's  business  is  part  of  the 
liberty  of  the  individual,  protected  by  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the 
Federal  Constitution;  yet  it  is  equally  well  settled  that  this  liberty  is 
not  absolute  and  extending  to  all  contracts,  and  that  a  State  may,  without 
conflicting  with  the  provisions  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  restrict  in 
many  respects  the  individual's  power  of  contract.  Without  stopping  to 
discuss  at  length  the  extent  to  which  a  State  may  act  in  this  respect,  we 
refer  to  the  following  cases  in  which  the  question  has  been  considered: 
Allgeyer  v.  Louisiana,  165  U.  S.  578;  Holden  v.  Hardy,  169  U.  S.  366; 
Lochner  v.  New  York,  supra. 

reports  in  different  aspects,  but  all  agree  as  to  the  danger.  It  would  of  course  take 
too  much  space  to  give  these  reports  in  detail.  Following  them  are  extracts  from 
similar  reports  discussing  the  general  benefits  of  short  hours  from  an  economic 
aspect  of  the  question.  In  many  of  these  reports  individual  instances  are  given 
tending  to  support  the  general  conclusion.  Perhaps  the  general  scope  and  char- 
acter of  all  these  reports  may  be  summed  up  in  what  an  inspector  for  Hanover  says: 
"The  reasons  for  the  reduction  of  the  working  day  to  ten  hours — (a)  the  physical 
organization  of  woman,  (b)  her  maternal  functions,  (c)  the  rearing  and  education  of 
the  children,  (d)  the  maintenance  of  the  home — are  all  so  important  and  so  far- 
reaching  that  the  need  for  such  reduction  need  hardly  be  discussed." 
36* 


562  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

That  woman's  physical  structure  and  the  performance  of  maternal 
functions  place  her  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  struggle  for  subsistence  is 
obvious.  This  is  especially  true  when  the  burdens  of  motherhood  are 
upon  her.  Even  when  they  are  not,  by  abundant  testimony  of  the  medi- 
cal fraternity  continuance  for  a  long  time  on  her  feet  at  work,  repeating 
this  from  day  to  day,  tends  to  injurious  effects  upon  the  body,  and  as 
healthy  mothers  are  essential  to  vigorous  offspring,  the  physical  well- 
being  of  woman  becomes  an  object  of  public  interest  and  care  in  order  to 
preserve  the  strength  and  vigor  of  the  race. 

Still  again,  history  discloses  the  fact  that  woman  has  always  been  de- 
pendent upon  man.  He  established  his  control  at  the  outset  by  superior 
physical  strength,  and  this  control  in  various  forms,  with  diminishing  in- 
tensity, has  continued  to  the  present.  As  minors,  though  not  to  the  same 
extent,  she  has  been  looked  upon  in  the  courts  as  needing  especial  care  that 
her  rights  may  be  preserved.  Education  was  long  denied  her,  and  while 
now  the  doors  of  the  school-room  are  opened  and  her  opportunities  for 
acquiring  knowledge  are  great,  yet  even  with  that  and  the  consequent 
increase  of  capacity  for  business  affairs  it  is  still  true  that  in  the  struggle 
for  subsistence  she  is  not  an  equal  competitor  with  her  brother.  Though 
limitations  upon  personal  and  contractual  rights  may  be  removed  by 
legislation,  there  is  that  in  her  disposition  and  habits  of  life  which  will 
operate  against  a  full  assertion  of  those  rights.  She  will  still  be  where 
some  legislation  to  protect  her  seems  necessary  to  secure  a  real  equality  of 
right.  Doubtless  there  are  individual  exceptions,  and  there  are  many 
respects  in  which  she  has  an  advantage  over  him;  but  looking  at  it  from 
the  viewpoint  of  the  effort  to  maintain  an  independent  position  in  life, 
she  is  not  upon  an  equality.  Differentiated  by  these  matters  from  the 
other  sex,  she  is  properly  placed  in  a  class  by  herself,  and  legislation  de- 
signed for  her  protection  may  be  sustained,  even  when  like  legislation  is  not 
necessary  for  men  and  could  not  be  sustained.  It  is  impossible  to  close 
one's  eyes  to  the  fact  that  she  still  looks  to  her  brother  and  depends  upon 
him.  Even  though  all  restrictions  on  political,  personal,  and  contractual 
rights  were  taken  away,  and  she  stood,  so  far  as  statutes  are  concerned, 
upon  an  absolutely  equal  plane  with  him,  it  would  still  be  true  that  she  is 
so  constituted  that  she  will  rest  upon  and  look  to  him  for  protection;  that 
her  physical  structure  and  a  proper  discharge  of  her  maternal  functions — 
having  in  view  not  merely  her  own  health,  but  the  well-being  of  the  race — 
justify  legislation  to  protect  her  from  the  greed  as  well  as  the  passion  of 
man.  The  limitations  which  this  statute  places  upon  her  contractual 
powers,  upon  her  right  to  agree  with  her  employer  as  to  the  time  she  shall 
labor,  are  not  imposed  solely  for  her  benefit,  but  also  largely  for  the  benefit 


OPINION    IN    MULLER  V.   OREGON  563 

of  all.  Many  words  cannot  make  this  plainer.  The  two  sexes  differ  in 
structure  of  body,  in  the  functions  to  be  performed  by  each,  in  the  amount 
of  physical  strength,  in  the  capacity  for  long-continued  labor,  particularly 
when  done  standing,  the  influence  of  vigorous  health  upon  the  future  well- 
being  of  the  race,  the  self-reliance  which  enables  one  to  assert  full  rights, 
and  in  the  capacity  to  maintain  the  struggle  for  subsistence.  This  dif- 
ference justifies  a  difference  in  legislation  and  upholds  that  which  is  de- 
signed to  compensate  for  some  of  the  burdens  which  rest  upon  her. 

We  have  not  referred  in  this  discussion  to  the  denial  of  the  elective 
franchise  in  the  State  of  Oregon,  for  while  that  may  disclose  a  lack  of 
political  equality  in  all  things  with  her  brother,  that  is  not  of  itself  de- 
cisive. The  reason  runs  deeper,  and  rests  in  the  inherent  difference  be- 
tween the  two  sexes,  and  in  the  different  functions  in  life  which  they  per- 
form. 

For  these  reasons,  and  without  questioning  in  any  respect  the  decision 
in  Lochner  v.  New  York,  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  it  cannot  be  adjudged 
that  the  act  in  question  is  in  conflict  with  the  Federal  Constitution,  so  far 
as  it  respects  the  work  of  a  female  in  a  laundry,  and  the  judgment  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Oregon  is 

Affirmed. 
True  Copy. 

Test: 

JAMES  H.  McKENNEY, 

Clerk,  Supreme  Court,  U.  S. 


INDEX 


Abbe,  Erxst,  The  Economic  Signif- 
icance of  a  Shorter  Working  Day: 
adequate  resting-time,  112;  mo- 
notony, 46;  need  of  rest,  94;  over- 
time output  impaired,  437-438; 
shorter  hours  and  output,  359-363; 
state's  economic  loss  from  over- 
work, 239;  stupefying  effect  of 
monotonous  labor,  326 

Abbotts,  W.  :  future  generations,  ef- 
fect of  women's  work  in,  261; 
saleswomen,  509-510;  standing  in- 
jurious to  female  functions,  521,  522 

Abrams,  'Mary  E.:  lead-poisoning,  10 

AccTDEXTS:  hours  of  incidence,  192- 
213 

Adler,  Geo.,  International  Labor  Leg- 
islation :  bad  effect  of  long  hours  on 
health,  126;  necessity  of  state  in- 
terference with  hours  of  work,  331; 
stih-births  in  Miilhausen,  273 

Atkkxs,  Austen-.     See  Ford 

Aleassa,  Georges,  Xight  Work  for 
Women:  girls' dangers,  428;  loss  of 
sleep,  423;  overtime  work  of  sew- 
ing girls,  539;  street  dangers  for 
women  at  night,  431 

"Alered."     See  Kydd,  Samuel 

Alienist  and  Neurologist,  vol.  xxi:  ner- 
vous fatigue,  78 

Alsace:  infant  mortality,  274.  See 
also  Elsass 

American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science,  Annals:  speed  in 
manufacture,  40-41;  state's  need 
of  preser\ang  health,  245-246; 
stimulants  of  the  tired  worker, 
235-236 

American  Economic  Association  Quar- 
terly: reduced  hours  not  reduced 
product,  375 

American  Institute  op  Instruction: 
fatigue,  62;  self  control,  loss 
through  fatigue,  226-227 


AiiES,  Fanny  B.:  Fitchburg  bicycle 
balls  factory,  efficiency  \\ith  shorter 
hours,  3 7 1-3 72;  ten-hour  law,  origin 
in  England,  337;  testimony  as  to 
number  of  looms  tended,  37 

An^mla:  fatigue  and,  90;  working- 
women  in  Germany,  19;  from  long 
hours,  413;  saleswomen,  512,  518, 
523 

Anderson,  Miss  A.  M. :  empIo\-ment  of 
mothers  in  factories  and  effect  on 
offspring,  262-263 

Annals  of  the  German  Empire.  See 
German  Empire,  Annals 

Anslaux,  ^Maurice,  Xight  Work  for 
Women  in  Industry  in  Foreign 
Countries:  dressmaking,  etc.,  over- 
time, 543-544;  increase  of  em- 
plojrment  of  women,  392-393;  long 
hours  in  Austria,  416;  overtime, 
prohibition  and  better  organiza- 
tion, 450;  overtime  wages,  459.  See 
Belgium,  Minister  of  Commerce 

Anti-toxin  of  fatigue.  See  Toxin  of 
fatigue 

Archiv  fiir  Anatomie  und  Physiologic, 
1890:  fatigued  muscles,  89-90; 
Maggiora,  A.,  on  the  laws  of  fatigue, 
73-74;   muscular  fatigue,  85-86. 

Arena,  The:  wages  and  hours  of  labor, 
406-407 

Arledge,  J.  T.,  The  Hygiene,  Diseases, 
and  Mortahty  of  Occupation:  arti- 
ficial Umit  needed  in  factorv'  labor, 
330;  monotony,  43-44;  bad  ef- 
fects of  long  hours  on  health,  121- 
122;  diseases  incident  to  long 
standing,  138,  145 

Arlt,  Ilse  von,  Xight  work  of  Women 
in  Industrj-  in  Austria:  loss  of  sleep, 
423;  morbidity,  14;  night  work  in 
Austria  and  its  e\'ils,  418-419;  night 

•  work  in  establishments  other  than 
factories,  540;  over-strain,  425; 
overtime  wages,  459.     See  Bauer 


565 


566 


INDEX 


Arnold,  Mrs.  Wm.,  translator.  See 
Brentano,  Ltijo 

AsCHER,  Dr.,  Protection  of  Working 
Men:  adequate  resting-time,  iii- 
112,  114;  infectious  diseases,  161; 
intemperance,  230-231;  injuries  of 
occupation,  strain  on  special  or- 
gans, 150,  152;  leisure  of  the  la- 
borer, its  use  and  misuse,  304; 
shorter  hours,  325-326 

Ashley,  Lord:  accidents  and  fatigue, 
202;  benefits  of  reduced  hours  in 
Yorkshire  and  Lancashire,  296; 
children  of  weakened  women,  263; 
efiiciency,  increase  of,  346,  351; 
evil  effects  on  women  of  standing, 
135-136;  exhaustion  of  a  12-hour 
day,  118;  race  degeneration,  276, 
277 

Athxetic  Training.     See  Training 

Attention:  fatigue  of,  213-220 

Australia:  benefit  of  short  working 
hours,  299 

Babes,  V.,  The  Attitude  of  States  to 
Modern  Bacteriological  Investiga- 
tion: state  and  individual  health, 
240-241 

Baden:  long  hours  in  laundries,  123; 
shorter  hours,  356 

Baker,  Henry  S.,  The  Relation  of 
Fatigue  to  Social  and  Educational 
Progress:  attention  and  will,  fa- 
tigue of,  220;  nature  of  fatigue,  62; 
self  control,  loss  through  fatigue, 
226-227 

Barrows,  Alice  P.,  The  Training  of 
Millinery  Workers:  hours  and  con- 
ditions in  New  York  City,  531-533 

Barry,  Sir  David:  deterioration  of  de- 
scendants of  factory  workers  in 
Scotland,  260-261;  ill  health  of 
mill  workers,  117;  speed  of  manu- 
facture, 26;  swollen  feet  and  legs  of 
Scotch  mill  workers,  144 

Baudoin,  L.,  Labor  Legislation  for 
Women  and  Children  in  Italian  In- 
dustry:  sewing-machine,  128-129 

Bauer,  E.,  Night  Work  of  Women  in 
Industry,  14,  16,  25,  265-266,  272,' 
343-344,  359,  391,  410,  416-417, 


Bauer,  E.     {continued) 

418-419,  423,  425,  428-429,  437, 
439>  459,  470-471,  540 

Bebel  (representative  in  German 
Reichstag) :  on  shorter  hours  for 
women,  6-7,  324;  shorter  hours  the 
remedy,  324 

Beelitz  Sanitarium,  Berlin:  49,  171, 
179;  ages  of  neurasthenic  patients, 
182-183;  inherited  taints,  184-185; 
statistics,  173,  174;  use  of  stimu- 
lants, 231 

Belgium:  Higher  Council  of  Labor,  70, 

99,  295, 333-334,  382 
Labor  Commission,  ^t,^ 
Minister  of  Commerce,  Report  to,  see 
Ansiaux,  M. 

Bell  Telephone  Co.,  Canada,  30,  248; 
character  of  business,  544;  long 
hours,  415;  overtime  bad  econ- 
omy, 436 

Belloc,  L.:  sewing-machine,  128-129 

Benefit  to  Society  of  Shorter  Holtrs 
OF  Work:  290-302 

Benzacar,  J.:  streets  dangerous  for 
women  at  night,  431 

Berlin:  ages  of  neurasthenic  patients, 
182-183;  bad  effects  of  long  hours 
on  health,  122,  123;  Beelitz  sani- 
tarium, 171,  173,  174;  continu- 
ance at  work  during  illness,  21; 
dressmakers'  morbidity,  17-18; 
home  industries,  morbidity,  17-18; 
laundries,  122;  morbidity,  13;  Old 
Age  and  Invalidity  Department,  49; 
tailoring  trades,  morbidity,  17-18 

Berliner  Klinische  Wockenschrift:    ner- 
vous fatigue,  74-75 
Bertillon,  J.:  mortality,  23 
BiBROWicz,  W.     See  Leubuscher,  P. 
Bicycle  Balls:  testing,  371-372 
Biedermann:   fatigue,  58 

Bindewald,  George,  The  Arms-bear- 
ing Capacity  of  Country  and  City 
Populations:  race  degeneration,  283 

Binswanger,  Otto,  Pathology  and 
Therapeutics  of  Neurasthenia:  age 
of  incidence,  181-182;  chronic  fa- 
tigue, 189;  nervous  diseases  and 
heredity,  183;  overstimulation, 
186;  state's  need  of  preserving 
health,  238 


INDEX 


567 


Birmingham,  Eng.:  benefit  of  shorter 
hours,  291;  brass  works  hours,  352 

Bolton,  Eng.,  277 

Black,  Clementina,  London  Tailor- 
esses:  value  of  evening  lesiure,  316 
Sweated  Industry  and  the  Minimum 
Wage,  overtime  high  wage,  463 

Blizard,  Sir  Wm.  :  injurious  effect  of 
standing,  143;  light  and  easy  work 
exhausting  if  prolonged,  318-319 

Bluhm,  Agnes,  Hygienic  Care  of  Work- 
ing Women  and  their  Children :  fu- 
ture generations,  health,  265;  pro- 
tective laws  and  their  reasons,  248 

Blundell,  James:  accidents  and  fa- 
tigue, 202;  fatigue  of  standing, 
142-143;  physical  differences  be- 
tween men  and  women,  2 

Boarding  Houses:  long  hours  in,  549- 
55°,  553-556 

Bocci:  eye  fatigue,  149 

Bolen,  Geo.  L.,  Getting  a  Living:  last- 
hour  work,  384 

Bookbinding,  484;  for  women,  394, 
399;  not  necessarily  a  seasonal 
trade,  451 

Borderland  Problems  of  Nervous  and 
Psychic  Life:  nervous  diseases  and 
heredity,  183-184;  nervous  fatigue, 
75,  76;  state's  need  of  preserving 
health,  239-240.      See  also  Kiirella 

Bosch,  Esteve  de.  The  Weekly  Rest 
Day:   fatigue  charts,  109,  no 

Boston  Vocation  Office  for  Girls,  Bul- 
letin: millinery,  537 

Boston  Women's  Educational  and 
Industrial  Union,  Studies,  etc.: 
dressmaking,  537,  541-542;  mil- 
linery, 533-536,  541 

BouRGUiN,  M. :  progressive  reduction  of 
the  hours  of  labor,  242 

Bradford,  Eng.:  domestic  picture  of 
factory  workers,  312-313;  func- 
tional diseases  among  women  op- 
eratives, 136-137;  infant  mortal- 
ity, 275;  Medico-Chirurgical  So- 
ciety, 118;  varicose  veins,  etc., 
144-145 

Brassey,  Thos.:  Foreign  Work  and 
English  Wages:  increased  employ- 
ment of  women  in  the  increased  re- 
strictions, 387-388 


Brassey,  Thos.  {continued) 

Lectures  on  the  Labor  Question:   ef- 
ficiency, 350-351 

Breckinridge,  S.  P.,  Legislative  Con- 
trol of  Women's  Work:  future 
generations  and  health  of  mothers, 
268-269 

Brentano,  Lujo,  Hours  and  Wages  in 
Relation  to  Production:  efl&ciency, 
357;  efficiency  as  related  to  length 
of  working  day,  378-379;  race  de- 
generation, 283 
The  Relation  of  Labor  to  the  Law  of 
To-day:  higher  standard  of  living 
in  laborers,  303-304 

Bridges,  J.  H.:  female  functional  dis- 
eases, 136-137;  infant  mortality, 
270;  varicose  veins,  144-145 

British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment OF  Science  :  infant  mortality, 
2  7 1 ;  leg  diseases  among  laundresses, 
145-146;  overtime  bad  economy, 
435,  442;  restricted  hours  benefi- 
cial, 453;  restriction  an  encourage- 
ment to  the  head  employers,  472; 
wages  of  women,  401;  women  not 
displaced  by  men  through  restrict- 
ive legislation,  390 

British  Columbia  Royal  Labour 
Commission,  Reports:  speed  in 
manufacture,  30 

British  Medical  Journal:  standing  and 
pelvic  troubles,  135 

British  Sessional  Papers:  accidents 
and  fatigue,  202,  203;  adequate 
resting-time,  113;  air  in  shops  at 
night,  419-422;  bad  effect  of  long 
hours  on  health,  11 6-1 20;  benefit 
to  society  of  shortened  hours,  290- 
294;  customers'  adaptation  to 
shorter  hours,  407-408;  domestic 
duties  of  working  women,  253-254; 
dressmaking,  537-539,  542-543; 
efficiency,  increase,  347-349;  em- 
ployment of  women  and  children 
for  cheapening  labor,  247;  evening 
leisure  and  its  benefits,  310-316; 
eye  fatigue,  149;  family  life,  426; 
female  functions  and  child-birth, 
135,  136-137;  future  generations, 
effect  of  women's  overwork  on, 
260-263;  general  predisposition  to 
diseases,    156-157;    improvements 


568 


INDEX 


British  Sessional  P.vpers  (continued) 
in  manufacture,  385;  increased  em- 
ployment of  women  with  increased 
restrictions,  387;  infant  mortality, 
269-270;  injuries  to  legs  and  feet 
from  long  standing,  142-145;  in- 
temperance, 227,  228-229;  irregu- 
larity of  labor  result  of  overtime, 
451-452;  laundry  work  and  its 
effect  on  health,  safety  and  morals, 
493-495,  498-499;  legislation, 
necessity,  328-330;  light  and  easy 
work  fatiguing  if  prolonged,  318; 
long  hours,  411-415;  mercantile 
establishments,  conditions  and 
health,  509-512;  millinery,  587- 
589,  542-543;  monotony,  43; 
moral  benefit  of  shortened  hours, 
288-289;  night  work  and  spoiled 
work,  375-376,  377;  output  im- 
paired by  overtime,  433-434,  440- 
441;  overstrain,  424;  overtime 
prohibition,  444-447;  overtime 
unnecessary-,  480-484;  overtime 
wages,  456-457;  physical  differ- 
ences between  men  and  women,  1-5 ; 
race  degeneration,  278-279;  regu- 
lation a  benefit  to  trade,  340-343; 
saleswomen's  long  hours  and  health, 
515-520;  shopping  earlier,  530-531; 
speed  of  manufacture,  26,  27; 
standing  and  female  functions,  520- 
525;  streets  and  night,  dangers  for 
women,  431;  uniformity,  of  re- 
striction, 464-469,  474-478;  wages 
of  women  as  affected  by  restricted 
hours,  395-399 

Brodie,  Benjamin  Collins:  diseases 
of  legs  and  feet  from  long  standing, 
143 

Broggi,  Ugo:  fertility  of  women  in  in- 
dustry', 273-274 

Brown,  Elizabeth  Stowe,  The  Work- 
ing Women  of  Xew  York:  light 
work  injurious  if  prolonged,  322 

BuissoN,  Etienne,  The  Eight-hour 
Day:  augmentation  of  output  with 
shortened  hours,  365 

BuLLEY,  A.  A.,  Women's  Work:  do- 
mestic duties,  254;  overtime  need- 
less and  injurious,  469;  speed  of 
manufacture,  27;  standing,  injury 
of,  525 

BtJRCKHARDT,  A.  E.    See  Schuler,  F. 


Butler,  Elizabeth  B.,  Saleswomen  in 
Mercantile  Stores:  nature  of  oc- 
cupation, 509 
Women  and  the  Trades:  evening 
work  bad  economy,  440;  monot- 
ony, 47-48;  moral  weakening  due 
to  fatigue,  227;  saleswomen,  con- 
ditions of  work,  508;  speed  in 
manufacture,  41-42;  telephone 
and  telegraphy  service,  548-549 

Bl'YERS.     See  Customers 


Cadbl*ry,  Edw.,  M.  Cecile  Mathe- 
soN,  and  George  Shanx,  Women's 
Work  and  Wages:  industrial  con- 
ditions and  women's  health,  247; 
long  hours  produce  inferior  qual- 
ity of  output,  435;  monotony,  45; 
overtime  prohibition,  steadying 
effect  of,  453-454;  women  not 
displaced  by  men,  392 

California  Sltreme  Court,  552-556 

Campbell,  L.  R.,  The  Restriction  of 
the  Hours  of  Labor:  ten-hour  pro- 
duction equal  to  eleven-hour,  370 

Canada  Labour  Gazette,  August,  1903: 
speed  in  manufacture,  30 

Carlisle,  Sir  Anthony:  bad  effect  of 
long  hours  on  health,  117;  light 
and  easy  work  may  be  exhausting, 
318;  on  physical  differences  be- 
tween men  and  women,  3 

Carrietj,  M.,  Fatigue  and  its  Patho- 
genic Influence:  59,  106-107;  pre- 
disposition to  diseases,  158-159 

Case  for  the  Factory  Acts,  The,  ed- 
ited by  Webb:  improved  processes 
of  manufacture,  386;  improvement 
of  shorter  hours  in  textile  trades 
and  coal  mining,  294;  moral  con- 
ditions in  unregulated  industries, 
222;  race  degeneration,  279-280; 
regiolation  a  benefit,  452-453; 
standardization  of  conditions,  469, 
478-479,  485-486;  state's  right 
to  control  public  welfare,  237; 
women  not  likely  to  be  driven  out 
of  employment,  388 

Cassel,  Germany:  bad  effect  of  long 
hours  on  health,  125 

Celli,  Antonio,  The  Conflict  between 
Hygiene  and  Industry:  infectious 
disease,  162 


INDEX 


569 


Chambermaid,  552,  S53-55S-  See  also 
Hotels 

Chanties  and  Commons,  Injury  of  Long 
Hours  at  Light  Work,  323 

Chazal,  a.,  The  Prohibition  of  Night 
Work  for  Women  in  French  In- 
dustry: family  life  and  overtime, 
428 

Chemical  Works:  accidents,  194; 
Durlach  experiment,  354 

Chemical  Workers  :  intemperance, 
228-229 

Chemnitz:   infant  mortality,  273 

Chicago:  laundries,  490-491;  ticket 
agents  on  elevated  railways,  556- 
557;  waitresses,  conditions,  hours, 
wages,  etc.,  table,  551 

Chicago  Mercantile  Establish- 
ments: Christmas  rush,  503-505, 
513;  hours  of  labor,  499-505,  513; 
shopper's  adaptation  to  shorter 
hours,  529;  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor, 
Bulletin,  500-504,  5i3,  529;  U.  S. 
Congress,  Senate  Document,  500, 
504-505, 513 

Childbirth.  See  Female  functions, 
etc. 

Child  Labor.  See  National  Child 
Labor  Committee,  etc. 

Christmas  Rush  in  Mercantile  Estab- 
lishments, 503-505,  513 

Church,  Archibald,  and  Peterson, 
Frederick,  Nervous  and  Mental 
Diseases:  occupation  spasms,  154- 
155 

Church,  Wm.  S.:  anaemia  from  long 
hours,  413,  520;  injury  of  gas  and 
foul  air  at  night,  421-422;  long 
hours  more  fatiguing  than  severity 
of  labor,  320;  saleswohien,  long 
hours  injurious,  511 

Civic  Federation.  See  National  Civic 
Federation 

Clark,  V.  S._,  Woman  and  Child  Wage- 
earners  in  Great  Britain:  factory 
legislation,  pubhc  opinion  as  to, 
300-301;  increase  since  1820  in 
women's  wages,  table,  405-406; 
legislation,  its  need  and  value  in 
improving  labor  conditions,  338; 
regularity  of  employment,  455- 
456;    imiform  conditions,  473-474 


Clarke,  Allen,  The  Effects  of  the 
Factory  System :  monotony,  44-45 ; 
speed  of  manufacture,  27 

Clarke,  S.  A.,  and  Edith  Wyatt,  Mak- 
ing Both  Ends  Meet:  laundries, 
497 

Coal-mining:  benefits  of  shorter  hours, 
294 

Collet,  Miss:  518,  522 

Colorado  Bureau  of  Labor  Statis- 
tics, Report:  domestic  duties  of 
women  workers,  258;  laundries, 
490 

Committee  of  One  Hundred  on  Na- 
tional Health,  Bulletin:  79-80 

Common  Carrier:  556-557 

Compendium  of  Political  Science. 
See  Handworterbuch  der  Staats- 
wissenschaften 

Competition:  between  men  and  wom- 
en, 388,  392;  short-hour  states  vs. 
long-hour  states,  369,  372-373, 
378,  379,  3^3 

Compositors:  7;  141-142:  neuras- 
thenia among,  172,  176 

Concordia,  Zeitschrift  der  Zentral- 
stelle  fiir  Volkwohlfahrt,  Nov.  i, 
1907:  need  of  rest,  94-95 

Congress  of  Hygiene,  etc.  See  In- 
ternational Congress  of  Hygiene 

Congress,  U.  S.     See  U.  S.  Congress 

Congressional  Record:  McKinleyon 
the  Eight-hour  Bill,  429-430 

Connecticut  Bureau  of  Labor  Sta- 
tistics: benefit  of  shorter  hours, 
297;  comparative  efficiency  of 
Enghsh,  Russian,  German  and 
French  labor,  369 

Conrad,  J.     See  Compendium,  etc. 

Consciousness     of     Fatigue.      See 

Nervous  Fatigue 

Consumers'  League  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  Report:  Christmas 
overtime,  505;  legislation,  526; 
saleswomen,  507,  526 

Consumers'  Leagues.  See  Interna- 
tional Conferejice,  etc. 

Continuance  at  Work  During  Ill- 
ness. 20-22 


570 


INDEX 


CoRNEiLLE,  P.,  The  Eight-hours  Day: 
intemperance  from  excess  of  labor, 
233;  temperance  improvement, 
289-290 

Cotton  Mills:  accidents,  hours  of, 
210,  211;  Fall  River,  intemper- 
ance, 234;  increase  in  England, 
342;  Lancashire,  improvement, 
294;  Massachusetts  increase  with 
shorter  hours,  345;  regulation  and 
wages,  402;  Swiss  morbidity,  11, 
12,  17;  women  in,  Great  Britain, 
394 

CowLES,  Edw.,  The  Mental  Symptoms 
of  Fatigue:  attention,  fatigue  of, 
220;  fatigue  anaesthesia,  187;  fa- 
tigue, normal  and  pathological, 
60-61;  neurasthenia  and  its  char- 
acter, 191-192 

Cox,  Harold.     See  Webb,  Sidney,  etc. 

Crisatulli,  Prof.,  Imbecility  and 
Criminality  in  Relation  to  Certain 
Forms  of  Labor:  alcohol  and  fa- 
tigue, the  double  poisoning  of,  233; 
family  life,  429;  future  generations 
and  overworked  mothers,  267; 
mental  fatigue  and  overwork,  191; 
monotony,  46-47;  moral  weaken- 
ing due  to  fatigue,  223-224;  pro- 
tection of  women  and  children,  250 

Customers,  adaptation  to  shorter  hours, 
407-411,528-531 


Dammer,  Otto.    See  Handbuck 
Decxjrtius,  Dr.:  infant  mortality,  274 
Degeneration.     See    Race    Degenera- 
tion 
Demography.     See  International  Con- 
gress of  Hygiene 
De  Moor,  Jean:  attention,  fatigue  of, 

219;   special  overstrain,  154 
Denis,    Hector,    Proposals    regarding 
Limitation  of  Hours  of  Work  for 
Adults  in  Belgium:    fatigue   Con- 
sciousness, 70-71;  legislation,  need 
of,  334;  state's  power  to  regulate, 
242-243 
Denman  and  Arnold,  552-556 
Dennis,  John,  The  Pioneer  of  Progress: 
bad  effect  of  long  hours  on  health, 
121 
Department  Stores,  500-504 


Despeaux,     M.:     street    dangers    for 

young  girls,  430 
Deutsche    Medizinische    Wochenschrift: 

piece  work,  49 
Diseases,    General    Predisposition    to 

from   fatigue:    155-160.    See   also 

Morbidity;      Infectious     Diseases; 

Nervous  Diseases 

DODD,  Wm.,  The  Factory  System:  evil 
effect  on  offspring  of  women  work- 
ers, 263 

DoLAN,  Thomas  M.,  Infant  Mortality: 
death  rate  of  children  of  factory 
workers,  271-272 

DoLFUSS,  M.:  shorter  day  experiment, 
350-351,  379 

DoLPHUS,  Jean:  infant  mortality,  271- 
272 

Domestic  Duties  of  Working  Wom- 
en, 252-260 

Double  Burden  of  Working  Women. 
See  Domestic  Duties 

Dressmaking,  537-544 
Drummond,   Margaret.    See  Mosso 
Drummond,  W.  B.     See  Mosso 
Du  Bois-Reymond:   fatigue,  57 
Dudley,  Dr.:  infant  mortality,  271 
Duncan,  James:  temperance  increased 

with  reduced  hours,  287-288 
Dundee:  infant  mortality,  275 
Duration  of  Illness,  15-20 
DuRLACH,  354 


Early  Closing  Association  :  516,517; 
inadequacy  of,  330,  526 

Early  Closing  Bill:  petition,  515- 
516,  519 

Eccarius,  Geo.  J.,  Hours  of  Labor: 
death  rate  and  overwork,  121 

Economic  Aspect  of  Regulation  of 
Working  Hours,  339-441.  See 
Regulation 

Economic  Journal,  The:  efficiency,  352; 
family  life,  427;  monotony,  46; 
overtime  and  organization,  447, 
448;  overtime  bad  economy,  442; 
speed  of  manufacture,  28;  value  of 
evening  leisure,  316;  women  in 
paper  mills,  391-392 


INDEX 


571 


Efficiency  Increased  by  Shorter 
Hours,  345-375;  Abbe,  E.,  359- 
363;  age  of  workers,  361;  Ameri- 
can Economic  Association  Quarterly, 
375;  Ames,  Fanny  B.,  371-372; 
Ashley,  Lord,  346;  automatic  ad- 
justment of  the  individual,  361; 
Baker,  R.,  349-35°;  Baden,  356; 
Bauer,  E.,  359;  bicycle  balls,  371- 
372;  Birmingham  brass  works,  352; 
Brassey,  T.,  350-351;  Brentano, 
L.,  357;  British  Sessional  Papers, 
347-349;  Buisson,  E.,  365;  Camp- 
bell, L.  R.,  370;  Canada,  353; 
cheerfulness,  value  of,  347,  352, 
357;  Connecticut  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics,  369;  continuity  of  work 
with  reduced  hours,  367;  Dolfuss, 
M.,  350-351;  Economic  Journal, 
352;  eleventh-hour  work,  366,  367; 
English  labor  compared  with  Rus- 
sian, German  and  French,  369, 
379;  Fall  River  mills'  voluntary 
reduction  of  hours,  367;  France, 
365-366;  Frankfort  on  the  Main, 
356;  Fuchs,  Dr.,359;  Gardner,  R., 
347;  Germany,  353-364;  Gray, 
Wm.,  366-367;  Great  Britain,  346- 
352;  Handbook  of  Hygiene,  358; 
Herkner,  H.,  358;  Hesse,  356; 
Holbrook,  J.,  374;  Holland,  357; 
Homer,  L.,  348-349,  350;  human 
element  in  amount  of  output,  365; 
Hutchins,  B.  L.,  352;  improved 
condition  of  workers  with  reduced 
hours,  367;  increase  in  the  short 
hoturs  unreahzed  by  those  concerned , 
361;  increased  production  with 
shortened  day^  instances,  361,  363, 
365;  International  Association  of 
Factory  Inspectors  of  North  Amer- 
ica, 370,  374;  International  Con- 
ference in  Relation  to  Labor  Legis- 
lation, 357;  Jeans,  V.,  351-352; 
Lawrence,  Mass.,  367;  Leroy,  M., 
365-366;  Lilwall,  J.,  349;  limit  of 
tension,  351-352;  Maine  Senate 
Document,  366;  Massachusetts 
Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  366, 
368;  Massachusetts  Chief  of 
PoHce,  368-369,  371;  Massachu- 
setts Senate  Documents,  367-368; 
Michigan  Bureau  of  Labor,  370; 
Millward,  H.,  350;  New  York  De- 
partment of  Labor,  372;  New 
York  State  Factory  Inspector,  Re- 


Efficiency  Increased  by  Shorter 
Hours  {contimied) 
port,  369,  370;  optimum,  363;  out- 
put as  a  measure  of  worker's 
strength,  362;  Pennsylvania  Fac- 
tory Inspector's  Report,  370; 
Pieper,  A.,  359;  Pringsheim,  O., 
357;  Rae,  J.,  352;  recuperation, 
363;  Revue  de  Paris,  365-366; 
Revue  Socialiste,  365;  Roth,  E., 
358;  Salford  Iron  Works,  373,  379; 
Schaefer,  Dr.,  358;  Shaftesbury, 
Lord,  351;  ^short-hour  nations  vs. 
long-hour  nations,  369,  372-373, 
378;  Shuey,  E.  L.,  374;  Smith, 
Adam,  351;  speed,  362;  Switzer- 
land, 353,  363-364;  ten-hour  law 
in  Massachusetts,  366-367;  Toroles, 
J.  K.,375;  United  States,  366-375; 
U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Labor,  Re- 
port, 373;  U.  S.  Congress,  373;  U. 
S.  Industrial  Commission,  Report, 
371-372,  372-373;  Walker,  F.  A., 
3  74 ;  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  Sta- 
tistics, 373;  Worms,  Germany,  356; 
Wurttemberg,  354-35S,  356-357 

Efficiency  Reduced  by  Long  Hours, 
375-384;  Belgian  Higher  Council 
of  Labor,  382;  Belgium,  382;  Bo- 
len,  G.  L.,  384;  Brentano,  L.,  378- 
379;  British  Sessional  Papers,  375- 
376,  377;  Ellesmere,  Earl  of,  376- 
377;  France,  380-381;  German 
Factory  and  Mine  Inspector's  Re- 
ports, 378;  Germany,  378-379; 
Great  Britain,  375-378;  Grillet, 
M.,  380-381;  Hansard's  Parlia- 
mentary Debates,  376-377;  Helle- 
putte,  M.  G.,  382;  Italy,  383; 
Kennedy,  J.  L.,  375-376;  Lan- 
cashire, Eng.,  375-376;  Martin,  R., 
382-383;  Massachusetts  Bureau  of 
Statistics  of  Labor,  383 ;  Massachu- 
setts Chief  of  District  Police,  Re- 
port, 384;  Mundella,  Mr.  378; 
Night  work,  375-376;  Nitti,  F.  S., 
383;  Oxford,  Bishop  of,  377;  Rae, 
J-,  377-378;  Riviere,  M.,  380; 
Smith,  v.,  376;  spoiled  work,  375- 
376,  377;  Swiss  Factory  Inspectors' 
Reports,  382;  Switzerland,  382- 
383;  United  States,  383-384 

EiGHT-HOTJR  Day,  37,  38 
Eight-hou:r    Law:    New  York  state, 
336-337 


572 


INDEX 


Electric-lamp  Intdustry:  monotony, 
39-40;   piecework,  51-52 

Electric  Works,  i  79-181 

Elevated  Railways,  556-557 

Eleven-holti  Day,  355 

Eleventh-hour  Work,  132;  355;  366, 
367 

Ellesmere,  Earl  of:  spoiled  work  due 
to  long  hours,  376-377 

Elliottson,  John:  light  and  easy  work 
fatiguing  if  prolonged,  319 

Ellis,  Havelock,  Man  and  Woman: 
physical  differences  between  men 
and  women,  6 

Elsass-Lothringen  :  bad  effect  of  long 
hours  on  health,  126 

Elster,  L.     See  Compendium 

Employment  of  Women  as  affected  by 
regulation:  Ansiaux,  M.,  392-393; 
Bauer,  E.,  391;  Belgian  minister 
of  Commerce  and  Labor,  Report 
to,  392-393;  Belgium,  392-393; 
Brassey,  T.,  387-388;  British 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  390;  British  Sessional 
Papers,  387;  Cadbury,  E.,  392 
Case  for  the  Factory  Acts,  388 
competition  with  men,  388,  392 
Economic  Journal,  391-392;  Ger- 
many, 393,  394;  Great  Britain, 
387-392;  Hutchins,  B.  L.,  390, 
391-392;  Journal  of  the  Royal 
Statistical  Society,  389-390;  La- 
bour Laws  for  Women,  388;  more 
regular  when  overtime  is  prohib- 
ited, 450-456;  Pieper,  A.,  394; 
proportion  of  women  in  industry, 
394-395;  Saxony,  393;  textile  in- 
dustries, 389,  393;  United  States, 
394-395;  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor, 
Bulletin,  394;  various  industries 
employing  women  in  Great  Britain, 
1861-1901,  394-395;  where  de- 
mand is  greatest,  392;  Wood,  G. 
H.,  389-390,  391 

Encyclical  on  the  Labor  Problem, 
quoted,  96 

Encyclop.5;dia  of  Hygiene  and  Pub- 
lic Medicine:  morbidity  and 
duration  of  illness,  16-17 

Engels,  Frederick,  Condition  of  the 
Working  Class  in  England  in  1844: 
monotony,  44;  pelvic  diseases,  138 


Erb,  W^ilhelm,  The  Increase  of  Ner- 
vousness in  our  Times:  neuras- 
thenia among  the  poor,  170;  neu- 
rasthenia and  fatigue,  188-189 

Ergograph,  71,  73,  74,  80,  81-83;  de- 
scription, 81-83,  88 

Ergographic  Curve,  87 

Erismann,  Dr.  :  evils  of  night  work,  418 

Evening  Leisure:  special  benefit  of, 
310-317 

Evening  Work  After  Day  Work, 
417-419 

Eyesight:  injuries  from  long  hours, 
148-151,  420 

Exemptions  from  regulative  laws.  See 
Uniformity  of  restriction 

Fall  River:  cotton  industry,  479; 
cotton  mills,  intemperance,  234; 
mills'  reduction  of  hours,  367 

Family  Life,  426-430 

Fatigue,  52-64;  American  Institute 
of  Instruction,  SLxty-fifth  Annual 
Meeting,  62;  Baker,  Henry  S.,  62; 
Beard,  61;  Biedermann,  58;  Brus- 
sells  Congress  of  Hygiene,  1903,  54; 
Carrieu,  M.,  59;  Compendium  of 
Political  Science,  vol.  I.,  54-55; 
Cowles,  Edw.,  60-61;  Du  Bois- 
Reymond's  discovery,  57;  Fletcher, 
55;  Gautier's  experiments,  57,  59; 
general  medical  views,  52-64;  Gep- 
pert,  58;  Harv'ey  lectures,  63 ;  Her- 
ing,  58;  Herkner,  H.,  54-55;  Her- 
zen,  59-60;  increase,  rate  of,  90- 
91;  International  Congress  of  Hy- 
giene and  Demography,  54,  55-56, 
58-59;  Kraus,  55,  58;  Kronecker, 
55;  Lagrange,  60;  Lavoisier,  56; 
Lee  Frederic  S  ,  63-64;  Mosso,  A., 
56-57,  64;  New  York  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,  62-63;  New  York 
State  Medical  Association,  60-61; 
Oliver,  Thomas,  53-54;  passive, 
"waste  of  power,"  362-363; 
Ranke,  55,  57;  Roth,  Emil,  55-56; 
Sachnine,  Ilia,  59-60;  Sequin,  56; 
Tissie,  60;  Treves,  Zaccaria,  58- 
59;  Zuntz,  Dr.,  54,  58.  See  also 
Accidents;  Attention;  Fatigued 
muscles;  Muscular  fatigue;  Ner- 
vous diseases;  Nervous  fatigue;  Rest; 
Toxin  of  fatigue 


INDEX 


573 


Fatigued  Muscles:  greater  strain 
upon,  88-93 

Favill,  Henry  B.,  The  Federal  Chil- 
dren's Bureau:  state's  interest  in 
the  physical  well-being  of  the 
people,  246 
Industrial  Hygiene  and  the  Police 
Power:  health  and  labor,  relation, 
244;  mandatory  measures  best  in 
labor  reform,  338 

Feet  and  Legs:  injuries  from  long 
standing,  142-148 

Felix,  Jules,  The  Influence  of  Working 
Hours  on  the  Conditions  of  Health 
of  Working  People:    need  of  rest, 

lOI 

Female  Functions  and  Childbirth, 
135-142,  520-525 

Fere,  Chas.,  Work  and  Enjoyment: 
attention  and  memory,  fatigue  of, 
218;  fatigue,  effect  of,  214;  in- 
fectious diseases,  163;  maximum 
muscular  work,  86;  moral  weakness 
due  to  fatigue,  224 

Fish-curing  Trade:  exemption  from 
law,  468 

Fisher,  Irving:  national  vitality  and 
fatigue,  79-80 

Fitch,  John  A.,  The  Steel  Workers: 
intemperance,  236 

FiTCHBURG,  Mass.  :  bicycle  ball  factory, 

371-372 
Flat  Foot:    from  long  standing,  142, 

143, 145,  146,  147,  514-515,  520 

Fletcher:  fatigue,  55 

Florence,  Italy:  industrial  accidents, 
209 

Forel,  August,  Hygiene  of  Nerves  and 
Mind  in  Health  and  Disease:  ner- 
vous hygiene  of  women,  7 

France: 

Chamber  of  Deputies,  Debates,  etc.: 
industrial  degeneration,  280-281; 
intemperance,  232;  long  hours  of 
working  women,  415;  overtime 
wages,  457;  overtime  work,  439; 
streets   at    night    dangerous,    430 

Factory  Inspectors'  Reports:  dress- 
making and  millinerj--,  overtime, 
539;  exemption  from  and  abuses  of 


France : 

Factory    Inspectors'    Reports    (cott- 

tinued) 

restrictive  laws,  469-470;  over- 
time bad  economy,  440,  443;  over- 
time prohibition,  449;  overtime 
wages,  458;  regularity  of  employ- 
ment, 454 

Labor  Olfice,  Bulletin:  increased  pro- 
duction per  hour  with  shortened 
day,  365 

Minister  of  Commerce,  Reports  to: 
family  life,  427-428;  lack  of  sleep, 
injury  of,  422-423;  street  dangers 
for  young  girls,  430 

Senate,  Parliamentary  Documents, 
etc.:  domestic  duties  of  women 
workers,  258;  hours  of  work  for 
women,  249-250;  long  hours  for 
working  women,  415-416;  over- 
time wages,  457-458 

Frankfort:  continuance  at  work 
during  illness,  1896,  21,  22;  dura- 
tion of  illness,  18,  19;  shortened 
hours,  356 

Frankport  a.  d.  Oder:  health  of  wom- 
en in  textile  mills,  34 

Freiberg,  Albert  H.,  Some  Effects  of 
Improper  Posture  in  Factory  La- 
bor: fatigue  and  injury  of  stand- 
ing, 147-148;  standing  occupa- 
tions, 5 14-5 IS 

FuCHS,  Dr.:  efficiency  increased  by 
shorter  hours,  359 

Future  Gen^erations,  effect  of  wom- 
en's overwork  on,  260-269.  See 
also  Race  Degeneration 


Gardner,  Robert:  efficiency,  increase, 
347 

Gaskell,  p.,  Artisans  and  Alachinerj^; 
The  Moral  and  Physical  Condition 
of  the  Manufacturing  Population: 
miscarriages  of  factory  women,  137 

Gautier:    fatigue,  experiments,  57,  59 

Gehrig,  F.,  The  Results  of  Child  Labor 
as  judged  from  the  Physicians' 
Standpoint:  diseases  peculiar  to 
women  from  sitting  and  standing, 
140 

Geppert:   fatigue,  58 


574 


INDEX 


Germany: 

Factory  and  Mine  Inspectors'  Re- 
ports: accidents,  207,  208;  bad 
effect  of  long  hours  on  health,  es- 
pecially in  laundries,  125,  126; 
benefit  of  shorter  hours  for  women, 
316;  domestic  duties,  additional 
burden  to  women  workers,  255- 
257;  effect  of  long  hours,  7;  feet 
and  leg  diseases  from  long  standing, 
146;  future  generations'  depen- 
dence on  protection  of  women  work- 
ers, 265;  intemperance,  230;  laun- 
dry overstrain,  424-425;  legisla- 
tion, necessity,  332;  light  work  if 
prolonged  is  exhausting,  321;  long 
hours  and  health,  122-124,  125; 
long  hours  disappearing,  378; 
moral  weakening  of  fatigue,  224; 
nervous  diseases,  168;  overtime 
and  output,  relation,  436;  race 
degeneration,  282;  reduction  of 
working  day  for  women  and  rea- 
sons, 249;  shortening  of  hours  de- 
sired by  operatives,  323-325; 
shorter  day  output,  quantity  and 
quahty,  353-357;  speed  in  manu- 
facture, 32-33,  34;  streets  at  night, 
432;  tailoring  trade  statistics  of 
illness,  17-18;  uterine  diseases,  138- 
139;  "voluntary  overtime,"  487 

German  Empire,  Annals:  legislation, 
necessity,  331;  long  hours,  bad 
effects  on  general  health,  126 

Imperial  Labor  Statistics:  overtime 
prohibition,  449 

Reichstag,  Proceedings:  danger  of 
race  degeneration  through  wom- 
en's work,  264-265;  infant  mor- 
tahty,  273;  morbidity  of  women  in 
Switzerland,  12;  legislation,  neces- 
sity, especially  for  women,  331-332; 
prolonged  labor  of  any  kind  in- 
jurious and  should  be  regulated, 
320-321;  race  degeneration,  281- 
282;  shorter  day  output,  353;  short- 
er hours  for  women,  6-7;  shorter 
hours  the  remedy,  324 

Statistics  of  the  German  Empire: 
sickness  insurance,  1906,  20 
GiBBiNS,  H.  DE  B.  See  Had  field,  R.  A. 
GiGLiOLi,  G.  Y.,  New  Researches  and 
Acquisitions  in  the  Pathology  and 
Hygiene  of  Labor:  infectious  dis- 
eases, 162-163;  neurasthenics  of 
labor,  168-169 


Glasgow  :  bad  effect  of  long  hours,  119- 
120 

Glass  Bottle  Blowers'  Association 
OF  America:  speed  in  manufacture, 
41 

Gledden,  Dr.  :  bad  effect  of  long  hours 
on  general  health,  133 

Glycogen,  84 

Goethe:   eye  fatigue,  148-149 

GoMPERS,  Samuel:  overtime  wages  and 
work,  460 

GoNNARD,  R.,  Woman  in  Industry: 
improved  methods  of  manufacture, 
386;   overtime  high  wage,  463 

Graham,  Sir  James:  conversion  to 
shorter-hour  legislation,  298-299 

Graham-Rogers,  C.  T.:  on  physical 
structure  of  women,  9 

Gray,  Wm.:  argument  for  Ten-Hour 
Law  in  Mass.,  366-367 

Green,  Jos.  Henry:  adequate  resting- 
time,  113;  air  at  night  in  shops, 
420;  fatigue  of  standing,  144; 
physical  differences  between  men 
and  women,  3 

Griesberts,  Herr:  legislation,  need  of, 
335 

Griffin  and  Yanckwich,  552-553 

Grigg,  W.  Chapman:  long  hours, 
standing,  and  women's  diseases, 
524 

Grillet,  M.,  The  Effect  of  Shorter 
Hours  on  Production:  relation  of 
hours  and  output,  380-381 

GuNTON,  George,  The  Economic  and 
Social  Importance  of  the  Eight- 
Hour  Movement:  leisure  and  re- 
creation needed,  308 
The  Eight-Hour  Day:  saloon  and 
laborer,  235;  shorter  hours,  neces- 
sity, 328;  speed  in  manufacture,  40 
Wealth  and  Progress:  shorter  hours, 
necessity,  328 

GtJTERGOTZ,  171 

Guthrie,  James:  fatigue  of  standing, 
144;  physical  differences  between 
men  and  women,  3-4;  sight  injured 
by  evening  work,  420 
Guy,  Wm.  Augustus,  The  Case  of  the 
Journeymen  Bakers:  bad  habits 
due  to  fatigue,  229-230;  moral 
benefits  of  shortened  hours,  289 


INDEX 


575 


Hadfield,  R.  a.,  and  Gibbins,  H.  de 
B.,  A  Shorter  Working  Day:  ben- 
efits of  the  Factory  Acts,  343;  fac- 
tory workers  in  the  past,  279;  in- 
ventions, 385-386;  uniformity  of 
regulation,  478 

Haegler,  Dr.:  weekly  rest  day,  100, 
105,  106;   charts,  109-110 

Hajtobook  of  Hygiene.  See  Hand- 
buck  der  Hygiene;   Weyl,  T. 

Handbuch  der  Arbeiterwohlfahrt 
(Handbook  of  the  General  Welfare 
of  the  Working  Classes) :  adequate 
resting-time,  111-112,  114;  eye 
fatigue,  150;  feet  and  leg  diseases, 
147;  infectious  diseases,  161;  in- 
temperance and  prostitution  from 
fatigue,  230-231;  leisure  for  the 
laborer,  use  and  misuse,  304; 
shorter  hours  the  remedy,  325-326; 
strain  on  special  organs,  152.  See 
Dammer,  Otto. 

Handbuch  der  Hygiene:  adequate 
resting-time,  1 1 1 ;  bad  effect  of  long 
hours  on  general  health,  126;  dura- 
tion of  illness,  17;  efficiency  of 
early  hours  of  day,  358;  future 
generation,  health  of,  265;  in- 
dividual power  of  resistance  to  dis- 
ease, 159-160;  length  of  working 
time  the  important  point  in  trades, 
321-322;  protective  laws  for  wom- 
en in  industry,  248;  race  regenera- 
tion from  shorter  hours,  295;  state 
and  industrial  hygiene,  238 

Handworterbtjch  der  Staatswissen- 
SCHAETEN  (Compendium  of  PoHt- 
ical  Science):  fatigue,  54-55,  76- 
77,  83-84,  92-93;  intemperance, 
232;  leisure,  family,  pubhc  and 
social  Hfe  for  the  laborer,  304;  need 
of  rest,  96-97,  103-104,  115;  over- 
time prohibition,  454;  restriction 
an  encouragement  to  best  employ- 
ers, 472-473;  state's  need  of  pre- 
serving health,  240,  284 

Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates: 
accidents  and  fatigue,  202;  domes- 
tic duties  of  working  women,  253; 
efficiency,  increase  of,  346;  exhaus- 
tion of  a  12-hour  day,  118;  female 
functional  diseases,  135-136;  in- 
temperance due  to  fatigue,  228; 
long  hours  and  reduced  efficiency, 


Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates 
{continued) 
376;  moral  improvement  with 
shorter  hours,  288;  overtime  pro- 
hibition and  regularity  of  labor, 
450-451;  race  degeneration,  276- 
277;   state  and  industry,  237 

Hardwicke,  Wm.:  need  of  rest,  102 

Harrison,  Amy.    See  Hutchins,  B.  L. 

Harvey  Lectixres,  Fatigue:  muscular 
fatigue,  phenomena,  87-88;  na- 
ture of  fatigue,  63-64;  need  of  rest, 
103;  nervous  fatigue,  78-79;  toxin 
of  fatigue,  69.     See  Lee,  Frederic  S. 

Haste.     See  Speed  of  Manufacture 

Hawkins,  Dr.:  female  functional  dis- 
eases, 135;  intemperance  among 
factory  workers,  227 

Health,  General  Injury  to:  special 
diseases  and  injuries,  1 16-135.  See 
Evening  work,  etc.;  Long  hours; 
Overstrain 

Heart  Disease  :  B  erlin  working  people , 
175-176 

Heffter,  Werner,  Industrial  Hygiene 
and  the  Prevention  of  Accidents: 
special  overstrain,   152 

Hellefutte,  M.  G.,  Regiilation  of 
Hours  of  Work  for  Adults:  curve 
of  work,  382;  good  results  of  short- 
er hours,  295;  private  initiative 
and  legislation,  333-334 

Helmholtz,  H.  von:  myograph,  81; 
rapidity  of  perception,  214-215 

Heredity.     See  under  Nervous  diseases 

Hering:  fatigue,  58 

Herkner,  H.,  Handworterbuch  der 
Staatswissenschaften:  Belgian 

studies,  10;  fatigue,  54-55;  speed 
in  manufacture,  35 
Hours  of  Work:  accidents,  hours  of, 
206;  fatigued  muscles,  greater 
strain  on,  92-93;  intemperance, 
232;  leisure,  family,  public  and 
social  life  for  the  laborer,  304;  mus- 
cular fatigue,  83-84;  need  of  rest, 
96-97,  103-104;  nervous  fatigue, 
76-77;  overtime  prohibition,  454; 
resting  time  in  injurious  occupa- 
tions, 115;  restriction  an  encour- 
agement to  best  employers,  472- 
473;  state's  need  of  preserving 
health  of  its  people,  240,  284 


576 


INDEX 


Herkner,  H.  (continued) 

The  Labor  Question:    legislation  vs. 
voluntary-    organization    and    vs. 
industrial  war  as  a  means  of  short- 
ening hours,  332 
The  Problem  of  Labor:  efficiency,  358 
Social    Reform    as    a    Condition    of 
Socio- Political   Progress :     military 
recruiting  in  factory-  regions,  2S2- 
283 
Herzen:  fatigue,  59-60 
Hesse:  shorter  hours,  356 
Heym:   duration  of  illness,  20 

HiRSCH,  ]SLa.x,  Prohibition  of  Night 
Work  of  Women  in  Germany:  dis- 
eases due  to  long  hours,  416-417; 
evils  of  evening  work,  418;  family 
life,  428-429;  future  generations, 
health,  265-266;  morbidity,  12; 
overtime^  bad  economy,  437.  See 
Bauer,  E. 

HiRT,  LuDWiG,  The  Diseases  of  Work- 
ing People:  poisonous  trades,  10; 
prolonged  sitting  or  standing  the 
injurious  element,  321 

HoBSOX,  JoHX  A.,  Problems  of  Poverty: 
domestic  duties,  additional  burden 
of,  254;  family  life,  427;  state's 
need  of  preserving  health  of  women, 

247 
The    Problem    of    the   Unemployed: 
leisure  and  its  benefits,  302-303 

Hodge,  C.  F.:  experiments  as  to  exer- 
cise, 77,  78;  need  of  Sunday  rest, 
226-227 

HODGKIN,  Thos.:  fatigue  of  standing, 
143;  need  of  rest,  113 

Hoffm;.\x,  August,  The  Choice  of  Oc- 
cupation and  Nerve  Life:  nervous 
diseases   and   heredity,    183-184 

Hoffmann,  Frederick  L.,  Physical 
and  Medical  Aspects  of  Labor  and 
Industr}-:  value  to  the  state  of 
workingmen's  health  and  efficiency, 
245-256 

Holbrook,  John,  The  Shorter  Work- 
day and  its  Effect  upon  the  Per- 
sonal Character  of  the  Worker: 
intemperance,  235;  leisure  and  its 
emplo\Tnent,  309-310;  reduction 
of  hours,  results,  374 


Holmes,  T.:  female  functional  diseases, 
136-137;  infant  mortahty,  270; 
varicose  veins,  Frankfort,  144-145 

Home  Duties.     See  Domestic  duties 

Horxer,    Leonard:     efficiency,    348- 

349,350 
Hospitals,  London:  petition  for  early 

closing  bill,  515-516 

Hotels  ant)  Restautl^nts  :  California 
Supreme  Court,  552-556;  Chicago 
conditions,  total,  551;  hours,  549; 
Labor  Laws  and  their  Enforce- 
ments, etc.,  550;  Miller,  F.  A., 
552-556;  United  States,  550-556; 
U.  S.  Congress,  550 

Hours  of  Work.  See  Long  hours; 
Regulation  of  hours;    Shorter  hours 

Howard,  Henry:  bad  effect  of  long 
hours  on  health,  132-133 

Howard,  Robert:  Fall  River,  intem- 
perance in,  234 

Howell,  Wm.  H.,  Text  Book  of  Physiol- 
og>':  chemical  changes  in  muscles, 
108-109 

Ho\\7CK,  Viscount:  state  and  industry, 
237 

Hutchins,  B.  L.,  The  Employment  of 
Women  in  Paper  Mills:  home  Ufe, 
427;  overtime  and  organization, 
447;  overtime  bad  economy,  442; 
women  not  displaced  by  regulation, 
391-392 
Gaps  in  our  Factor>'  Legislation:  ef- 
ficiency, 352;  monotony,  46;  over- 
time prohibition,  448;  speed  of 
manufacture,  28 

Hutchins,  B.  L.,  and  Amy  Harrison, 
j  Historj'    of    Factor}-    Legislation: 

adaptation  of  customers  to  shorter 
shopping  hours,  531;  customers' 
orders,  409-410;  good  results  of 
regulation,  294-295;  improved  ma- 
chinery, 386;  saleswomen,  fatigue, 
512;  state  control  of  women's 
labor,  390;  women's  physical  ca- 
pacity, 5 

Hygiene.  See  Handbuch  der  Hygiene; 
International  Congress  of  Hygiene; 
Reference  Handbook,  etc. 

Hyn^dman,  H.  M.:  future  generations, 
effect  of  women's  work  on,  261 


INDEX 


577 


Illinois:  laundry  conditions  in,  497 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics:  time  of 
women  at  work  and  going  and  com- 
ing, percentages,  260 
Factory  Inspectors'  Report:  domes- 
tic duties  of  women  workers,  259; 
irregularity  of  emplo>Tnent,  454- 
455;  light  work  prolonged  is  in- 
jurious, 322;  value  of  legislative  re- 
striction of  houjrs  of  labor,  297-298 

Illness.  See  Continuance  at  Work 
during  Illness;  Morbidity 

Imbert,  a.,  Industrial  Accidents  and 
Insurance:  fatigue  as  an  agent  in 
producing  accidents,  192-193 
Overwork  as  a  Result  of  Occupation: 
need  of  rest,  loo-ioi;  period  of 
gestation  and  weight  of  offspring  of 
working  women,  274 
Statistics  of  Industrial  Accidents: 
hours  of  the  day  when  accidents  are 
most  frequent,  charts,  194-198 

IMPB.o^'EME^:TS  in  Mantjeacture,  384- 
387 

Industrial  Accidents.    See  Accidents 

Ineant  Mortality,  269-276 

Ineectious  Diseases,  161-163 

Injuries  to  Various  Organs  by  Over- 
strain, 151-155 

Instituts  Solvay,  Travaux  du  Labora- 
toire  de  Physiologic,  Tome  VI. 
Fasc.  4:    muscular  fatigue,  86-87 

Insurance:  accident  statistics,  Ger- 
many, 204-205,  208;  industrial 
accidents  and,  192-193 

Insurance  Societies.  See  Sickness 
Insurance  Societies 

Intemperance,  growth  of,  227-236. 
See  also  Temperance 

International  Association  for  La- 
bor Legislation:  domestic  duties 
of  women  workers,  258;  fatigue,  its 
nature,  60;  hours  of  work  vs.  severe 
work,  322;  legislation,  need  of, 
334,  335 ;  nervous  fatigue,  70-71 

International  Association  of  Fac- 
tory Inspectors  of  America  :  im- 
portance of  movement  for  shortening 
working  time,  300;  intemperance, 
235;  leisure,  how  used  by  working 
classes,  309-310;  speed  in  manufac- 
ture, 36-37;  ten-hour  production 
'  as  good  as  eleven-hour,  370,  374 

37* 


International  Association  of  Ma- 
chinists: speed  in  manufacture, 
40-41 

International  Conference  in  Rela- 
tion to  Labor  Legislation,  Berlin, 
1890:  countries  with  shorter  day 
have  maximum  of  production,  357 

International  Conference  of  Con- 
sumers' Le.agues:  overtime  in 
clothing  trades,  443;  overtime 
wages,  evil  of,  458-459;  sewing 
girls'  overtime,  540 

International  Conference  on  Sun- 
day Rest,  1889,  100 

International  Congress  of  Hygiene 
ANT) Demography:  accidents,  hours 
of,  205,  206;  accidents  late  in  the 
day,  203;  attention,  fatigue  of,  216, 
218-219;  fatigue,  54,  55-56,  58- 
59;  general  health,  127-128,  130; 
gestation  and  weight  of  offspring  of 
working  women,  274;  infectious 
diseases,  161;  injurious  occupa- 
tions, 115-116;  intemperance,  fac- 
tors in,  231;  monotony,  46;  mor- 
bidity, general,  11,  12,  14-15; 
muscular  fatigue,  84-85;  need  of 
rest,  95-96,  98-99,  loo-ioi;  ner- 
vous diseases  among  working  people 
as  shown  by  sickness  insurance  sta- 
tistics, 1 78-181;  nervous  fatigue, 
71-73;  nemrasthenia  among  work- 
ing people,  164;  overstimulation 
and  nervous  disease,  186,  187; 
overstrain,  rush  work  etc.,  425; 
overtime  output,  percentage  of 
value,  438;  physiological  limits  of 
work,  104-106;  piece  work,  49; 
protection  of  women  from  long 
hours  and  not  exclusion  from  work, 
326;  race  degeneration  from  over- 
work, 281;  relative  length  of  work 
and  rest,  112-113;  special  local 
overstrain  and  fatigue,  152- 
154;  speed  in  manufacture,  36; 
state  and  normal  working  day, 
241;  strain  on  special  organs,  151- 
152;   toxin  of  fatigue,  67-68 

International  Congress  of  Medi- 
cine :  public  and  individual  health, 
240-241 

International  Convention  on  In- 
dustrial Diseases:  family  life, 
429;  monotony,  46-47;  moral  weak- 
ening through  fatigue,  223-224 


578 


INDEX 


Invention:  shorter  hours  a  stimulus  to, 

384 
loTEYKO,  Mlle.  J.,   The  Laws  of  the 

Ergograph,    a    Physiological    and 

Mathematical     Study:      muscular 

fatigue,  86-87 

Irregularity  of  Labor:  undesirable, 
450-456 

IsLESWORTH  INFIRMARY:  total  of  dis- 
eases of  laundresses  and  others,  494 

Italian  Journal  of  Social  Medi- 
cine: infectious  diseases,  162-163; 
neurasthenics  and  pathology  of  la- 
bor, 168-169;  piece  work,  49;  rail- 
way machine  shops  and  accidents, 
209-210.     See  //  Ramazzini 

Italian  Workman's  Society:  continu- 
ance at  work  during  illness,  1866- 
1875,  21;  duration  of  illness,  17,  18 


Jacobi,  Dr.  Mary  Putnam:  mercantile 
employes,  condition,  507-508 

Jager,  Gustav,  Hiunan  Energy:  need 
of  rest,  93 

Jam-making  Industry:  conditions,  486 

Jarvis,  Edw.:  injury  of  overwork,  131; 

state's  interest  in  individual  health, 

243 
Jay,  M.  Raoul,  Is  Legal  Protection  for 

Working  People  Necessary?  State's 

need  of  preserving  health,  242 

Jeans,  Victorine,  Factory  Acts  Legis- 
lation: benefit  of  overtime  prohi- 
bition, 484-485;  efficiency,  351; 
improvements  in  manufacture  re- 
sulting from  the  Act  of  1844,  385; 
state's  need  of  preserving  health, 
237 

Jena:  Political  Society,  46,  94,  112 

Journal  of  Political  Economy:  future 
generation  and  health  of  mothers, 
268-269 

Journal  of  Social  Science,  etc.:  light 
work  injurious  if  prolonged,  322 

Journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical 
Society:  mortality,  23;  New 
South  Wales,  millinery,  431 ;  wages 
of  women,  increase,  400-401; 
women  not  displaced  by  men  since 
the  Factory  Acts,  389-390 


JuiLLERAT,  Mme.  A.  PAUL,  Overtime: 
Abuses  and  Responsibilities:  over- 
time in  clothing  trades,  443;  rush 
work,  evil  of,  458-459;  sewing 
girls,  540 


Kelley,  Florence,  Factory  Inspection 
in  Pittsburgh:  injury  of  long  hours 
of  even  light  work,  323.  See  also 
En  gels,  Frederick 

Kennedy,  John  Lawson:  long  hours  in 
Lancashire  calico  printing  mills  and 
results,  375-376 

Key,  Chas.  A.:  air  foul  at  night  in 
shops,  420;  light  and  easy  work 
exhaustingif  prolonged,  319;  phys- 
ical differences  between  men  and 
women,  3 

KiDD,  Percy:  bad  effect  of  long  hours 
on  general  health,  120;  continued 
work  as  injurious  as  hard  work, 
319;  saleswomen,  health,  510-511, 
518-519;  sjTnptoms  among  women 
due  to  long  hours  of  work,  4-5; 
varicose  veins  from  prolonged 
standing,  145 

Kilgour,  a.  C:  deterioration  of  de- 
scendants of  factory  workers,  260- 
261 

Kingsbury,  Susan  B.  See  Labor  Laws 
and  their  Enforcement 

KoBER,  Geo.  M.,  Industrial  Hygiene: 
fatigue  a  predisposing  cause  of  dis- 
ease, 160;  injury  of  constrained  at- 
titudes, 155;  morbidity  and  mor- 
tality, 15 

Kollarits,  Jeno,  Nervous  and  Muscu- 
lar Fatigue:  fatigue  of  the  nervous 
system,  219-220 

Konigsberg,  Germany:  temperance 
improvement,  290 

Krauss,  Wm.  C.,  Influence  of  Age  upon 
the  Production  of  Nervous  Dis- 
eases:  nervous  fatigue,  78 

Krejcsi,  E.  R.  J.,  The  Length  of  the 
Working  Day:  accidents  and  fa- 
tigue, insurance  statistics,  204-205; 
bad  effect  of  long  hours  on  health, 
130;  injurious  occupations,  115- 
116;  speed  in  manufacture,  36; 
state  and  normal  working  day,  241 


INDEX 


579 


ELronecker,  Prof.:    fatigue,  55;    fa- 
tigued muscles,  90 
KuKELLA.     See  Borderland  Problems 

Kydd,  Samuel  ("Alfred."),  History 
of  the  Factory  Movement  from  the 
Year  1802  to  the  Enactment  of  the 
Ten-hours  Bill  in  1847:  need  of 
rest,  102;  uterine  diseases  among 
mill  workers,  137-138 

Labor  Laws  and  Their  Enforce- 
ment: restaurant  conditions,  550, 
552;    store  conditions,  508-509 

Labour  Laws  for  Women:  wages  as 
affected  by  regulation  of  hours, 
399-400;  women  not  driven  out  of 
employment  by  regulation,  388 

Lagrange,  M.:  fatigue,  60;  overwork, 
77 

Lakeman,  J.  B.:  overtime  unnecessary, 
409;  saleswomen,  510;  standing 
and  long  hours,  516 

Lancashire,  England:  benefits  of  re- 
duced hours,  296;  cotton  mills, 
improvement,  294;  female  func- 
tional diseases,  135-136;  injury  of 
protracted  labor,  277;  intemper- 
ance, 227;  long  hours  in  calico 
printing  and  results,  375-376; 
wages  of  cotton  operatives,  406 

Lancet  Sanitary  Commission,  Re- 
port: long  hours  and  standing  for 
saleswomen,  518 

Lancet,  The:  Editorial  overwork  and 
need  of  rest,  102-103 

Larkin,  Edmund  R.,  A  Few  Words  on 
the  Ten  Hours  Factory  Question: 
reduced  hours  affect  production 
and  wages  but  little,  399 

Las  Casas,  M.  de.,  The  Weekly  Rest 
Day:  infectious  diseases,  163 

Laundries:  accidents,  492,  493,  497, 
498;  accidents,  time  of  day,  202, 
203,  203-204;  beer,  499;  character 
of  work  in  power  laundries  by  oc- 
cupations, 491-493;  Chicago,  490- 
491;  Clarke,  S.  A.,  and  Wyatt, 
Edith,  497;  Colorado  Bureau  of 
Labor'  Statistics,  Report,  490; 
effect  on  health,  493-497;  Ger- 
many, 424-425;  Great  Britain, 
489-490,  493-495,  498-499;   tours 


Laundries  (continued) 

of  work  in  .U.  S.,  490-491;  Illi- 
nois, example,  497;  intemperance, 
230;  long  hours,  412,  413;  morals, 
498-499;  Oliver  T.,  489-490,  499; 
overtime,  466,  467,  468,  478,  483; 
present  character,  489-493 ;  shorter 
day  output,  354;  United  States, 
490-493,  495-497 

Lavoisier,  M.:  fatigue,  56,  106 

Law.     See  Legislation 

Lawrence,  Mass.:  Atlantic  Mills, 
time  reduction  and  result,  367; 
intemperance  and  overwork,  225, 
233;  leisure,  304-305;  offspring, 
health  impaired  by  mother's  over- 
work, 267;  Pemberton  Mills,  elev- 
enth hour  work,  367;  race  degen- 
eration from  overwork,  284 

La  yet,  Alexander,  Industrial  Labor  of 
Women  and  Children:  morbidity 
and  duration  of  illness,  16-17 

Lee,  Frederic  S.,  Fatigue  (The  Har- 
vey Lectures):  fatigue  and  appar- 
ent increase  in  working  capacity, 
187-188;  muscular  fatigue,  87-88; 
nature  of  fatigue,  63-64;  need  of 
rest,  103;  nervous  fatigue,  78-79; 
toxin  of  fatigue,  69 

Leech,  R.  H.:  infant  mortality,  269- 
270 

Leeds,  England:  benefit  of  shorter 
hours,  290-291;  industrial  condi- 
tions, 483 

Lees,  Cowan:  air  at  night  in  shops,  421 

Legislation:  to  secure  shorter  hours, 
328-339 

Legs,  Injuries  from  Standing.  See 
Feet  and  legs,  diseases  of 

Leipzig:  benefit  of  shorter  hours  for 
women,  316;  continuance  at  work 
during  illness,  1856-1880,  21; 
duration  of  illness,  18,  19;  long 
hours  in  laundries,  123 

Leisure  and  Recreation:  Opportuni- 
ties afforded  by  shorter  hours, 
302-310.    See  also  Evening  leisure 

Leno,  John  B.,  An  Essay  on  the  Nine 
Hours  Movement:  family  life  and 
mental  improvement,  426-427 

Leo  XIII,  Pope,  quoted  on  the  labor 
problem,  96 


58o 


INDEX 


Leroy,  M.,  The  Eight  Hour  Day:  rela- 
tion of  reduced  hours  to  output  in 
quantity    and    quality,    365-366 

Le  Roy,  M.,  A  Study  of  Industrial  Acci- 
dents: fatigue  as  a  factor,  199-200 

Leubuscher,  Dr.  P.,  and  Bibrowicz, 
W.:  Neurasthenia  in  the  Working 
Classes:  age  of  incidence,  182; 
neurotic  diseases  and  heredity,  184; 
piece  work,  49,  171;  sanitaria  of 
the  State  Insurance  Department 
(German),  171,  172;  working 
classes,  170-173 

Lexis,  W.     See  Handworterbuch,  etc. 

Light  A^^D  Easy  Work  injurious  if  pro- 
longed, 317-323 

LiLWALL,    John,    The    Early    Closing 
Mgvement:     working   classes   and 
insanity,  279 
The  Half-holiday  Question:  efficiency 

349-350 

LiNDHEiM,  Alfred  R.  von.  The  Mor- 
bidity and  Mortality  of  Occupa- 
tions: nervous  diseases  as  occu- 
pation diseases,  1 80-1 81;  over- 
stimulation, 187 

LoENiNG,  Edg.  See  Handworterbuch, 
etc. 

LOEWENEELD.  See  Borderland  Prob- 
lems, etc. 

LoEWENFELD,  L.,  On  Mental  Working 
Power  and  its  Hygiene:  niervous 
fatigue,  75-76;  state  and  individ- 
ual health,  239-240 

London,  Dr.:  general  predisposition  to 
diseases  among  mill  workers,  156 

London  Medical  Men:  petition  to 
Parliament,  5x1,  515,  519 

Long  Hoxjrs  Due  to  Overtime,  411- 
417.     See  also  Efficieticy;    Shorter 
hours 
Looms:  number  tended,  37,  38 
Lost  Time:  making  up,  464-465,  475 
Lubbock,  Sir  John:  Early  Closing  Bill, 

515-516 
LuBENAU,  Dr.,  Heart  Disease  among 
the  Working  People  of  Berlin:  neu- 
rasthenia, neurosis,  etc.,  175,  176 
Lyons,  France:  Mutual  Aid  Society  of 
Sick  Workers,  duration  of  illness, 
16-17;   mortality  statistics,  23,  24 


MacCormac,  Sir  W.:  general  predis- 
position to  disease  among  mill 
workers,  157;  moral  and  physical 
well-being  interdependence,  221; 
offspring  of  weak  parents,  524-525; 
physical  capacity  of  women,  5; 
saleswomen,  hours  and  conditions 
arduous,  511-512 

MacDonald,  J.  R.,  Women  in  the 
Printing  Trades :  legislation  a  bene- 
fit to  employers,  330;  overtime  bad 
economy,  442 

MacKensie,  W.  Leslie:  offspring  of 
women  workers,  262-263 

McKinley,  Wm.  :  family  life,  429-430 

McVey,  Frank  L.:  benefit  of  shorter 
hours,  301-302 

Maffei,  Dr.  R.     See  Pieraccini,  G. 

Maggiora,  Arnaldo,  The  Laws  of  Fa- 
tigue: muscular  fatigue,  85-86, 89- 
90,  91,  92;  need  of  rest,  100;  ner- 
vous fatigue,  73-74 

Maine: 

Bureau  of  Industrial  and  Labor  Sta- 
tistics, Reports:  physical  struc- 
ture of  women  with  reference  to 
standing,  8;  saleswomen,  514; 
speed  in  manufacture,  36,  38; 
strikes  as  a  result  of  fatigue,  225; 
domestic  duties  of  women  workers, 
258-259 
Senate  Document:  increased  efiS- 
ciency  of  workers  with  reduced 
hours,  366 

Malyn,  John:  on  physical  differences 
between  men  and  women,  2 

Manchester,  Eng.:  conference  of  N. 
U.  W.  W.  1907,  on  speed  of  manu- 
facture, 28;  death  rate,  121;  dura- 
tion of  life,  277;  industrial  condi- 
tions, 483;  N.  U.  W.  W.  Confer- 
ence, 1907,  45-56 

Mann,  Tom,  The  Eight  Hours'  Move- 
ment: leisure  and  comfort  from 
shorter  hours,  302 

Manning,  Cardinal:  family  life  and 
long  hours,  429-430 

Manufacture:  improvements  in,  384- 
387;   strain  in,  26-52 

Marks,  Marcus  M.:  monotony,  47; 
workingmen's  desire  for  self  im- 
provement, 310 


INDEX 


581 


Martin,  Rudolf,  The  Reduction  of 
Working  Hours  in  the  Mechanical 
Textile  Industry:  long  hours  in 
Germany  in  1830,  382-383 

Marx,  Karl:   on  machinery,  32 

Maryland: 

Bureau   of   Industrial  Statistics,  Re- 
port: future  generations,  268 

Maschek:  classification  of  work,  102 

Massachusetts: 

Cotton  industry,  345;  culture  for 
working  classes,  306;  short-hour 
laws,  beneficial  results  in  trade,  345 ; 
wages  and  hours  of  labor  in  i860, 
406-407 
Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  Re- 
ports: bad  effects  of  long  hours  on 
health,  132;  Boston  working  girls, 
133;  end-of-the-day  work,  383; 
fair  chance  to  all  employers  desir- 
able, 473;  female  diseases  from 
standing  and  sitting,  140-142;  fu- 
ture generations,  effect  of  women's 
work  on,  267;  intemperance,  234; 
long  hours  and  standing,  513-514; 
moral  benefit  of  reduced  hovirs,  225; 
physical  degeneration  and  prema- 
ture old  age,  285;  physical  differ- 
ences between  men  and  women,  7; 
shorter  hours  and  increased  pros- 
perity, 344;  state's  right  to  interfere, 
243 ;  ten-hour  day  more  productive 
than  eleven-hour,  366, 368;  ten-hour 
law  in  England,  benefit,  295;  wages, 
effect  of  reduced  time,  403-404 
Chief  of  District  Police,  Report: 
benefit  of  the  ten-hour  law,  297; 
health  injury  in  mercantile  estab- 
lishments, 514;  legislation  for 
women  workers,  337;  long  hours 
mean  reduced  efficiency,  384;  ten- 
hour  law,  benefits,  368-369,  371 
House  Documents:  bad  effects  of 
long  hours  on  health,  131;  general 
impairment  of  vital  forces  by  fa- 
tigue, 160;  legislation  needed  for 
women,  335;  moral  weakening  of 
fatigue,  224-225;  race  welfare  in 
peril  from  overwork,  284;  uni- 
formity of  hours,  479 
Legislative  Documents,  House:  bad 
effect  of  long  hours  on  health,  132; 
state's  need  of  preserving  health  of 
women,  250;  evidence  in  favor  of 
ten-hour  law,  1870,  225,  233,  267, 
284,  304,  429 


Massachusetts  (continued) 

Senate  Documents:  intemperance, 
234;  ten-hour  day  for  women  and 
children,  285;  ten  hours  recom- 
mended by  Committee  on  Labor 
Question,  367-368;  report  in  favor 
of  the  Ten-Hour  Law,  327 
State  Board  of  Health:  eye  fatigue 
and  bad  light,  150-151;  state's 
interest  in  individual  health,  243 

Mather,  Wm.,  The  Eight  Hours'  Day: 
Salford  Iron  Works,  abolition  of 
overtime,  434 

Matheson,  M.  Cecile.  See  Cadhiiry,  E. 

Maxey,  Edwin,  The  Eight-Hour  Day 
by  Legislation :  wages  and  hours  of 
labor  in  Massachusetts  and  neigh- 
boring states,  i860,  406-407 

Maxtmum  Day,  381;   necessity  of,  464 

Mayence,  Germany:  temperance  im- 
provement, 290 

Mayer,  E.  E.,  translator.  See  Oppen- 
heim,  H. 

Medlzinische  KLLNrK:  fatigue  of  at- 
tention, 219-220 

Mercantile  ;Establishments:  cus- 
tomers' adaptation,  -528-531; 
health  ,512-525;  legislation  needed, 
525-528;  nature  of  work  and  com- 
parison with  factory  work,  505- 
512;  voluntary  action  as  to  shorter 
hours,  526-528.  See  also  Chicago 
Mercantile  Establishments 

Mestre,  M.:  industrial  accidents,  193, 
194-198 

Metal  Trades:  accidents  in,  195,  200; 
in  Germany,  208;  hours  of,  210,  211 

Method  of  Protection  for  women 
from  factory  evils,  328-339 

Metin,  M.  Albert,  Social  and  Labor 
Legislation  in  Australia  and  New 
Zealand :  overtime  pay,  effect  of,  458 

Michigan: 

Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Reports: 
domestic  duties  of  women  work- 
ers, 259;  future  generations,  pro- 
tection of,  268;  ill  health  of  mill- 
workers,  134;  leisure  for  working 
girls,  307;  reduction  of  hours 
for  women  by  National  Cash  Reg- 
ister Co.,  370;  state's  need  of 
preserving  health,  244;  state's  need 
of  preserving  health  of  women,  251 


582 


INDEX 


Military  Recruiting,  282 

Miller,  Frank  A.,  552-556 

Millinery  Trade,  531-544;  health, 
536-540;  legal  limitation  promotes 
regularity,  541-544 

Millward,  Henry:  efficiency,  350 

Milwaukee  Tanneries.  See  Osgood,  J. 

Minnesota: 

Bureau  of  Labor,  Industries,  and 
Commerce,  Reports:  overlong 
hours  for  women,  417;  pelvic 
troubles  from  standing,  135;  piece 
work,  50;  speed  in  manufacture, 
38-39;  state's  need  of  preserving 
health  of  women,  251 

Moll,  Albert,  The  Influence  of  the 
Life  and  Rush  of  Great  Cities  on 
the  Nervous  System:  nervous  dis- 
eases among  working  people,   167 

Moll-Weiss,  Mme.,   fatigue,  60 

Monotony,  42-48 

Moor.    See  De  Moor 

Moor,  John:  race  degeneration,  277 

Moral  Restraints:    general  loss  of, 

221-227.      See    also    Family   life; 

Intemperance;   Streets  at  night 
Morbidity:  general,   10-15.     See  also 

Duration  of  illness 
Morgan,    John:     leg    diseases    from 

standing,  143;   need  of  rest,  113 

Moritz,  III,  114 

Mortality,  23-25 

Mosso,  A.,  Fatigue:  analysis  of  fa- 
tigue, 55,  56-57;  attention,  214- 
216;  consciousness  of  fatigue,  70; 
ergograph  described,  81-83,  88; 
eye  fatigue,  148-149;  fatigued 
muscles,  greater  strain  on,  90-92; 
moral  weakness,  223;  muscular 
fatigue,  86,  87;  nervous  fatigue, 
74;   speed  in  manufacture,  31-32 

MuHLHAUSEN:  Dolfuss'  experiment, 
350-351,  379;  infant  mortality, 
274;   still-births,  273 

MuLLER  V.  Oregon:  opinion  of  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States, 
558 

MuNDELLA,  Mr.  :  short-hour  states  and 
long-hour  states,  378 

Muscular  Fatigue,  80-88 


Napias,  Henri,  The  Protection  of 
Woman  in  Industry:  future  of  the 
race,  266 

National  Association  for  the  Pro- 
motion OF  Social  Science,  Tran- 
sactions: infant  mortahty,  271- 
272;  need  of  rest,  102;  working 
classes  and  insanity,  279 

National  Association  of  Clothing 
Manufacturers:   monotony,  47 

National  Child  Labor  Committee, 
Proceedings:  fatigue  of  factory 
work,  147-148;  standing  occupa- 
tions, 514-515;  state's  interest  in 
the  people's  physical  well-being, 
246 

National  Civic  Federation,  Indus- 
trial Conference:  saloon  and  la- 
borer, 235 ;  shorter  hours,  necessity, 
328;    speed  in  manufacture,  40 

National  Civic  Federation  Review: 
leisure  for  self-improvement,  310; 
monotony,  47;  temperance  and 
morality  increased  with  reduced 
hours,  287-288 

National  Conservation  Commission, 
Bulletin:  nervous  fatigue,  79-80 

National  Convention  of  Employers 
and  Employees:  benefit  of  shorter 
hours,  301-302 

National  Convention  of  Factory 
Inspectors  in  the  U.  S.:  conserva- 
tion of  manhood,  243-244 

National  Union  of  Women  Workers 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland:  mo- 
notony, 45;  speed  of  manufacture, 
28 

National  Vitality,  79-80 

National  Women's  Trade  Union 
League,  Convention:  competition 
determines  conditions,  474 

Nebraska: 

Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Sta- 
tistics, Reports:  benefits  of  reduced 
hours,  296;  morals  and  mental  re- 
sults of  fatigue,  225;  night  work 
bad  policy,  443-444;  physical  dif- 
ferences between  men  and  women, 
8-9;  state's  need  of  preserving 
health  of  women,  251;  street  dan- 
gers at  night  for  women,  432 

Neighborhood  Department  Store, 
502 


INDEX 


583 


Nervous  Diseases:  ages  of  incidence, 
181-183;  fatigue  and,  188-192; 
heredity  and,  183-185;  liability  of 
working  people  to,  163-169;  over- 
stimidation  and,  185-188;  prev- 
alence among  working  people  as 
shown  by  statistics  of  foreign  sick- 
ness insurance  societies,  169-181 

Nervous  Fatigut:,  69-80 

NETHERLA^^DS :  infant  mortaUty,  274 

Neurasthenia:  defined,  61,  188-192. 
See  also  Nervous  Diseases 

Newcastle:  lead-poisoning,  10 

New  England  Civic  Federation: 
monotony,  47 

New  Hampshire: 

Governor's    Message:    protection    of 

the  worker  by  legislation,  336 
Home  Journal:    bad  health  of  mill- 
workers,  130-13 I 

New  Jersey: 

Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  and 
Industries,  Reports:  ill-health  of 
mill-workers,  134;  utihty  of  state 
restriction  of  hours,  297;  wages  as 
affected  by  the  Ten-Hours  Act  in 
England,  404 
Inspector  of  Factories  and  Work- 
shops, Reports:  bad  effect  of  long 
hours  on  general  health,  133;  foul 
air  at  night,  422;  legislation  a  ne- 
cessity for  regulating  women's 
labor,  336;  overtime  prohibition, 
488;  policy  of  the  state  in  regulat- 
ing hours,  316-317;  seats  in  stores 
514 

Newman,  George,  Infant  Mortality, 
A  Social  Problem:  accidents  in 
laundries,  203-204;  birth  and  death 
rate,  272;  infant  mortality  in 
England  and  Wales,  272;  offspring 
of  women  workers,  263-264 

New  South  Wales: 

Millinery  trade  attractive  for  short 

hours,  etc.,  431 
Legislative    Assembly:      minimizing 

the  evils  of  the  factory  system,  323; 

overtime  prohibition,  487;    speed 

in  manufacture,  31 

New  York: 

Assembly,  Reinhard  Committee  Re- 
port: condition  of  mercantile  em- 
ployees, 507-508 


New  York  {continued) 

Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics:  acci- 
dents, hours  of,  210;  domestic 
duties  of  women  workers,  259; 
family  hfe  and  shorter  working  day, 
317;  fatigue,  62-63;  infant  mor- 
tality in  Alsace,  Switzerland,  Neth- 
erlands, etc.,  274-275;  intemper- 
ance, causes,  234;  morbidity  in 
Switzerland,  15;  physical  struc- 
ture of  women,  8;  short-hour  law, 
conversion  of  its  enemies,  298; 
short  hour  laws  of  Massachusetts 
and  their  benefit  to  the  cotton  in- 
dustry, 345;  wages  after  reduction 
of  time,  404-405 

Department  of  Labor:  efficiency  in- 
crease with  shorter  hours,  372; 
physical  structure  of  women,  9 

State  Factory  Inspector's  Reports: 
bad  health  from  over  long  hours, 
133;  legislation  needed  for  women 
and  children,  336-337;  mental 
unfitness  due  to  fatigue,  226; 
overtime  an  evil,  488;  restricted 
hours  a  benefit  to  prosperity,  345; 
restriction  of  hours  favored  by 
women,  336;  street  dangers  at 
night,  432;  ten-hour  day  as  good 
as  or  better  than  eleven-hour 
day  for  employers,  369,  370;  ten- 
hour  day  too  long,  134;  wages  after 
reduced  hours,  404 

State  Medical  Association  Transac- 
tions: fatigue,  normal  and  patho- 
logical, 60-61 

New  Zealand: 

Bureau  of  Industries,  Report:  family 
life  and  night  work  for  women,  42  7 
Department  of  Labour  Report:  over- 
time high  wage,  466;    streets,  dan- 
ger at  night  for  women,  431-432 

Night  Work.    See  Evening  Work 

Nirn,  Francesco  S.,  The  Laws  of  Hu- 
man Work:  attention,  fatigue  of, 
213-214;  consciousness  of  fatigue, 
70;  exhaustion  dependent  on  num- 
ber of  hours  rather  than  on  sever- 
ity of  labor,  322;  fatigue,  predis- 
position to  diseases,  157-158; 
feeble  will  of  fatigued  workers,  222- 
223;  long  hours  and  inferior  out- 
put, 383;  need  of  rest,  98,  107-108 

Noise:  Obersteiner  on,  215-216 


584 


INDEX 


Nolan,  Thos.  M.:  temperance  in- 
creased with  reduced  hours,  287 

Nottinghamshire:  Merino  factory 
wages  and  reduced  hours,  401 

Oakshott,  Grace,  Women  Publishers: 
overtime  bad  economy,  434 

Obersteiner:  noise  and  attention, 
215-216 

O'Connell,  James:  family  and  home 
improvement  from  shortened  hours, 
317;   speed  in  manufacture,  40-41 

O'DoNNELL,  Thos.:  uniformity  of  con- 
ditions, 479 

Officials:  opinions  as  to  overtime  al- 
lowance, 480-488 

Ohio: 
Bureau  of   Statistics  of  Labor:    do- 
mestic  duties  of  working  women, 

259 
Inspector   of   Workshops   and    Fac- 
tories, Report:    health  of  women 
workers,     250;     long    hours    and 
standing  for  women,  419 

Oliver,  T.,  Dangerous  Trades:  intem- 
perance of  laundry  workers,  230; 
laundries,  489-490,  499;  lead  poi- 
soning, 10 
Diseases  of  Occupation,  etc. :  fatigue, 
53~54;  leisure  the  workman's  due, 
303;  machinery,  222;  muscular  fa- 
tigue, 84;  nervous  fatigue,  77; 
speed  of  manufacture,  28,  29;  tox- 
in of  fatigue,  64-65 
Industrial  Lead  Poisoning  in  Europe : 
produced  by  longer  hours,  116 

Ontario: 

Inspectors  of  Factories,  Reports: 
eflficiency,  353;  legislation,  effec- 
tiveness, 331;  overtime  prohibi- 
tion, 486-487;  piece  work,  50; 
speed  in  manufacture,  30.  See 
also  Scott,  J.  T. 

Oppenheim,  H.,  Diseases  of  the  Nervous 
System:  neurasthenia,  symptoms, 
189-190 

Optical  Works  :  shorter  hours  and  out- 
put, 360 

Optimum:  363 

Ordway,  Dr:  mill-work  injurious  to 
women,  131 

Oregon:  Act  of  1907,  488 


Organization,  of  industry:  overtime 
avoidable,  444-450;  seasonal  trades, 
541-544 

Orme,  Miss,  518,  522 

Osgood,  L,  Women  Workers  in  Mil- 
waukee Tanneries:  future  genera- 
tion of  working  mothers,  268;  girls 
overworked,  307-308;  overtime 
wages,  460-461;  piece  work,  50- 
51;  safeguarding  women's  health, 
251-252 

Output:  overtime  injurious  to,  433- 
444;  a  measure  of  the  worker's 
strength,  362;  effect  of  long  hours, 
375-384;  effect  of  short  hours,  346- 
375.     See  also  Efficiency;  Overtime 

Overstimulation.  See  Nervous  dis- 
eases 

Overstrain  in  overtime  work,  423-426 

Overtime:  health  endangered,  411- 
426;  morals  endangered,  426-432; 
prohibition,  benefits  of,  444-488; 
strain,  88,  423-426;  telephone  ser- 
vice, 547-549;  .  wages,  456-463- 
See  also  Evening  Work;  Long 
Hours;  Overstrain 

Oxford,  Bishop  of:  long  hours  and 
reduced  efificiency,  377 


Parez,  C.  C.  Th.,  On  the  Measurement 
of  Mental  Fatigue  in  Germany: 
muscular  fatigue,  81-83 

Peel,  Sir  R.:  domestic  duties  of  work- 
ing women,  253;  race  degenera- 
tion, 276-277 

Pennsylvania: 
Bureau  of  Industrial  Statistics:  ad- 
vantage of  ten-hour  law  for  all  in- 
dustries and  both  sexes,  305 
Factory  Inspector's  Reports:  better 
quality  of  production  and  more  per 
hour  with  reduced  hours,  370;  gen- 
eral health  injury  from  long  hours, 
133-134 

Peterson,  Frederick.    See  Church,  A . 

Pfluger,  109 

Phillips,  Wendell:  Ten-Hour  Law 
petition,  234,  285,  327,  367 

Physical  Differences  between  Men 
and  Women,  i-io 


INDEX 


585 


Pic,  p.,  Prohibition  of  Night  Work  of 
Women  in  Industry  in  France: 
overtime,  410;  overtime  frauds, 
470-471 

Piece  Work,  48-52 

PiEPER,  August,  and  Simone,  H^lene, 
The  Reduction  of  Women's  Work- 
ing Hours,  etc.:  domestic  duties, 
additional  burden  to  working 
worhen,  257;  efficiency  increased 
by  shortened  hours,  359;  legisla- 
tion the  duty  of  the  state,  333; 
morbidity,  13;  overtime  exemp- 
tions and  abuses,  471-472;  over- 
time unnecessary,  410-41 1;  women 
not  displaced  by  men,  394 

Pieeaccini,  G.,  and  Maitei,  R.,  Days, 
Seasons  and  Hours  when  Industrial 
Accidents  Occur:  accidents  in  rail- 
way machine  shops  in  Italy,  209- 
210;   piece  work,  49 

Pittsburgh  Survey.    See  Butler,  E. 

B.;  Fitch,  J.  A. 
Plener,  Ernst  von,  English  Factory 

Legislation:    benefit  of  legislative 

regulation,  452 
Plumbism:      produced     by     increased 

hours,  116 
Poisoning.    See  Toxin  of  fatigue 
Pope  Leo  XIII :  quoted  on  the  need  of 

rest,  96 
PosEN,  Germany:   bad  effects  of  long 

hours,  123 
Price,  George  M.:  effect  of  industrial 

labor  on  women,  9-10 
Pringsheim,  Otto:    infant  mortality, 

274 
An  Experiment  with  the  Eight  Hours 

Day:  shortened  hours,  output,  357 

Prins,  Adolphe:  weekly  rest  day,  99 

Prinzing,  F.,  Handbook  of  Medical 
Statistics:  continuance  at  work 
during  iUness,  20-22;  domestic 
duties,  additional  burden  to  women 
workers,  257-258;  duration  of  ill- 
ness, comparative  table,  18-19,  20; 
mortality,  24,  25 

Private  Initiative,  inadequacy  in  at- 
tempts to  improve  labor  condition, 
333-334 

Prohibition  of  Overtime.  See  Over- 
time, prohibition 


Prussia: 

Indxistrial  Commission,  1894:  bad 
effect  of  long  hours,  122.  See  also 
Germany 

Queensland: 

Inspector  of  Factories,  Reports:  over- 
time high  wage,  effect  of,  461-463 

Race  Degeneration,  276-286 

Rae,  John,  Eight  Hours  for  Work: 
Australian  working  classes,  299; 
efficiency,  352;  moral  improve- 
ment due  to  shorter  hours,  289; 
personal  efficiency  and  competition, 
377-378 

Ramazzini,  II.  See  Italian  Journal  of 
Social  Medicine 

Ranke:  fatigue,  55,  57 

Rauchberg,  H.,  Study  of  Workmen's 
Sick  Funds  in  Vienna:  mortality, 
23 

Recreation.  See  Leisure  and  recrea- 
tion 

Redgrave,  A.:  air  in  shops  at  night, 
420-421;  earher  shopping,  530; 
uniformity  of  restrictions,  477 

Reference  Handbook  of  the  Medical 
Sciences,  Hygiene  of  Occupation: 
on  effect  of  industrial  labor  on 
women,  9 

Regulation  of  Hours:  a  benefit  to 
general  prosperity,  339-345 

Regularity  of  Employment:  pro- 
moted by  overtime  prohibition, 
450-456 

Reinhard  Committee.  See  New  York 
Assembly 

Rest:  need  of,  93-110;  length  of  time, 
111-116.     See  also  Resting  time 

Restaurants.    See  Hotels 

Restriction.  See  Regulation;  Uni- 
formity 

Revue  d'Economie  Politique:  public  and 
individual  health,  292 

Revue  de  Paris:  dangers  of  night  work 
for  girls,  428;  loss  of  sleep,  423; 
overtime  work  of  sewing  girls,  539; 
quality  and  quantity  of  output 
with  reduced  hours,  365-366; 
street  dangers  for  women  at  night, 
431 


586 


INDEX 


Revue  d' Hygiene,  T.  26,  1904:  bad 
health  of  textile  workers,  128 

Revue  Internationale  de  Sociologie:  ex- 
haustion from  prolongation  and  not 
severity  of  labor,  322;  fatigue  of 
attention,  213-214;  need  of  rest, 
98,  107-108;  will  power,  loss 
through  fatigue,  222-223 

Reoue  Scientifique:  industrial  accidents, 
192-198 

Revue  Socialiste:  augmentation  of  pro- 
duct with  shortened  hours,  365 

Rhode  Island: 

Governor's  Message,  1875  ■  bad  effect 
of  long  hours  on  health,  132-133 

RiBOT,  Th.,  The  Psychology  of  Atten- 
tion:  fatigue,  217 

Richardson,  Benj.  Ward.:  diseases 
incident  to  long  standing,  521-522 

RiTZMANN,  F.,  Work,  Fatigue,  and  Re- 
cuperation:  need  of  rest,  94-95 

Riviere,  M.:  long  hours,  disadvan- 
tage of,  380 

Robertson,  Mrs.,  37 

Rochard,  Jules:  morbidity  and  dura- 
tion of  illness,  16-17,  423 

Roebuck,  J.  A.:  shorter  hours  and 
England's  benefit,  298 

Roget,  Peter  Mark:  on  physical 
differences  between  men  and 
women,  3 

RoPKE,  III,  114 

Roth,  Emil,  Fatigue  resulting  from 
Occupation:  accidents,  hours  of, 
205,206;  monotony,  46;  nature  of 
fatigue,  55-56;  need  of  rest,  95- 
96;  overstrain,  425;  overtime  out- 
put, percentage  of  value,  438; 
piece  work,  49;  psychic  factor  and 
neurasthenia,  178-180;  special  lo- 
cal overstrain  and  fatigue,  152- 
153;  toxin  of  fatigue,  67-68 
General  Industrial  Hygiene  and  Fac- 
tory Legislation:  adequate  rest- 
ing time,  ixi;  bad  effect  of  long 
hours  on  health,  126;  duration  of 
illness,  17;  efficiency  of  early  hours 
of  day,  358;  individual  power  of 
resistance  to  disease,  159-160; 
length  of  working  time  the  impor- 
tant point,  321-322;  race  regenera- 
tion from  shorter  hours,  295;  state 
and  industrial  hygiene,  238 


Roth,  Emil  (continued) 

The  Influence  of  Working  Hours  on 

the  Health  of  Workers  in  General: 

infectious  diseases,  161 
Rousseau.    See  Waldeck-Rousseau 
Royal      Statistical      Society.    See 

Journal    of   the    Royal    Statistical 

Society 

Sachnine,  Ilia,  Study  of  the  Effect  of 
the  Length  of  Working  Hours  upon 
the  General  Health  of  Adults:  at- 
tention, 218;  bad  effect  of  long 
hours  on  health,  128;  chemistry  of 
fatigue,  59-60;  eye  fatigue,  149; 
fatigued  muscles,  greater  strain  on, 
92;  nervous  fatigue,  77;  oxygen, 
106 

Sadler,  Mr.:  uterine  diseases  among 
mill  workers,  137-138 

Safety.    See  Accidents 

Saleswomen.  See  Chicago  mercantile 
establishments;  Mercantile  establish- 
ments 

Salford  Iron  Works,  England:  vol- 
imtary  reduction  of  hours  and  re- 
sult, 373,  379,  434 

Salomon,  Alice,  Labor  Laws  for  Wom- 
en in  Germany:  overtime  excep- 
tions, 472 

Sawyer,  Chas.  H.:  legislative  protec- 
tion for  the  worker,  336 

Saxony:  infant  mortality,  273 

ScHAEDLER,  Dr.:   morbidity,  12 

ScHAEFER,  Dr.,  Protection  of  the  Work- 
ingman's  Health:  efficiency  of 
early  hours  of  day,  358;  injuries  to 
health  from  evening  work,  418; 
public  health  and  a  shorter  day, 
238-239;  speed  in  manufacture,  34 

Schmoller's  Yearbook:  night  work,  12 

ScHONHALS,  Paul,  The  Causes  of  Neu- 
rasthenia and  Hysteria  among 
Working  People:  attention,  over- 
strain of,  219;  nervous  diseases 
among  the  lower  working  people, 
167-168,  176-178;  nervous  dis- 
eases and  inherited  disposition  at 
Schonow  Zehlendorf,  185 

ScHONOw  Zehlendorf  Sanitarium, 
167,  176-178,  179;  nervous  dis- 
eases and  heredity,  185 


INDEX 


587 


ScHULER,  F.,  Factory  Hygiene  and  Leg- 
islation: accidents  due  to  fatigue, 
208;  protection  and  not  exclusion, 
326;  strain  on  special  organs,  151- 
152 

ScHULER,  Fridolin,  and  Burckhardt, 
A.  E.,  Investigations  into  the  Con- 
ditions of  Health  of  the  Swiss  Fac- 
tory Workers:  duration  of  illness, 
15-16,  17;  effect  of  long  hours  on 
general  health,  127,  128;  injurious 
effect  of  standing,  147;  morbidity, 
II,  12;  piece  work,  48;  protection 
and  not  exclusion,  326-327;  speed 
in  manufacture,  35;  uterine  dis- 
orders, 139-140 

Schumberg:  muscular  fatigue,  85; 
toxin  of  fatigue,  68 

Scope  of  Women's  Work.  See  Em- 
ployment of  women,  etc. 

Scott,  F.  H.:  nervous  fatigue,  77 

Scott,  Jean  Thompson:  danger  of 
streets  to  women,  432;  physical  dif- 
ferences between  men  and  women,  6 

Seasonal  Trades,  531-544;  organiza- 
tion, 541-544;  overtime,  484-485, 
485-486 

Seats  for  Saleswomen,  506,  513,  514 

Sequin:  fatigue,  56 

Service,  Dr.  :  long  hours  and  standing 
for  saleswomen,  518 

Setschenoff,  Prof.:  relative  length  of 

work  and  rest,  112 
Shaftesbury.     See  Ashley,  Lord 

Shanks,  Dr.:  general  predisposition  to 
diseases  among  mill  workers,   157 

Shann,  George.     See  Cadbury,  E. 

Sharp,  Francis:  general  predisposi- 
tion to  diseases  among  mill  work- 
ers, 156 

Sharp,  Wm.:  bad  effects  of  long  hours 
on  health,  116 

Sherman,  Porter,  translator.  See 
Brentano,  Lujo 

Shop  Girls:   chronic  fatigue,  178 

Shops.     See  Mercantile  estahlishme^its 

Shorter  Hours,  necessity  of:  auto- 
matic adjustment  of  workers  to, 
438;  necessity  for,  323-327;  need 
of  legislation,  328-339.  See  also 
Benefit  to  Society  of;  Efficiency 


Shuey,  E.  L.,  Factory  People  and  their 
Employers:  shortened  hours,  good 
results,  374 

Sickness.      See  Mortality 

Sickness  Insurance  Societies:  Ger- 
many, 18;  morbidity  statistics, 
lo-ii,  13,  14;  nervous  diseases, 
prevalence,  169-181 

Simon,  Jules:  hours  of  work  for  wo- 
men, 249-250 

SiMONE,  Helene.     See  Pieper,  A. 

Sleep:  Alfassa,  G^,  423;  Arlt,  J.  von, 
423;  Bauer,  E.,  423;  chief  value, 
73-74;  French  Minister  of  Com- 
merce, Reports  to,  422;  lack  of, 
499-500;  Revue  de  Paris,  423; 
Rochard,  Dr.,  423 

Smith,  Samuel:  bad  effect  of  long  hours 
on  health,  117;  physical  ditter- 
ences  between  men  and  women,  1-2 

Social  Reform  Society  (Germany), 
Publications:  morbidity,  13;  over- 
time needless,  410-41 1 

Sommerfeld,  Prof.:  hours  of  work  vs. 
severe  work,  322 

South  Wales: 

Millinery  workrooms,   412 
Speed  in  Manufacture,  26-42 

Sphere  of  Woman's  Work  not  re- 
stricted by  restricted  hours,  387- 
395 

Stacey,  J.  A.:  legislation.  526-527,528; 
saleswomen's  long  hours  and  stand- 
ing, 5^7 

Standing:  bad  effects,  117,  122,  123, 
129,  135,  136,  148;  laundries,  490- 
497;      mercantile     establishments, 

s°s,  507 

State's  Need  of  Preserving  Health 
of  Workers,    236-252 

Statistical  Society.  See  Journal  of 
the  Royal  Statistical  Society 

Strain:  manufacture,  26-52;  mercan- 
tile establishments,  505,  506,  510; 
telephone  service,  545-546 

Streets  at  Night:  dangers  to  girls  and 
women,  430-432 

Sunday.     See  Weekly  rest  day 

Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
opinion  Muller  v.  Oregon,  558 


$88 


INDEX 


SuTHERST,  Thomas:  effect  of  shop  life 
on  women,  4;  future  generations, 
effect  of  women's  work  on,  261; 
legislation,  necessity,  330,  526; 
saleswomen's  long  hours  and  stand- 
ing, 516-517 

Switzerland: 

Factory  and  Mine  Inspectors'  Re- 
ports: bad  health  and  long  hours, 
127;  legislation,  need  of,  335;  mor- 
bidity, 12;  overtime  bad  policy, 
438;  overtime,  officials'  opinion, 
487-488;  relation  of  hours  to  out- 
put, 382;  rest  needed  in  injurious 
occupations,  115;  results  of  reduced 
hours,  363-364;  speed  in  manu- 
facture, 35;  state  and  individual 
health,  240 

Mutual  Aid  Societies:  sick  relief  and 
duration  of  illness  in  men  and  wo- 
men, 16 


Tait,  Lawson  :  diseases  of  women  from 
long  standing,  522 

Tanneries,  Milwaukee.     See  Osgood,  J. 

Tatham,  Dr.:  infant  mortality  in  Eng- 
land, 270 

Taylor,  Elizabeth:  female  functional 

diseases,  135 
Telegraph  Service,  141,  549 

Telephone  Service,  544-549;  char- 
acter of  business,  544-546;  health, 
546-547;  overtime,  547-549; 
physicians'  testimony,  546-547; 
strain,  545-546 

Temperance:  growth  with  reduced 
hours  of  work,  286-290.  See  also 
Intemperance 

Ten-Hour  Law:  Gray,  Wm.,  argu- 
ment of,  366-367;  Lawrence,  Mass., 
evidence  for,  225,  233,  284;  Phil- 
lips, W.,  234 

Ten  Hoxjrs'  Act,  England  :  benefit  to 
trade,  340-343,  348;  benefits,  295, 
296;  effect  on  wages,  404 

Textile  Industries:  accidents,  pro- 
portion (Belgium),  201;  wages  and 
regulation,  402;  women  and  chil- 
dren's employment  as  affected  by 
the  Factory  Acts,  389;  women  em- 
ployed in  Germany,  393 


Textile  Workers:  benefits  of  short- 
ened hours,  294;  Leeds,  Eng..  290- 
291;   strain  of  machinery,  179-180 

Thackrah,  Chas.  Turner:  general 
predisposition  to  diseases  among 
mill  workers,  156 

Ticket  Agents,  Chicago  elevated  rail- 
ways, 556-557 

Tired  Muscles.    See  Fatigued  muscles 

TissiE,  Phil,  Fatigue  and  Physical 
Training:  attention,  217;  fatigue,  60 

Tolain,  M.:  long  hours  for  women, 
415-416;  overtime  wages,  457-458 

Toronto,  Canada,  30,  248 

Bell  Telephone  Co.:  dispute  respect- 
ing hours,  436,  544,  546-547;  long 
hours,  415;  physicians'  testimony 
as  to  the  strain,  546-547 

Toronto  University,  Studies  in  Po- 
litical Science.     See  Scott,  J.  T. 

TowLES,  John  Ker,  Factory  Legislation 
of  Rhode  Island:  reduction  of  hours 
not  a  reduction  of  product,  375 

Toxin  of  Fatigue,  64-69 

Tracy,  Roger  S.:  on  the  physical  ca- 
pacity of  women,  8 

Training:  67,  68,  71-72,  73 

Travers,  Benj.:  adequate  resting- 
time,  113;  physical  differences  be- 
tween men  and  women,  4 

Tremenheere,  409-410 

Treves,  Zaccaria:  attention,  fatigue 
of,  216;  fatigue,  58-59;  infectious 
diseases,  161;  muscular  fatigue, 
84-85;  nervous  fatigue,  71-73;  neu- 
rasthenia among  working  people, 
164-166;  overstimulation  and  ner- 
vous disease,  186;  physiological 
limit  of  work,  98-99;  women's 
physical  capacity,  5 

Turin  and  Turin  School.  See  Mosso, 
A.;  Maggiora,  A. 

TuTHiLL,  Sir  George  L.:  air  foul  at 
night  in  factories,  420;  fatigue  of 
standing,  143-144;  physical  dif- 
ferences between  men  and  women,  3 


Ulm,  18 

Uniformity  of  Restriction:  essential 
for  enforcement,  464-472;  essential 
for  justice  to  employers,  472-479 


INDEX 


589 


United  States: 

Bureau  of  Labor,  Bulletin:  factory 
organization,  450;  Chicago  ele- 
vated railways,  ticket  agents,  556- 
557;  Chicago  saleswomen,  hours 
of,  table,  500-504;  factory  legis- 
lation, public  opinion  as  to,  300- 
301;  factory  organization,  450; 
fatigue  a  predisposing  cause  of  dis- 
ease, 160;  infant  mortality  in  Great 
Britain,  275-276;  injury  of  con- 
strained attitudes,  155;  legislation, 
need  and  value,  338 ;  morbidity  and 
mortality,  15;  plumbism  produced 
in  Europe,  by  increased  hours,  116; 
proportion  of  women  in  industrial 
occupations  in  Great  Britain,  394- 
395;  regularity  of  work,  455-456; 
saleswomen's  long  hours  in  Chica- 
go; 513)  529;  telephone  companies, 
544.-546,  547-548;  uniform  appli- 
cation of  best  conditions,  473-474; 
wage  increase  of  women  from  1820 
to  1900  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
table,  405-406 

Commissioner  of  Labor,  Report:  re- 
duction of  hours  and  output,  373- 
374 

Congress,  Docxmients,  etc.:  acci- 
dents, hours  of,  210-213;  Christ- 
mas rush,  513;  family  and  home 
improvement  from  shorter  hours, 
317;  intemperance  among  girls  in 
Fall  River  cotton  mills,  234;  la- 
borers better  consumers  with  shorter 
hours  of  work,  306;  laundries,  490- 
493,495-497;  long  hours  in  Chica- 
go mercantile  establishments,  500, 
504-505,  506;  piece  work,  51-52; 
shorter  hours  improve  laborer  and 
do  not  injure  business,  373;  speed 
in  manufacture,  37,  39-40;  tele- 
phone companies,  544-546,  547- 
548;  temperance  and  good  morals 
increased  with  reduced  hours  of 
work,  287;    waitresses,  550 

Industrial  Commission,  Report:  ad- 
vantage of  short  work  day  to  the 
whole  people,  299;  equal  efficiency 
with  shorter  hours  among  women  in 
testing  bicycle  balls,  371-372; 
Gompers,  Samuel,  on  overtime 
wages,  460;  legislation,  337;  men- 
tal and  social  improvement  from 
shorter  hours,  306;  race  degenera- 
tion, 285;    short-hour    states    vs. 


United  States: 

Industrial  Commission,  Report  (con- 
tinued) 
long-hour  states,  372-373;  shorter 
hours  the  only  remedy,  327;  speed 
in  manufacture,  37-38;  uniformity 
of  conditions,  479 

Vatllant,  fioouAED,  Labor  Legislation 
and  Regulation  from  the  Stand- 
point of  Hygiene:  morbidity,  14- 
15;  physiological  limits  of  work, 
104-106;  race  degeneration  from 
overwork,  281;  relative  length  of 
work  and  rest,  112-113 

Van  Kleeck,  Mary,  and  Barrows, 
Alice  P.,  How  Girls  Learn  the  Mil- 
linery Trade:  seasonal  nature  of 
the  trade,  533 

Varicose  Veins:  from  long  standing, 
142,  143,  144,  145,  146,  147;  laun- 
dry workers,  494,  496;  saleswomen, 
518,  520,  522 

Verhaeghe,  D.,  Inquiry  into  the  Sani- 
tary Conditions  in  the  Textile 
Trades  in  Lille  and  its  Environs: 
bad  health  of  textile  workers,  128 

Verkaup,  Leo:  accident  figures,  204- 
205 

Verworn,  Max,  Fatigue  and  Repair: 
nervous  fatigue,  74-75,  104 

Vienna: 

Continuance  at  work  during  illness, 
21;  long  hours,  416;  mortality, 
23;  nervous  diseases,  180-181; 
sickness  insurance  statistics  as  to 
incidence  of  accidents,  204 

VoGT,  H.,  Causes  of  Alcoholism:  exter- 
nal conditions  as  factors,  231 

Voluntary  Organizations  :  inad- 
equacy for  shortening  hours  and  im- 
proving conditions  of  labor,  329, 
330,  2>2>i,  334,  Z2,?>,  525-528 

Waddington,  M.:  domestic  duties  of 
women  workers,  258;  industrial 
degeneration,  280-281;  intemper- 
ance among  French  workers,  232; 
long  hours  of  working  girls,  451; 
overtime  wages,  457;  overtime 
work,  439;  streets  at  night  danger- 
ous, 430 


590 


INDEX 


Wade,  RuFUS  R.:  conservation  of  man- 
hood, 243-244;  mental  and  social 
improvement  of  laboring  class  from 
shorter  hours,  306 

Wages  of  Women:  effect  of  regiJation 
of  hours  on,  395-407.  See  also 
Overtime  wages 

Waitresses.    See  Hotels 

Waldeck-Rousseau,  p.  'M.:  public 
and  indi\-idual  health,  241-242 

Walker,  Frakcis  A.,  Discussions  in 
Economics  and  Statistics:  leisure 
needed  by  the  working  classes,  308- 
309;  reduction  in  time  of  work  not 
all  loss,  374;  state  intervention  in 
labor  contracts,  338-339 

Wandsworth  and  Chapham  Infirm- 
ary :  table  of  diseases  of  laundresses 
and  others,  495 

Washington,  Bureau  of  Labor  Statis- 
tics and  Factory  Inspection,  Re- 
port: conservation  of  womanhood, 
252 

Weariness.    See  Fatigue 

Weaver,  G.  S.  :  intemperance  and  over- 
work in  LawTence,  Mass.,  233 

Webb,  Mrs.  Sidney.  See  Case  for  the 
Factory  Acts 

Webb,  Sidney  and  Cox,  Harold,  The 
Eight  Hours'  Day:  Beaufoy,  Mr., 
447;  customer's  adaptation  to 
shorter  hours,  408-409;  overtime 
at  certain  seasons,  447;  protracted 
labor  at  any  task  injurious,  320 

Weber,  A.  F. :  importance  of  movement 
for  shortening  working  time,  300 

Weekly  Rest  Day,  99-100,  105,  109- 
iio,  163,  226-227,  235 

Weichardt,  W.,  Methods  of  Estimat- 
ing Fatigue  and  Overfatigue :  toxin 
of  fatigue,  64,  65,  66,  67,  68-69 

West  Cl^mberlant),  Eng.,  289 

Weyl,  T.     See  Handbuch  der  Hygiene 

Whitley,  Margaret.    See  Bulley,  A. 

Wing,  Charles,  Evils  of  the  Factory 
System:  long  hours,  rather  than 
severity,  injurious,  320 

Wikminghaus:  morbidity,  13 


Wisconsin  : 

Bureau  of  Labor  and  Industrial  Sta- 
tistics, Report:  future  generation, 
268;  girls  over- worked,  307-308; 
health  and  labor,  relation,  244;  im- 
proved machiner>',  387;  legislation 
a  benefit  to  employers  and  em- 
ployees, 338;  overstrain  a  perma- 
nent injun,',  426;  overtime  work 
and  wages,  460-461;  piece  work, 
50-5 1 ;  race  degeneration,  285-286 ; 
regularity  of  employment,  455; 
regulation  of  industries,  286;  safe- 
guarding women's  health,  251-252; 
Salford  Iron  Works,  England,  373; 
soundness  of  factory  legislation, 
299-300 

Wolff-Eisner,  Alfred,  The  Toxin  of 
Fatigue,  64,  65-67 

Women  Workers.  See  National 
Union  of  Women  Workers 

Women's  Industrial  News,  The:  custom- 
ers' orders  and  overtime,  409; 
overtime  bad  policy,  434 

Women's  Wages  in  Englant)  in  the 
Nineteenth  Centur>':  wages  best 
in  regulated  industries,  401-403 

Wood,  George  H.,Factor>'' Legislation, 
etc.:  rise  in  women's  wages,  400- 
401 ;  women  not  displaced  by  men 
since  the  Factory  Acts,  389-390, 
391 

Wood,  H.  C,  Brain  Work  and  Over- 
work: nervous  fatigue,  78 

Work.     See  Continuance  at  Work,  etc. 

Worms,  Germ.a.n^':  working  hours,  356 

Wmght,  Carroll  D.:  policy  of  the 
Federal  government  toward  the 
working  man,  307 

Wundt:  phenomena  of  attention,  215 
WuRM,  Emanuel,  Honor  to  Women: 
morbidity,  13-14 

WtJRTTEMBERG,     GeRMANT.': 

Accidents  and  fatigue,  207;  bad  effect 
of  long  hours,  124, 125-126;  domes- 
tic duties,  255,  256;  shorter  hours' 
output,  354-355,  356-357;  future 
generations,  dependence  on  protec- 
tion of  women  workers,  265;  ten- 
hour  day  for  women,  248;  textile 
mills,  increase  of  work  demanded, 
325 


INDEX 


591 


WtJRTTEMBERG,  GERMANY  {continued) 

Factory  Inspectors'  Reports :  bad  ef- 
fect of  long  hours  on  health,  124; 
moral  and  spiritual  desires  of  the 
working  classes,  303;  overtime  and 
irregularity  of  work,  454;  over- 
time and  organization,  448;  over- 
time and  output,  relation,  436;  re- 
duction of  hours  and  increase  of 
work,  325;  shorter  hours,  output, 
354-355)  356-357;  speed  in  manu- 
facture, 33,  34 
Wyatt,  Edith.     See  Clarke,  S.  A. 


Yellowlees,  Dr.:    bad  effect  of  long 
hours  on  health,  1 19-120,  520 


YotJNG,  Thomas:   ability  of  women  to 
endure  labor,  2 


Zehlendore.     See  Schonow  Zehlendorj 

Zeitschrift  der  Soziale  Wissen- 
schapt:  fertiUty  of  women  in  in- 
dustry, 273-274 

Zeitschrift  fur  Gewerbehygiene, 
etc.:   special  overstrain,  152 

ZiTTAR,  Germany:  bad  effects  of  long 
hours,  122 

ZuNTZ,  Dr.:  fatigue,  physiology  of,  54; 
muscular  fatigue,  85;  toxin  of  fa- 
tigue, 68 


THE SURVEY 

SOCIAL  CHARITABLE  CIVIC 

A  JOURNAL  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE   PHILANTHROPY 


THE  SURVEY  is  a  weekly  magazine  for  all  those  who 
believe  that  progress  in  this  country  hinges  on 
social  service:  that  legislation,  city  government,  the  care 
of  the  unfortunate,  the  cure  of  the  sick,  the  education  of 
children,  the  work  of  men  and  the  homes  of  women,  must 
pass  muster  in  their  relation  to  the  common  welfare. 

As  Critic,  The  Survey  examines  conditions  of  life  and 
labor,  and  points  where  they  fail :  how  long  hours,  low  pay, 
insanitary  housing,  disease,  intemperance,  indiscriminate 
charity,  and  lack  of  recreation,  break  down  character  and 
efficiency. 

As  Student,  The  Survey  examines  immigration,  industry, 
congestion,  unemployment,  to  furnish  a  solid  basis  of  fact 
for  intelligent  and  permanent  betterment. 

As  Program,  The  Survey  stands  for  Prevention:  Pre- 
vention of  Poverty  through  wider  opportunity  and  adequate 
charity;  Prevention  of  Disease  through  long-range  systems 
of  sanitation,  of  hospitals  and  sanatoriums,  of  good  homes, 
pure  food  and  water,  a  chance  for  play  out-of-doors;  Pre- 
vention of  Crime,  through  fair  laws,  juvenile  courts,  real 
reformatories,  indeterminate  sentence,  segregation,  discip- 
line and  probation;  Prevention  of  Inefficiency,  both  industrial 
and  civic,  through  practice  in  democracy,  restriction  of 
child  labor,  fair  hours,  fair  wages,  enough  leisure  for  reading 
and  recreation,  compulsory  school  laws  and  schools  that 
fit  for  life  and  labor,  for  the  earning  of  income  and  for 
rational  spending. 


EDWARD  T.  DEVINE  -    -    -    EDITOR 

GRAHAM    TAYLOR    | 

PAUL  U.  KELLOGG        -      "  ASSOCIATE    EDITORS 

JANE    ADDAMS  J 

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